A state-run veterans' home on the Northwest Side is celebrating a milestone.

Just in time for its fourth anniversary, the Chicago Veterans' Home is expanding and making progress after starting with a series of delays.

Navy veteran Tom Sucher, 96, will always impress his son-in-law, Brian Becker.

"He's got an attitude and grit that just is unstoppable," Becker said.

Sucher is president of the resident council at the Chicago Veterans' home in Dunning. It was his duty to cut the ribbon on a brand-new floor — a speciality unit for veterans living with Alzheimer's and dementia.

"I needed to get this unit open because we have people waiting for this unit to be open," Sucher said.

Administrator Jennifer Malone said there are enough rooms for 44 vets.

"We will be bringing in our first resident in two weeks," she said.

Space that is about to be filled as the facility celebrates four years in operation.

"One of the greatest veterans' homes in our country, the Chicago Veterans' Home."

Illinois VA Director Terry Prince is proud of the progress since 2022. That's when the first vets moved in, much later than planned.

Funding issues and design flaws delayed the move-in by nearly a year. 

"Now we have a team of about 300 staff," Malone said.

When asked what it feels like to stand in the hallway of the new unit at the veterans' home, Prince said it's one of the exciting things he gets to do as a director of the agency.

"Not only watch the construction of a facility and bringing a building up to code, but actually seeing living, breathing human beings being cared for, veterans," he said. 

Now, the facility is home to 101 vets like Sucher, who feels honored to welcome his new neighbors.

"I'm very thrilled with the fact that my impossible dreams have been reached," he said.