Plan to turn foreclosures into affordable Kane Co. housing
Kane County is on pace to partner with three nonprofit developers to convert local foreclosed homes into $2.3 million worth of affordable housing.
The $2.3 million will net the county about 26 new affordable housing units total, according to the plan. Three of the units will be rental housing. The remaining 23 units would be rehabbed foreclosed homes sold to homebuyers who earn less than $90,500 for a family of four (120 percent of the area median income). The rental units would be available to Section 8 families.
The exact location of the homes to be rehabilitated for sale or rent has not been decided. All three of the nonprofits suggested locations, but members of Kane County's Neighborhood Stabilization Commission said Thursday they want to work with the developers to make sure the housing and relief of foreclosure blight comes to the areas of the county that need it the most. Those areas, in order of priority, are: Carpentersville, South Elgin, North Aurora, East Dundee and St. Charles. Elgin and Aurora have received their own allocation of federal dollars to address foreclosures and subprime mortgage properties.
Of the county's priority areas, commission members made it clear Carpentersville has, by far, the most need. Carpentersville Village President Ed Ritter is a member of the county's commission and urged the county to target his village for help.
"In the list of priorities, it's more like Carpentersville is zero and there is no No. 1," Ritter said.
The county will work with the developers - Mercy Housing Lakefront, Community Housing Association of DuPage and DuPage Housing Authority Management - to refine their plans so they are more in line with what the county wants to see. That includes using Kane County-based businesses and subcontractors as much as possible to do the renovations. Commission members also said they wanted to see more assurances that the money made from the resale of the rehabbed homes comes back to the county so it has a chance at funding a second round of affordable housing projects.
Kane County Health Department Executive Director Paul Kuehnert also sits on the commission. He echoed the opinions of the other members in saying there's still a lot of work to do with the developers to make sure the projects are a success.
"We've identified a number of issues that we would want to address no matter (which developer) we select," Kuehnert said. "We didn't see any of these respondents as meeting each of our criteria and just blowing us away."