The first building will feature 18 two- and three-bedroom units. The city's plan commission recommended Thursday an expansion of an institutional planned development that will allow for the second phase, a 16-unit, three-story building with one- and two-bedroom apartments.

"This is the first of its kind, and a model in the United States," says AIDSCare president James Flosi. "There is none like it in the United States."

Part of the financing includes $3.5 million from the Illinois First program, plus another $1.2 million in Housing Opportunity for People with AIDS money.

"I just wish we could build 20 of these," says 42nd Ward Ald. Burton Natarus. "We ought to figure out a way to build 20 around the city."

The city's department of planning and development also assembled the vacant lots in an area surrounded by several other vacant lots in addition to two- to four-unit buildings in Michael D. Chandler's 24th Ward. Despite the stigma associated with AIDS, there was minimal community resistance to the project, Flosi says.

At the first community meeting to discuss the project, residents noted that relatives were treated at an AIDSCare facility in the Lakeview neighborhood. "Their comment was, 'We need to understand the need, and we have to take care of our own'," Flosi says.

Flosi predicts the AIDSCare campus will likely raise property values in the surrounding neighborhood. "The question we have to address is, how much will the property taxes go up?" he adds.

The third multifamily structure will be a 32-unit single-room-occupancy building. A pharmacy and wellness center will be among the services provided in the two other buildings, Flosi adds.

Instant Insights /

AIDSCare Campus Worth Repeating, Aldermen Say

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