Federal grant targets Woodlawn renovation

By John Byrne, Chicago Tribune

A $30.5 million federal grant will be used to renovate a Woodlawn affordable housing complex in a move city leaders hope makes the building an anchor for revitalizing the neighborhood.

Chicago was one of five U.S. cities to get an inaugural “Choice Neighborhoods Initiative” grant. The city will join with the not-for-profit Preservation of Affordable Housing, which won the grant by proposing to fix up the Grove Parc Plaza, a federally subsidized 504-unit building built in the 1960s.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday pointed to a recent development agreement with the University of Chicago –- which has its campus in nearby Hyde Park and the edge of Woodlawn –- and a retooled initiative to fight foreclosures that includes West Woodlawn as evidence of a focus on making sure public money is going where it can really help.

“It’s all part of an economic strategy, making sure dollar for dollar, we’re not just trying to spread it everywhere,” Emanuel said. “We’re investing and doubling down our resources in a community so people can go to work, people can raise a family, and we can turn a neighborhood around.”

Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, joined Emanuel, Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin and Democratic U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush to announce the grant award outside the complex in the 6200 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue.

“Starting with Grove Parc is exactly the right thing to do, because Grove Parc is ground zero for all of the challenges this community faces: disinvestment, failing schools, troubled housing and, most pernicious of all, a lack of fundamental opportunities for the families and children growing up here,” Donovan said.

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