Affordable Housing Win in Woodlawn

Affordable Housing Win in Woodlawn

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.
The fate of an affordable housing complex in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood is closer to a resolution.

For years the subsidized Grove Parc Apartments sat in limbo. It failed a federal inspection and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wanted to foreclose on the buildings and move the low-income tenants elsewhere.

Now the agency has approved letting the Boston-based Preservation of Affordable housing, or POAH, own the apartments. The plan means current tenants can stay. Laura Lane is a community organizer in Woodlawn and worked for the former Grove Parc owner.

LANE: One of the biggest things in terms of the overall affordable housing picture in Chicago is that we did not lose one dime of this subsidy. So we’ll be able to help 504 families who need the help.

Tenants and activists had organized to preserve the apartments, which were built in the 1960s just south of the University of Chicago. POAH is planning upgrades of dilapidated units.