Ground broken on affordable housing apartments in Chicago Lawn

Ground has been broken on a new 44-unit affordable housing development in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood.

The five-story affordable rental development was created by the Southwest Organizing Project and Brinshore Development, as part of SWOP's "Reclaiming Southwest Chicago" initiative.

The new housing will be built at W. 63rd Street and S. Western Avenue, offering 24 one-bedroom and 20 two-bedroom apartment units that are all Low-Income Housing Tax Credit units. The development with feature a lobby, community room, fitness center and mail room on its first floor, and then apartments on floors two through five. There are also eleven outdoor parking spaces on the property.

The Reclaiming Southwest Chicago campaign was launched in 2012 in response to widespread foreclosures that led to many vacant buildings in the area. It focused on a 20-block area with 93 vacant properties, using $15 million raised to acquire and rehabilitate the buildings. As that happened, residents were prepared to become homeowners and renters, SWOP said.

In the past decade, the number of vacant buildings in the area has dropped from 93 to eight, while crime has fallen 73% overall with a 50% reduction in violent crime, the group said. There have also been improvements made in local schools.

In 2017, SWOP expanded their project to a neighboring 74- block area between Western and California avenues to the east and west and 59th and 71st Streets to the north and south.

The timeline for the Chicago Lawn apartments was not immediately clear.