Tendick Housing Development Put On Hold After IDHA Denies Grant Application

By Benjamin Cox on April 25, 2024 at 6:23am

A low income housing development on Tendick Street has been put on hold after it failed to receive state funding.

The Journal Courier reports that the Tendick Street development by Windsor Homes was denied the grant by the Illinois Housing Development Authority on Friday. The request was for $6.2 million, which would have funded 90% of the cost to build the development.

Windsor Homes President and Jacksonville native Mike Niehaus told the Journal Courier that there were 26 applicants in this current round of funding, and fewer than half were approved. Niehaus says he believes the problem was in how the service providers for the development would be stacked in helping the residents living there. He said that the grant application didn’t give a thorough enough explanation on how Locust Street Resource Center of Carlinville, who will become the eventual landowner, will operate the development and select clients.

Niehaus remains optimistic that the funding pledges by the local government bodies and private entities with this first application will remain the same when Windsor re-applies in January 2025.

There currently is no housing for the chronically homeless in Jacksonville. The West Central Continuum of Care identified 180 homeless people in Morgan County last year. Niehaus says approximately 135 of those residents have enough of an income that would make them ideal residents of this future development.