The opening of the 40-unit Roseland Ridge apartment complex at 105th Street and South Michigan Avenue, which was celebrated recently by Roseland community residents along with Mayor Daley and other officials, is being hailed for renewing Roseland’s portion of South Michigan Avenue and for its provision of affordable housing.
South Michigan Avenue remains pivotal in attempts to revive Roseland. The roughly three miles of a slightly elevated ridge that runs from 100th Street to 121st Street has posed a challenge for nonprofit developers and city planners.
The once thriving commercial strip that first served working-classDutch settlers who built and occupied the area’s rose-fronted houses, has declined with the advent of mall shopping and a loss of population in the neighborhood.
In recent years, residents and city planners have decided that the area will no longer support a lengthy retail strip, so they are attempting to mix residential development with the stores on Michigan Avenue.
The effort, which involves Neighborhood Housing Services, the Roseland Christian Community Homes and the Greater Roseland Community Development Corp., is part of a broader city revitalization plan that targets the area from 111th Street to 121st Street.
Roseland Ridge is the first residential development along South Michigan Avenue, built by Neighborhood Housing Services on 1 1/2 acres comprised of 21 lots between 105th and 106th Streets. All but five of the lots were acquired through the city’s Tax Reactivation Program.
The residences were quickly snapped up, with more than 800 applications for the 40 units, said Debbie Dickson, Roseland office director for Neighborhood Housing Services.
The apartments were quickly leased to families earning up to 60 percent of the area median income, or $40,750 for a family of four.
The Department of Housing’s Low Rents for Chicago Program also is providing $200 per month in rental subsidies for several renters earning less than 30 percent of the area median income.
Monthly rents range from $500 for 720-square-foot two bedroom units to $665 for 1,404-square-foot four bedroom units.
As of a month ago, about a dozen tenants had already moved into the complex, and officials expect the remainder of the tenants to occupy their units by the end of the year.
Mayor Daley, at the opening ceremonies, lauded the public-private cooperation and financing that made Roseland Ridge possible. Like many affordable housing projects in the city, Roseland Ridge was made feasible only through complex funding schemes involving state funds, federal tax credits, city subsidies, commercial bank loans and nonprofit assistance.
The complex, designed by Landon/Bone Architects, incorporates energy-efficient technology, a factor that allowed it to qualify for additional tax credits. In about 15 years, Neighborhood Housing Services hopes to see Roseland Ridge become a condominium community and will offer current renters homeownership classes as part of that eventual transition.
In its 25-year history in Chicago, the nonprofit Neighborhood Housing Services has served as a redevelopment catalyst in neighborhoods that include Bucktown, King Drive, East Garfield and Austin. The agency has offices in Chicago Lawn/Gage Park, West Englewood, Auburn Gresham/Englewood, Back of the Yards, Garfield Boulevard, North Lawndale and West Humboldt Park.
It has partnership programs with Pilsen’s Resurrection Project and with the Claretian Associates in South Chicago’s Neighborhood Housing Collaboration. It is conducting a feasibility study and searching for funds to open an office in the Englewood neighborhood.
In 1986, when Neighborhood Housing Services opened its Roseland office at 11001 S. Michigan Ave., more than 200 abandoned homes existed in the community. Roseland has been plagued by mortgage foreclosures stemming from problems with Federal Housing Administration loans and from what community activists charge has been a pattern of unscrupulous lending.
After years of administering rehab loans using both Department of Housingfunds and its own financing,the agency launched a New Homes for Chicago project last year, building the first 19 of about 70 units to get such city subsidies.
Those homes went up a block east of Roseland Ridge, between 105th and 107th Streets.The single-family homes sold for prices from $75,000 to $105,000.
Another 50 units will be built in a second phase, some of them on a vacant NHS-owned parcel just south of Roseland Ridge.
Construction is expected to start next summer.
More class room
The Board of Education is planning two new construction projects aimed at relieving school overcrowding in Brighton Park and South Chicago.
On the Southwest Side, at 4136 S. California Ave., the board is planning to build an addition to Kelly High School to replace three mobile classrooms now in the parking lot. The school was designed to serve 1,500 students but has an enrollment of 2,173. The board is acquiring eight properties in the residential district surrounding the school in preparation for building the seven-story addition.
It is expected to accommodate growth over the next five years, according to Sonia Griffin of the capital planning department at the Board of Education.
Construction is expected to begin next spring and officials at Alderman Ed Burke’s office (14th) anticipate the addition will be open by end of next summer. In South Chicago, at 8331 S. Mackinaw Ave., in a community pocket known as The Bush, a new elementary school is already under construction and expected to be completed by next December. The school is expected to relieve overcrowding at the William K. Sullivan School three blocks west of the construction site and it will also eliminate the expense of busing some students to a nearby leased parochial school at 8739 S. Exchange Ave.
Some 782 students attending both of the schools are expected to grow to roughly 1,100 students in the coming years, according to the Department of Planning and Development, which won approval of both construction projects from the Plan Commission in November.
The Sullivan replacement school is going up on 3.6 acres of Board of Education land currently zoned for commercial use. It is planned as a two-story and three-story building to serve up to 970 students with two computer labs, a science lab and 32 classrooms.
