Dean Olsen
The Illinois Times
About 80 homeowners who tried unsuccessfully to block a Springfield zoning change in 2021 for a proposed 24-unit apartment complex only now are learning the tenants would be people who used to be homeless and need what’s known as permanent supportive housing.
Gail Van Den Bossche, who lives around the corner from the proposed Park Street Apartments site at 3526 S. Park Ave. on the city’s west side, said she was surprised Windsor Homes owner and president Mike Niehaus changed his original plans for constructing market-rate, privately owned apartments.
Since Niehaus received Springfield City Council approval for the zoning change in September, plans for the complex have changed so that Niehaus’ Windsor Homes company would be the general contractor and Helping Hands of Springfield would be the owner.
The arrangement was outlined in a financing plan announced Jan. 26 by the Illinois Housing Development Authority, a quasi-state agency.
“I’m really kind of shocked by this,” said Van Den Bossche, a state employee who has lived in the neighborhood since 2005. She said she learned about the change in plans from an Illinois Times reporter.
“If this does go through, I just hope Helping Hands makes this successful for the tenants as well as for the surrounding neighborhood,” she said.
Helping Hands, 1023 E. Washington St., operates an emergency homeless shelter, permanent supportive housing and other programs for people experiencing homelessness.
Officials from Helping Hands wouldn’t speak to Illinois Times or answer questions about the project beyond what the nonprofit revealed in a Jan. 27 news release.
But Helping Hands officials have said in the past that supportive housing allows tenants to pay no more than 30% of their income for rent; Helping Hands, which already manages 24 supportive housing units in Sangamon County, covers the rest of the rent and sometimes utilities.
The nonprofit also provides caseworkers who regularly visit tenants, help them manage their finances, find jobs and deal with mental health and substance-use issues that may have contributed to their homelessness.
According to the Helping Hands press release, Park Street Apartments, sponsored by Helping Hands in partnership with Windsor Homes, “is still in the exploration phase” despite an announcement from IHDA that funding has been awarded.
It’s unclear what aspects of the project need to be finalized, though Niehaus said a final contract between Windsor Homes and Helping Hands still needs to be signed.
The Helping Hands release said the apartment complex, consisting of three two-story buildings, would increase permanent supportive housing in the community by 22 units and “focus on health and housing stability for seniors and veterans who have a disability and are experiencing chronic homelessness.” One additional unit would be built for the complex’s manager, and there would be a “community space” on the first floor of one of the buildings. The manager’s unit and community space weren’t part of the initial plan when city officials approved the project last year.
It’s still to be determined what would happen to a single-family rental home on the property immediately west of the proposed complex, Niehaus said.
Based on IHDA documents, the project would be financed with almost $6 million in funds from the state and federal government and from Helping Hands, all intended to expand permanent supportive housing in the community.
Of the total, $500,000 would come from the IHDA Trust Fund, which an IHDA spokesman said may not need to be repaid. Another $4.7 million would come through a grant from IHDA and $800,000 would be contributed by Helping Hands, which receives most of its annual operating revenue from state government.
Plans call for Niehaus, who owns the property, to be paid $180,000 for land acquisition; $4.34 million, or $189,000 per unit, would be spent to build the 22 one- and two-bedroom apartments.
Proposed spending also would include $621,586 for Windsor Homes’ developer fee, $124,000 for reserves and $534,000 for expenses such as attorney and architectural fees, according to IHDA.
Niehaus said he looked into getting the site rezoned for a private apartment complex nine years ago but withdrew the proposal when it appeared the city council would turn him down.
He said nothing about the proposed partnership with Helping Hands was mentioned at the city council or zoning commission meetings in 2021 because he planned to build a private apartment complex until Helping Hands approached him after the zoning change was secured.
Van Den Bossche said she and other neighbors still are upset that city officials turned aside their concerns about increased traffic safety issues that the complex could bring to the neighborhood along and near Park Avenue.
The south end of Park Avenue dead-ends just south of the site, she said, and the neighborhood already deals with drivers using Shiloh Drive and West Centre Street – both east-west roads – to travel between MacArthur Boulevard and apartments along Seven Pines Road and Chatham Road.
There are no sidewalks, curbs or gutters along Park Avenue, and lighting is poor, Van Den Bossche said. There is a two-story, eight-unit apartment complex immediately north of the Park Street Apartments site.
Van Den Bossche said it’s unclear whether the traffic concerns originally aired by neighbors will be valid if the tenants are formerly homeless people who may not be able to afford cars.
But caseworkers probably would be driving to the site, she said. At night, the complex’s tenants would have to use a dark street without sidewalks, and they would be a half-mile from the nearest city bus stop, she said.
“As far as the safety concerns, it’s still an issue,” Van Den Bossche said.
Springfield resident Tom Shafer, a former resident of the neighborhood who spoke to the council on behalf of neighbors opposing the project in September, learned of the new plans for the complex from Illinois Times but said he had heard rumors of the change.
People in the neighborhood of the proposed site have reacted to the rumors with “barely controlled anger and disbelief,” he said. The complex’s location isn’t ideal for people without cars, Shafer said.
The Springfield-Sangamon County Regional Planning Commission recommended approval for the zoning change, and the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-4 on Aug. 18 to recommend city council approval for the change, despite a petition opposing the project signed by about 80 neighborhood residents.
Niehaus received zoning approval from the city council on Sept. 21 to change the zoning from single-family to multifamily to allow for the Park Street Apartments project.
Niehaus told council members at the meeting that the complex would result in less than a 1% increase in traffic in the neighborhood.
The council vote was 8-2 in favor of the change, with the neighborhood’s alderman, Joe McMenamin of Ward 7, voting “no” along with Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory.
McMenamin said he opposed the rezoning because of the lack of nearby public transportation, a road he considered unsafe and a lack of sidewalks in a neighborhood with some homes in the city and some in unincorporated Woodside Township.
The City Council voted a few weeks later to annex the apartment complex property into the city and require the owner to pay for the addition of a streetlight.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 