Young mothers and families have a new place to call home in Oak Park, Ill.
The new Oak Park Center and Clare Place development provides services and 18 permanent supportive housing units for families facing homelessness or housing insecurity.
The building is a milestone for New Moms, a nonprofit dedicated to serving young families, with a focus on mothers 24 years and younger. The organization has been operating 40 transitional housing units, but Clare Place, the residential component of the new development, is its first permanent housing community.
“Our building of this development came from the challenge we continue to see in the community with the lack of low-income and affordable housing,” says Laura Zumdahl, president and CEO of New Moms.
Frustrated about the lack of housing opportunities for their clients, Zumdahl and her team decided to develop their own project.
The new development allows New Moms to expand the breadth and scope of its services in Chicago’s western suburbs. The organization will provide family support programming in the Oak Park Center on the ground floor. The programming includes doula support, home visiting, parent support groups, and parent education workshops.
The one- and two-bedroom apartments are on the upper three floors of the four-story building. The units have project-based vouchers, so residents pay 30% of their income toward rent.
The development is also unique in its financing. Unlike most affordable housing developments built in the country, Clare Place does not use federal low-income housing tax credits. Instead, New Moms raised funding from a variety of foundations and other sources.
Financing for the approximately $7.25 million community included a pre-construction loan from CSH (Corporation for Supportive Housing) as well as permanent supportive housing development funding from the Illinois Housing Development Authority.
Funding was also provided by the James P. and Brenda S. Grusecki Family Foundation, Wheaton Franciscan Sisters, an anonymous private foundation, Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen, Cuore e Mani Foundation, Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, IFF, Lightengale Group, McBride Kelley Baurer, McShane Construction, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Topfer Family Foundation, and numerous individual donors who contributed to New Moms’ capital campaign.
Since 1983, New Moms has been the leading Chicagoland agency specializing in outreach and services to young moms experiencing poverty and homelessness.
