Aspire Project
100 Men 100 Homes
40 acres fresh market
Aspire project
Project Mission
In a continued effort to create opportunities for the citizens of the Greater Westside in Chicago, Westside Health Authority purchased 5500 West Madison (the former Emmet Elementary School) in 2018 on the recommendation of community stakeholders who desired to see the site redeveloped into a safe, attractive space for residents to access commerce and community services.
A History of Success
Over the years we have worked on various economic development projects on the westside of Chicago. We spearheaded the $5.5M Austin Wellness Center and Clinic, the Austin Peace and Justice Plaza, and AV72 Chicago, the First Special Service Area to be designated in the Austin community. Served 22,000 residents last year through housing development, public safety, youth empowerment, civic engagement, and economic development activities.
Big Opportunities and Challenges
Despite progress in Austin over the past several years, there is a great need for workforce training and life skills development. Currently, a significant youth population exists in Austin, with 15% being between the ages of 25-34, followed by 13% for 15-24-year-olds, according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau and forecasts for 2019. RushUniversity Medical Center published a report in June 2016 that identified two of several hardship factors within Austin, unemployment for those that are 16+ and lack of high school diploma.
Second, there is a large set of adults that have been dislocated from the workforce. Low education and unemployment are some of the top contributors that affect Austin’s neighborhood status. GCI published a report in May 2019 finding that almost half of Chicago’s young black men are both out of school and out of work, double the national rate. In Chicago, women accounted for 30% (9,315) of adults that don’t have a job nor attending school while men were at 45% (12,805), within the 20-24 age cohort based on the 2017 ACS data.
This research has found that employment and in-demand skill sets that undergo a perpetual change intensifies these problems and causes individuals to endure hardships that span from rising costs of living, stagnant wages, and technological advances in work environments. The domino effect of a poor neighborhood education system and student decline leads toward an unstable local economy and contributes to a stigma of Austin.
We Know Better
We will revive the once-bustling intersection of Madison Street and Central Avenue by repurposing the former Emmet Elementary School, one of Chicago’s many public schools closed in 2014, into an anchor for commercial revitalization and a destination for top-notch workforce training.
Westside Health Authority (WHA) is leading the renovation and repurposing of Robert Emmet Public Elementary—a now-closed, three-acre Chicago Public School building at the once thriving northeast corner of Madison Street and Central Avenue. Overcoming a legacy of disinvestment, limited training opportunities, and fragmented services, the Aspire Center for Workforce Innovation will catalyze Austin’s economic development.
The Aspire Center will serve as a centralized location for Austin’s youth and unemployed and underemployed adults seeking career training and support. The Aspire Center will:
- Create linkages among programmatic initiatives and shared facilities;
- Expand and support local resources for skills training in high demand economic sectors, such as advanced manufacturing; and
- Support small businesses and entrepreneurs. In addition, a new 10,000 sq. ft. Commercial Center will be built on the former school parking lot, and adjacent to a public plaza that will be shared with the Aspire Center. Opening in 2025, the Commercial Center will have a mix of local and national restaurants plus retail, such as a bank. Local and minority-owned businesses will be prioritized.
100 Men 100 Homes
Project Mission
100 MEN 100 HOMES’ mission is to revitalize the Austin and surrounding communities by using the capacity of ordinary citizens to rebuild their communities. The goal of the project is to employ 100 men residing in these communities to restore 100 vacant, foreclosed and/or abandoned properties for 100 low to moderate income families at a rehabilitation cost of less than $100,000 per home. 100 MEN 100 HOMES presents a comprehensive and cost effective approach for revitalization by leveraging public and private resources alongside proven community expertise to employ, empower, and build capacity of community members in restoring their own communities from the inside out.
Our Hope
It is the hope of this project will continue to gain momentum and restore home values. 100 MEN 100 HOMES is a model that can be developed as a pilot for a larger scale project to restore the over 100 homes that have been foreclosed in the Austin community since 2008. It is a model that has been developed by Coalition partners taking input from community members who realize that while boarded and vacant homes on their block contribute to community devastation, it is also the devastated citizen who must be re-established in order to effectuate true community restoration.
The Big Plan
The Westside Health Authority has identified 3 zip codes (60651, 60644, 60624) in which properties will be targeted for redevelopment. The properties will be acquired through private acquisitions and donations received through NCST (National Community Stabilization Trust) and other banking and community affiliations. Preference for donations will be sought within the Austin MMRP (Micro Market Recovery Program) area, which is located within the North End of Austin in the 60651 zip code. The funds will be used primarily to build on the existing work WHA has with Austin Coming Together (ACT), the local MMRP agency. The MMRP seeks to restart the housing market in Austin by stabilizing existing, and creating new, building owners and renters in the Levin Park neighborhood. ACT is currently working with community partners and community developers to acquire and redevelop vacant properties, attract new homebuyers and renters to the neighborhood, and build community among residents within the MMRP area. The funds requested will allow WHA to build off the existing services as a community developer, receiving support from the MMRP in the form of acquisitions, marketing and promotion to homebuyers, and general community support.
