Viceroy Development Offers a Hand Up
Chicago Tribune
May 13, 2009
One-time magnet for dysfunction and crime sees a future as a stepping stone to move up and out
From Chicago Tribune:
What Barbara Almond wants more than anything is a home — somewhere that would give her a sense of security and keep her headed in the right direction.
Almond, 50, who was recently released from Dwight Correctional Center after serving more than three years for selling drugs, believes that a project to convert the former Viceroy Hotel into housing for homeless and low-income people holds out hope for women like her.
“I think that it’s a wonderful plan,” said Almond, who lives at Grace House a halfway house for women run by St. Leonard’s Ministries on the Near West Side. She and other residents said it is a place to gather up the pieces of their lives and move forward.
Having Viceroy as an option “would motivate me to stay on the right track. It would mean I would have a place to go,” Almond said.
The Viceroy, 1519 W. Warren Blvd., a circa-1935 Art Deco building with pastel terra cotta rosettes and stylized geometric motifs on its facade, sits across the street from Union Park. Until two years ago it was a transient hotel in a gentrifying neighborhood — expensive condo buildings, upscale restaurants and at least one day spa operate within blocks of boarded-up buildings and homeless people.
The city’s Community Development Corporation, which bought the building in 2005 as part of a 10-year plan to end homelessness, selected Heartland Housing, Inc., and the nearby First Baptist Congregational Church to develop the site, which will get an $18 million to $20 million face-lift over the next two years.
The facade of the architecturally significant eight-story building will be preserved while the interior will undergo a gut rehab to carve out 90 single-resident occupancy apartments, said Andrew Geer, executive director of Heartland Housing. Each unit will have a full kitchen, private bathroom and living space. A floor of the building will be reserved for the women of Grace House, with the remaining units to be rented to homeless and low-income people.
Plans for the building also include a cafe operated by graduates of the St. Leonard’s food services program and offices for case managers and other social services for the residents. The rehab incorporates such environmentally friendly elements as a green roof, rain garden, native landscaping and permeable pavers.
When low-income housing is attractive and thoughtfully designed, residents feel like they have more of a stake in the building and are more motivated to improve their lives, Geer said.
Bob Dougherty, executive director of St. Leonard’s, which helps former convicts lead productive lives, sees a finished Viceroy as “a respectful space” that will give the residents dignity and help close the circle of need.
“The whole philosophy behind this is the more we put in to help them remain stable, the better their lives will be,” Dougherty said. Just 20 percent of participants of St. Leonard’s programs return to prison versus 50 percent of the general ex-convict population in Illinois, he said.
Tenants will have leases and pay rent. About six months before the redevelopment is completed, Heartland and First Baptist will take applications for apartments, getting out the word through local homeless shelters, social service agencies, churches and the alderman’s office, Geer said.
There are long waiting lists for such housing, Geer said, leading him to expect four to five applicants for each unit