Stimulus package may pay off big in Kane Co. project

The always touchy subject of affordable housing may turn out to be the greatest gift the federal stimulus package can offer Kane County's economy.

Mercy Housing Lakefront, a nationwide not-for-profit affordable housing developer, wants to use more than $73 million in stimulus money to build more than 1,700 affordable housing units in Kane County. The plan already received the highest endorsement the county can give as elected officials have bestowed both praise and its ability to borrow money behind the plan.

"Not only should you support this, you should be doing somersaults to support this," said County Board Chairman Karen McConnaughay just before a near unanimous vote for the project this week. "This is the single most important economic stimulus project in this economy. This particular project will do more to create jobs than anything we've looked at."

That's because part of the idea behind the project is an effort to bolster one of the county's largest employers, the Provena Hospital system. Provena has a member on Mercy Housing Lakefront's board of directors.

Cindy Holler, president of Mercy Housing Lakefront, said the housing that ultimately is built will be designed to attract and retain Provena employees. Right now, some of the hospital system's employees live up to 50 miles away and commute.

The housing eventually would appear in Elgin, St. Charles, Carpentersville and Aurora. Per the terms of the federal money, the specific target areas will be those with large numbers of foreclosed homes or longtime blighted property, such as the old Copley Hospital property in Aurora that's been vacant for 14 years. Per Mercy Housing Lakefront's Web site, the typical occupant of the housing will be a family with an income of about $19,000 a year. The not-for-profit also specializes in senior citizen and disability housing.

Still, Elgin Mayor Ed Schock recently bristled at the idea of adding more affordable housing units to his city, noting that the Illinois Housing Development Authority already considers 46 percent of Elgin's dwellings to be "affordable."

Exactly what form the 1,700 housing units take will be up to the local planning departments and elected officials in the four communities targeted, Holler said. St. Charles may have a bit of an inside track as Holler is both a resident of the community and is the head of the St. Charles Housing Commission. All community leaders potentially involved will have a chance to gather and ask questions about the possibilities the first week of August at a forum Mercy Housing Lakefront and the county are trying to coordinate.

"We're going to be saying, 'Hey, what do you think is the best way to use this money here?'" Holler said.

Jobs created will go beyond the hospital, Holler said. Mercy Housing Lakefront plans to open a Kane County office if it receives federal funding for the project to move ahead. Holler said they will outsource much of the contracting, land planning and architecture to local companies. Once built, Mercy Housing Lakefront has its own property management company that will stay involved with each housing unit. The project would be the largest in the Chicago suburban area for the not-for-profit. It already has a track record as the sole grantee of the $55 million of Neighborhood Stabilization Grant money received by Chicago in the stimulus package.

If the federal funds come through, the county will issue $16 million in revenue bonds. Such a bond issuance ultimately carries no cost to the county or its taxpayers as even the costs to issue the bonds will be reimbursed.