After a year filled with accomplishments in 2023, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Peoria is exploring a major development in the upcoming months.
The nonprofit organization that works to build durable, affordable homes for those in need of shelter is in the early planning stages for a veterans village at the site of the long-vacant former East Peoria Gardens Healthcare Center.
Lea Anne Schmidgall, the nonprofit organization’s executive director, said the idea generated from Habitat having already built two homes for veterans and renovated a third in the vicinity.
“We knew that the former nursing home was really blight,” said Schmidgall. “So we started thinking, ‘if we already have the three veterans that are there, why not expand this mission and go for possibly trying to get a grant or something to get rid of the nursing home and put in some veteran homes, possibly veteran and non-veteran?’ We don't know how much space is actually going to be there once we would put in roads and things, but we just started talking about it.”
Habitat has been awarded a $200,000 grant from Tazewell County to go toward demolition of the nursing home building.
“Prices have changed, so I'm hoping that that covers it,” said Schmidgall. “The land is not in Habitat’s name yet. But the goal is for an overall vision would be that we purchase property for $1 from the city, and then we do the demo so we can see that we have a clean, clear space.”
Schmidgall said Habitat has already partnered with Baldovin Construction to get some preliminary architectural sketches of what the site could look like.
“The bottom line is we’re ready to work with the city and be good partners with them and say, ‘What does the city want to help with, and what can we do?’ Then we need to bring it out to the community and say, ‘OK, this is what we think we can do,’” she said. “It may be five houses, it may be eight, because we're going to have to put an infrastructure. But this could be a great build for the city of East Peoria; it could be a wonderful addition to our city and for veterans that need an affordable home.”
Schmidgall said the homes in this village would be like the ones they typically build: cottage-style, two- or three-bedroom single-family residences. But she notes the village project is still in the “vision” stage.
“As it usually happens with Habitat, we share vision, and people who love Habitat and love veterans want to jump on board, so we're hoping that our vision becomes reality sooner than later,” she said. “So I'm expecting that once we get the OK for these few things that – I know demolition sounds like a hefty project, but we know that that can happen pretty quickly.”
Since the nursing home closed in 2008, the site has fallen into a state of disrepair. Schmidgall said it’s in the community’s best interest to put the location to better use.
“Someone went over with a drone, and you can see that it's wooded lots, so in theory, this could be a really beautiful little community. So why leave this sit?” she said. “It has been broken into; it's been vandalized. Really, I would say it's an accident waiting to happen, and I don't think anybody wants that. As a resident of East Peoria, I would say we need to remove any blight and replace it with a livable space for families.”
Schmidgall acknowledged the potential village has several steps to go before it becomes a reality, but she’s optimistic the project will move forward as the year progresses.
“I want to be realistic, but I am talking to a couple of demo companies now,” she said. “I will get the funds in Habitat’s account in order to do the demolition. There is asbestos in the nursing home, so that has to be removed and remediated. But I am looking at least getting it torn down so that we can be walking it with possible investors, or sponsors within six months.”
Reflecting, and looking forward
Schmidgall says 2023 proved to be a successful and productive year for Habitat, and each accomplishment is rewarding.
“I think that everything we do at Habitat is significant in that we touch so many people's lives,” she said. “We built a veteran build, our fifth veteran build, so that was one less veteran that's going to not have a home that they have to rent forever; they'll have a home and with that they can build equity in and it can be their forever home.
“We helped three other families establish home ownership in Peoria, which these were three people that were single, head of household moms. They will now have a secure environment to raise their children in and they won't be moving. Then we did about 30-40 different home repairs for veterans that were elderly and disabled, and that allows them to stay at their home a little bit longer.”
She said it’s difficult to say any one project is more important than others.
“Even though we built a house for a family, that may have not overshadowed us allowing someone to be able to stay in their home for three or four more years in their eyes,” said Schmidgall. “We did have a tremendous year of people coming and volunteering for us.
“I think that's always something we don't want to overlook, because if we didn't have volunteers, we wouldn't be able to operate — because they do all of our building, other than we have a construction manager. But if it wasn't for them building our homes, we wouldn't be able to afford to build homes.”
Beyond the village project in East Peoria, Schmidgall said they have several other projects lined up for the year ahead, including a fourth build in partnership with Komatsu and an as-yet undetermined number of homes with help from the City of Peoria. They’re also possibly going to open a third “re-store” location, she said.
“That's something that the public will be excited about, I'm sure. But there’s more to come on that,” she said. “We are going to be doing a lot of repairs. We did get a grant to repair two veteran homes — people that already own their home, but need a critical repair, so we're excited about that. And as much money as we can raise, we will build.”
