The Peoria City Council has given initial approval for a $29 million permanent supportive housing complex for homeless families on the city’s South Side.
Mayor Rita Ali said during Tuesday's regular meeting the 48-unit Phoenix Manor development at the site of the demolished Harrison School is a key step toward revitalizing the area.
“We have to repopulate this area in order to sustain grocery stores, retail stores, pharmacies. We have to have the population, which means housing comes first,” said Ali.
The council on Tuesday voted 8-2 to approve a rezoning and special use allowances needed for the controversial development to proceed toward construction at the site on Krause Avenue, across from the Annie Jo Gordon Community Learning Center.
The vote followed last week’s recommendation at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, where several community members voiced opposition.
First District council member Denise Jackson, a vocal critic of the proposal, was joined by John Kelly in voting to deny the approvals.
“We have been building these kinds of facilities mostly for poor people in this country for 50, 60, 70 years, and more often than not, these places — before they’re torn down and replaced — they become big problems for their neighborhoods,” said Kelly.
The project presented by the non-profit Phoenix Community Development Services, in partnership with OSF HealthCare, takes the place of a concept originally sought several years ago at the former Methodist College of Nursing building Downtown.
“As Phoenix was going through that due diligence process at that site, essentially the bad news of rehabbing that site was the financiers essentially said, ‘No, [it's] too much work, too big a building. We’re not going to support that,’” said Joe Dulin, the city’s director of community development.
The new plans at the Harrison site call for 18 three-bedroom apartments and 20 two-bedroom units. The remaining 10 units would be one-bedroom apartments, but Phoenix Development president and CEO Christine Kahl said families would be prioritized as tenants.
“Either a two-parent or one-parent household with one child, under HUD [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] occupancy standards, can occupy that unit, as well as a single adult,” said Kahl. “In our tenant selection plan, which is how when applications are brought forward, they’re prioritized that way. Families have to go in those units first.”
Dulin noted the development is an apartment complex and not a homeless shelter, pointing out the project fits the city’s priority of assisting the homeless population.
“The population that it’s targeting are only homeless because there’s not housing units available for them to live in. Once they become housed, they are no longer ‘homeless,’” he said. “The difference with this project is permanent supportive housing, so with that comes permanent supportive housing services for those residents, which means they help them.”
Dulin said 80% of the project costs would be split evenly between federal and state funding through HUD and the Illinois Housing Development Authority [IHDA].
“The city got about a little over $2 million that specifically has to go towards permanent supportive housing. We have until 2028, I think, to get it spent, and that’s what was earmarked to this project,” said Dulin.
As part of the project, OSF HealthCare will open and operate a community clinic at the site.
“One of the things we’ve worked with Phoenix is to make sure that there is a referral access for residents within this development, but also services that will be of benefit to the entire surrounding neighborhoods,” state Rep. Ryan Spain said in representing OSF, where he serves as director of government relations.
“We’ve made an at least a minimum 15-year commitment to occupy this space. That’s a much longer lease than OSF is accustomed to doing, but the intention is to set up a permanent commitment to be a footprint here,” he said.
The difference of opinion over pursuing Phoenix Manor on the South Side created a bit of a rift between Ali and Jackson.
“You’re the mayor. You’re not the residents in that community, though,” Jackson said to Ali during the 70-minute discussion.
“I was hoping, councilwoman Jackson, that we would be able to celebrate this together. That was my hope, that we would celebrate this win for Peoria South Side,” Ali said during her closing remarks.
Jackson requested a delay in the process, asking to have Phoenix Community Development and OSF make formal presentations to the council. But her motion for the deferral failed on the same 8-2 vote.
“This is an opportunity to at least allow folks, valuable stakeholders to hear from the presenters. Otherwise, people walk away with suspicion,” said Jackson. “They ask questions. They talk. There’s no transparency. There’s nobody talking to them.”
Several council members expressed wholehearted support for moving the Phoenix Manor project forward.
“I think this is an actual win for this property. I think it will be a win for the neighborhood, and it helps us get more medical services out to the constituents who need them most,” said Zach Oyler, who opposed the deferral request after Dulin said any delays could disrupt the timelines for receiving funding.
“One of the things that is really important for me Is that we reinvest in 61605, because there’s been such a disinvestment for so long and it’s going to take a while for us to get to a place where it is as it deserves to be,” said Bernice Gordon-Young.
“This transforms a vacant property into affordable housing with health care support from OSF that ensures support for families in our community,” added Kiran Velpula. “I believe this project is meaningful investment in the neighborhood.”
