Tuesday, May 18, 2010

At a Village of Arlington Heights board meeting, the proposal for supportive housing apartments on Boeger Rd. was voted against 4-3 by the Village of Arlington Heights Board of Trustees. We are hopeful that the concerns can be addressed and we begin working diligently with the proposed developer, service provider and the community to address concerns and keep the project alive.

May 11, 2010

The Daily Herald endorses our Boeger Rd. suportive apartment unit project.

A Critical Need to House the Mentally Ill.Download here

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Another milestone: Last night the Arlington Heights Plan Commission voted to recommend our project and the zoning changes it requires to the Arlington Heights Village Board. Thank you to the more than 70 Task Force supporters who joined us at the meeting. We thank Judith Royal who gave public testimony on the position of the League of Women Voters Arlington Heights-Mount Prospect-Buffalo Grove Area. Download here.

And thank you to the people who spoke -- especially to the consumers and family members who spoke from their hearts and their personal experiences. That took courage and it made a difference. Thank you for your bravery and commitment.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Letters of support keep coming in. We passed a milestone today: We now have 101 letters signed by 135 people and 58 are from Arlington Heights residents!

Monday, March 22, 2010
The Arlington Heights Design Commission approved our plan. Now it is on to the Arlington Heights Plan Commission.

Thursday, March 18, 2010
More good news. The Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) has included our project on the 2010 preliminary tax credit applications that are recommended for approval. The tax credits are a very important source of funding for the project.

Monday, March 15, 2010
In the afternoon we met at The Thresholds office in Chicago to begin program planning for the Boeger Road apartments. We discussed some of the options and details of living arrangements so members and staff can live together happily in a healing environment and with a real feeling of “Home”. Things like property maintenance, safety and pets were discussed. We are lucky to have some expert input from Task Force members who have a wealth of good experiences living independently in supportive housing and their suggestions will be valuable.

On Monday evening we had our first opportunity to make a presentation before the Arlington Heights Village Board so they could review our project. Jay Foreman was able to share how Thresholds has been helping people with mental illness find recovery through safe housing, employment and stability in neighborhoods similar to Arlington Heights. We are fortunate to have partnered with an organization having more than 50 years of experience helping people with mental illness find recovery.

Saturday, March 7, 2010

Letters of support for our project keep coming in. As of today, we have received 67 letters signed by 96 individuals. We have received letters from NAMI chapters, community groups, area churches, Arlington Heights residents, hospitals, homeless agencies and more. They have all testified as to the need for this sort of supportive housing apartment in our area, and almost all have specifically mentioned our Boeger Drive site.

One letter is especially worth mentioning. It contained the following passage:

This letter is also directed to future neighbors of mentally ill community members. My good friends have four children, three of whom are college educated and doing well. Their fourth child is brilliant and he also has a mental illness. My friends’ son is kind, caring, compassionate, gentle, and intuitive. Anyone not familiar mental illness, may have some hesitation living next door or close to someone who suffers from such a disease. I assure you I would welcome having their son living next door to me.

I trust each of us has experienced some form of physical illness and very few lives have not been touched by relatives or friends with some degree of mental illness. We owe these individuals a safe place in which to live, gain independence, and aim toward happy, healthy, productive lives.

This project is worthy of support from each and every one of us and from federal, state, and local agencies. Thank goodness for people enlightening all of us with the common goal of helping our fellow human beings.

That about says it all.

Saturday, Feb 20, 2010

Our Kickoff Reception for the “Ride for Housing” was a great success. More than 60 people, Task Force members, consumers, people from area NAMI chapters, family members, mental health professionals, advocates and more attended the afternoon reception at the Indigo Hotel in Palatine.

Our Ride for Housing is a bicycle fundraiser. Beginning in early May, three intrepid Taskers will ride their bikes from the Chicago area to Washington DC, stopping to meet with NAMI chapters, local legislators, housing advocates and the press along the way. Between now and then they will be accepting pledges, planning for the trip and working out. They are also working on a plan to have other, less ambitious, bike riders accompany them for part of the journey.

At the Kickoff Reception those in attendance heard about the Task Force and the Ride. The architectural drawings for our project were also on display. We also raised some money. Including some contributions from people who were unable to attend, we raised over $1,500. That’s a great first step toward our goal of $100,000. 

If you would like to  make a pledge and for updates on the Ride , click here -  Ride for Housing

Tuesday, Feb 16, 2010
Tonight we made a presentation to the Arlington Heights Housing Commission, an advisory body to the Village Board. The Housing Commission’s job is to work to see that there is diversity in Arlington Heights, that the community has housing available to people in all income brackets. Jay and Jessica did their usual excellent job of presenting our plans and answering questions that members of the Commission asked. Afterward one Task Force member who was at the meeting remarked that she was awed by the level of competence our representatives displayed that night.

And even better, we just received word that after we left, the Commission discussed our project and voted to endorse it as fitting with the Village’s goals of providing affordable housing for people with disabilities.

Thursday, Feb 11, 2010
This evening we had our first neighbors meeting. The meeting was held at Buffalo Grove High School and more than 25 people were in the audience, including many Task Force members. Jessica Berzac from Daveri Development, Jay Forman from Thresholds and Task Force Co-President Hugh Brady presented the project and plans. Questions from the audience ran the gamut from parking to building design, square footage to security, safety to services and more. It was a good meeting and thank you to everyone who attended, and thank you to Buffalo Grove High School for letting us use their nice community meeting room.

Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010
This evening we took another step in getting our lot rezoned – our first meeting with the Design Committee of the Arlington Heights Zoning Board. Mike Jerabek, our architect, explained our project to the committee members, and it was well received. Committee members had a few suggestions, such as moving the trash dumpster and loading area, and made a few suggestions for improving the entryway porch and masonry modifications to make the building more attractive. But aside from those suggestions, the committee members seemed to like the overall design of the building and thought it would fit in well with the neighborhood.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010
We have taken a big step in getting our lot rezoned. Tonight we had our first meeting with the Plat and Subdivision Committee of the Arlington Heights Zoning Board. Jessica Berzac from Daveri Development, Jay Forman from Thresholds and Mike Jerabek, our architect, did an excellent job of explaining our project to the committee members. And a dozen Task Force members were in the audience to support our project. The committee members seemed very receptive to the project. They had many questions and the discussion went on for an hour and a half. Earlier in the day two staff members from the Arlington Heights Planning and Zoning Department accompanied staff from Thresholds and Daveri on a site visit to similar project that Thresholds and Daveri had developed in Chicago. They got a chance to see first hand what well run supportive housing project looks like and what an asset it can be to the community.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009
We submit our first plans to the Arlington Heights Planning and Zoning Department. The materials we submit include a project description, preliminary site plan and architectural drawings. We also include 35 letters of support from individuals, families and organizations in and around Arlington Heights. Several of the letters are signed by more than one person – 52 signatures in all. Some of the letters include ones from State Representatives Suzie Bassi and Sid Mathias, the Arlington Heights League of Women Voters, Northwest Community Hospital, the Alexian Brothers Center for Mental Health, two Arlington Heights churches, several NAMI chapters and many individuals. Thank you!

Monday, December 14, 2009
This afternoon three Task Force members along with folks from Thresholds and Daveri had our first meeting with the architects for our building.

We'd already talked about the building on several occasions with Thresholds and Daveri, and Daveri had relayed the messages to the architects. So the on Monday the architects already had floor plans and drawings of what the exterior might look like. It was very exciting! We discussed possible changes in the plan, additions, deletions, quality and design issues, and more. The architects took notes and will incorporate what we said into the first set of plans we will submit to the AH planning and zoning folks at the end of this week.

A year or ago we put our vision into words. Now it's architectural drawings. Thank you to everyone who has helped to get us this far!!

Friday, December 11, 2009
Good News from the IRS! We are now officially a 501(c)(3), retroactive to January 6. Contributions to the Task Force are now fully tax deductible. So let the contributions roll!

Thursday, December 3, 2009
We have a lot. This morning the sellers signed on the dotted line. The lot is in north Arlington Heights, and it meets all our criteria. It's close to public transportation, shopping -- grocery stores, a drug store, a bank, fast food places, the works. We don't own the lot outright yet. For now we have an option to buy, funded by a project initiation loan from the Corporation for Supportive Housing. The option will allow us to apply for the various permits and zoning variances to the Village of Arlington Heights. And once we have those, we can apply to the Illinois Housing Development Authority for construction funds. We're on our way!

May – October, 2009
Three Task Force members, Co-Presidents Hugh Brady and Hilary Ives and Vice President Mary Lou Lowry attend the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) Training Institute. Twice a month for six months our team met with twelve other groups from around the state. Instructors included CSH staff as well as officials from the Illinois Housing Development Authority, the Illinois Division of Mental Health as well as developers and site managers of other projects in Illinois. We learned the ins and outs of project development, project funding, budgets, design criteria and more. The last meeting in October included an audience from the various funding agencies, the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA), HUD, the VA and others. Each team made a PowerPoint presentation about their project to the various funders. Our project was well received. And after the presentations one staff member from IHDA told us off the record that our project is just the sort of thing they’re looking for. IHDA is well aware of the tremendous shortage of housing for individuals with mental illness and other disabilities in the north and northwest suburbs.


August 31, 2009
After several months of discussions and the exchange of several drafts, we sign a three-way Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with our developer, Daveri Development Group, and Thresholds, our service provider. The MOU outlines what each party will do as the project moves forward. The Task Force will work to build community support for the project and will participate in such things as site selection, building design, general policies, service planning and more. We’ve been working closely together for several months now, but this makes it official.

Summer, 2009
The search for a suitable site is on. Task Force members do windshield surveys of downtown areas in the north and northwest suburbs. Daveri also uses its contacts in commercial real estate to identify possible sites. Using our site selection criteria, we narrow the possible sites down to five, three in Arlington Heights and two in Palatine. Daveri begins discussions with the various brokers and sellers

March 15, 2009
We finalize our selection of a developer – Daveri Development Group LLC. Daveri has extensive experience in developing supportive housing project like the one we hope to help create, and they are eager to work with us. Now to work!

January 6, 2009
We apply to the IRS to be a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. If the IRS approves, contributions to the Task Force will be tax exempt. The process is expected to take six or eight months.

January 6, 2009
We incorporate! We are now recognized by the State of Illinois as a not-for-profit corporation.

December, 2008
Using a list of developers supplied by the CSH, we contact seven likely prospects and interview five. All have lots of experience developing supportive housing projects like the one we hope to build. Unfortunately, only four of the seven would be willing to work with a group like ours on a project like the one we hope to create.

October 20, 2008
We adopt bylaws and elect a Board of Directors and Officers. Now we’re official. Our Board of Directors include Catherine Barrett, Hugh Brady, Judy Graff, Hilary Ives, Mary Lou Lowry, Gertie Rodig, Julie Savastio and Gina Valio. Our officers are: Co-Presidents, Hugh Brady and Hilary Ives; Vice-President Mary Lou Lowry; Secretary, Judy Graff; Co-Treasurers, Gertie Rodig and Julie Savastio.

Summer and Fall, 2008
We contact the Corporation for Supportive Housing and meet with Stephanie Hartshorn from CSH several times. They give us lots of information on how to proceed. They seem to like our project!