Skokie is home to one of two residential buildings with seniors and people with disabilities slated for major renovations for the first time in decades.
The Skokie Village Board Feb. 2 awarded $20,000 in community development block grant funds to The Housing Authority of Cook County to assist with renovation of the Armond D. King Apartments, 9238 Gross Point Road.
This covers only a small part of the project and will go specifically toward improving accessibility, energy efficiency and living conditions within the 126-unit building.
But the grant is more important than just the Skokie-approved federal funds it will bring for the project. Representatives of The Housing Authority of Cook County said that a larger grant is dependent on local contribution to the project.
The Cook County Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program has earmarked $1.7 million for the renovations, but that was always contingent on a local CDBG contribution from Skokie, they said.
The Housing Authority of Cook County plans to provide more than $1.4 million in capital contributions and use housing tax credits and other sources to pay the balance of a project estimated at $12.4 million in Skokie.
Another similar building in Arlington Heights is also slated for significant renovations. The Housing Authority of Cook County considers both projects “major” since the buildings were constructed in the 1970s and have never undergone serious renovations.
“We’re going to renovate all of the units,” a Housing Authority representative told the Skokie Village Board.
Everything from parking lot and facade to heating and cooling and in-unit upgrades are part of the plans for Skokie.
“We want to do this because we have so many tenants that have been in Skokie,” the representative said.
More than 138 tenants live in Skokie now including some well into their 90s. Capital funding from the state for these kind of projects has declined in recent years, according to the Housing Authority.
The renovations for both buildings are scheduled to begin in July and conclude in September.
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