Mutual Ground in Aurora has received a $2 million grant to fix up its historic home, while a larger expansion project sits on the horizon.
The nonprofit organization operates an emergency shelter for those fleeing domestic and sexual violence. It also offers counseling, advocacy and other services to those impacted by domestic violence, sexual violence and substance abuse.
The historic mansion currently serving as Mutual Ground’s home, located at 418 Oak Ave. in Aurora, was first constructed in 1853. It is now in need of extensive repairs, according to Mutual Ground Advancement Director Betsy Santana.
“It definitely needs a lot of help,” she told The Beacon-News.
Earlier this month, the city of Aurora accepted a grant from the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity on behalf of Mutual Ground to make needed renovations. Santana said that work will be limited to just the most historic part, not the newer addition that has been built on.
On the outside of the building, the $2 million grant will help pay for tuckpointing, gutter repairs and roof work, according to Santana. Inside, she said, the grant will help pay for HVAC and window replacements.
“There probably will be some minimal things that get pulled out because of change of costs,” Santana said. “Then also, we have to do some mitigation work.”
Specifically, the building was tested for lead and asbestos, she said, and the report has yet to come back. Once it does, some other work may need to wait so that the mitigation can be done.
Although the renovation project won’t be adding onto the existing structure, it will help create some more usable space within the building. There’s been a lot of interior damage because of various exterior issues that are to be fixed through the project, including an office that got completely flooded last fall, according to Santana.
“We haven’t touched it yet because we know it’s kind of pointless at this time,” she said.
In general, Santana said the renovations will help create more comfortable, safer conditions within the building rather than “water leaking all the time and things like that.”
The grant funds need to be used by May 2027, she said, so construction is planned to begin in the early fall.
That timeline is so short in part because the $2 million grant proposal was originally part of a larger project that has since been delayed, according to Santana. She said that Mutual Ground had to go back to the city to revise the proposal, and then the city had to go back to the state with the new proposal.
The larger project, which is set to include even more extensive renovations and the construction of a new building on the campus, was delayed because $5 million in additional funding from the state has not been released to Mutual Ground, Santana said.
Aurora Director of Community Services Chris Ragona said something similar at a meeting of the Aurora City Council’s Finance Committee on March 26.
The city originally applied for the $2 million grant in 2024 to do new construction on Mutual Ground’s campus, according to Ragona. But that project included “a few different other sources of funding through various state divisions,” he said, and that earmarked $5 million was never entered into the state’s budget.
So, the city worked with the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to revise the scope of work to be paid for by the grant to concentrate on a roof replacement, facade improvements, window replacements, replacement of mechanical systems, some electrical work and the abatement of toxic substances, Ragona said at the March 26 committee meeting.
Although the city won’t be contributing any of its own funds, he said, it will be the one contracting out the work rather than simply giving the money to Mutual Ground.
Mutual Ground is still looking for that $5 million from the state to move forward with its larger renovation and construction project, according to Santana. She said that the funds, secured by local state-level elected officials, were included in the 2024 budget but have not yet been released.
Santana recently traveled to Springfield to try getting answers, but she doesn’t have any concrete details yet, she said.
Originally, the work to be completed soon through the $2 million grant was to be part of the larger project, Santana said. But with those funds expiring soon, some of the repair work has been moved up.
“All the funding that we can get to help rehab the building and just get it up to good, modern conditions is what we are looking to do little by little,” she said.
Renovation will still be a part of the eventual larger project, though. Santana said it would include work on the existing building’s foundation, a new elevator to make all of the main building’s floors accessible and various updates to currently-used spaces as well as those that have sat largely empty, such as the old ballroom in the mansion’s top floor.
Plus, through the larger project, Mutual Ground is looking to add a new building on campus to house its outpatient services. Not only will this create better conditions for those on the outpatient side of things, Santana said, it will also free up space in the main building for the emergency shelter to use.
Currently, the Mutual Ground emergency shelter has two communal living areas with 28 beds and seven cribs, so at max capacity it can serve around 35 people, according to Santana.
She said that, with the larger project, the organization may look to add more bedrooms and create a way for families to stay individually, rather than communally with a couple of families in the same room.
The shelter has been at max capacity for about the last two years, as violence has been on the rise especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, Santana said. It has been a cycle, she said, with one family going out and another coming right in, consistently.
“We are really just, unfortunately, trying to do what we can to meet those needs,” she said. “It becomes difficult when you have a space that you’re starting to grow out of, which is where we’re at.”
This isn’t just a local issue, it is happening across the state, according to Santana. She said that if Mutual Ground is out of beds, calls will go out to other shelters, but they often don’t have space either.
The back-end work of fundraising for the eventual larger project has already begun, Santana said. A feasibility study has been completed, she said, and a “soft launch” is coming soon.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
