Arlington Hts. will help pay for Goedke House updates

Arlington Heights may be contributing up to $75,000 toward a remodeling project at the Albert Goedke Apartments, a building for low-income, elderly and disabled adults in the village.

The village board voted to approve the financial support earlier this month, although the bulk of the nearly $6 million project will be paid for by the Housing Authority of Cook County through low income housing tax credits. Goedke Apartments, built in 1978 at 215 W. Miner Street, has 118 one-bedroom units, officials said.

Cook County may pay for $750,000 of the project and is asking the village to contribute about 10 percent of that, said Charles Perkins, Arlington Heights' director of planning and community development.

Arlington Heights' share would be allocated from annual Community Development Block Grants the village receives through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and distributes to social service providers.

Since the funding has not been obtained for the project yet, the village board approved a letter of conditional commitment to provide the money in either fiscal year 2015 or fiscal year 2016.

"We do believe this is a small amount of a $6 million project that would maintain and improve the quality of life for the residents at Goedke House," Perkins said.

The remodeling project will include new asphalt paving, sidewalks, lighting, an automatic sprinkler system, water heaters, roof replacement and interior unit renovation, according to a village report.

All residents will be relocated according to a Department of Housing and Urban Development plan during the renovation, mostly by shifting them into different vacant units within the building.

"We think this is going to be a wonderful opportunity," said Jessica Poirier, assistant director of compliance and management with the Cook County housing authority. "The building was constructed back in 1978 so there is so much work we could get done with this money."

Poirier said construction could start in late 2015 or early 2016.

"This is a good project and I think it is a fantastic way to leverage our CDBG money to get more commitment," said village Trustee Joe Farwell.