The targeted properties will be single family homes and/or 2-4 unit apartment buildings which are vacated and in blighted condition. As in past developments, WHA is committed to working with local contractors and local suppliers to complete restoration. By using local contractors, WHA has the opportunity to help direct hiring of local youth and other residents to work on these projects. Additionally, WHA provides block-by-block organizing on targeted blocks to build relationships among neighbors and to reduce crime and vandalism of restored properties.
Employment of community residents is an integral part of this program design. The goal of this phase of the 100 MEN 100 HOMES project is to provide 10 jobs for men residing in the targeted communities that have faced obstacles in obtaining employment, with a focus on the ex-offender population. In addition to public notice and community outreach, WHA has a Community Reentry and Employment Center which registers and serves approximately 600 returning ex-offender residents each month, from which candidates are prescreened and identified for potential construction laborers and tradesmen. These workers will be hired to provide demolition or deconstruction as well as other identifiable trades. In addition, Case Managers provide ongoing support to contractors to work with the hired workers to ensure successful outcomes. WHA also seeks to provide basic training for qualified applicants. In 2010, WHA (with grant funds provided by the Chicago Community Trust/Searle funds) provided an on-site 16 week Basic Construction certification course to 25 ex-offenders seeking to learn the fundamentals of Carpentry which was taught by instructors from Malcolm X College. WHA is currently seeking additional funding in order to provide more opportunities for training, and has linkage agreements in place with training providers to accept screened referrals for this customized training.
Upon completion of redevelopment, WHA and its Coalition partners will seek to sell these homes at or near cost utilizing several existing networks. This initiative seeks to also provide home ownership to many first time buyers. The Coalition will continue to work with local banks and elected officials to create strategies for financing home mortgages for non conventional buyers.
In addition, funds provided will help target and provide outreach and interventions to families at risk of bank foreclosure. These families are provided ongoing assistance to ensure successful outcomes. It is anticipated that at least 100 families will benefit from the Coalition’s ongoing Home Buyer seminars, pre-purchase counseling, financial literacy, foreclosure prevention counseling, and outreach activities.
Big Opportunities in Austin
The targeted area for 100 MEN 100 HOMES Initiative is Austin and its surrounding communities including Garfield Park and Lawndale communities and near West suburbs. Austin is the largest community in Chicago both in land mass and population, located on Chicago’s far west side. Zip Codes in this initiative include: 60644, 60651, and 60624.
The Austin neighborhood has been one of the hardest hit geographic areas in Illinois in the ongoing foreclosure crisis. Since 2008, Austin has had the highest number of foreclosures of any Chicago Community area. In addition in 2012, Austin had the highest number of new foreclosure filings (843) of any Chicago Community Area, and the highest number of completed foreclosure auctions (363) in Chicago. From 2008-2012 there have been over 2039 foreclosure auctions in Austin alone (nearly 10% of all Mortgageable Properties are foreclosed properties); over 633 foreclosure auctions in East Garfield Park (16.6% of all properties), over 533 foreclosure auctions in West Garfield Park (14.6% of all properties); 912 in North Lawndale(15.7%); and 688 in South Lawndale(6.3%).
With a total of 33,345 households (a decline of over 5% since 2000),the Austin community is mainly African American (90%), with the problems of many urban communities, including high crime, high unemployment, high rate of absentee fathers, and a high school drop-out over 40%. With a declining population of 98,397 residents, Austin’s unemployment rate is 17% and is as high as 34% for persons in the age range of 16 -24; 28% of the population (27,300) fall under the federal poverty guidelines; 14,942 (15%) fall under the 50% poverty guidelines for extreme poverty.
The foreclosure emergency has exacerbated many other issues in the Austin and surrounding communities including plunging property values; destabilization of the local tax base; declining population; school closures; displaced families; physical blight; and economic disenfranchisement for over 100,000 Chicago area residents.
The 100 MEN 100 HOMES initiative addresses these issues with an innovative community based model with public/private partnerships for improved community financial literacy, foreclosure prevention, job creation, and new affordable homeownership opportunities through restoration/re-sale of homes. This Initiative will draw on the decades of experience and expertise held by members of the Coalition in working to revitalize these targeted areas.
Funds obtained can be used immediately to add to the restoration of homes in the Austin community and build on the existing work of MMRP and Coalition of community partners. In addition, WHA has secured a commitment from Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF) in the amount of $1 million loan to support the housing development proposed.
Moreover, WHA has added 2 partners to strengthen its capacity. The first new partner is with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) to provide mortgage seminars within the Austin Community for first time home buyers. The second is with Genesis Construction and Carpentry Services, a licensed General Contractor and certified Minority Owned Business Enterprise (M.B.E), to serve as the construction manager for WHA.