[IL-Talk] New Chicago housing complex designed for visually impaired

[Kelly Pierce]

Bill,

With most affordable housing developments these days, a local
municipality is expected to contribute funding in order to snag state
and federal dollars. In addition, local approvals are necessary to
secure certain kinds of federal and state funding.  For the Lighthouse
residences, the City of Chicago provided low income housing tax
credits of $3.5 million and about $7.4 in loans for the development.
The city is also using its bonding authority to issue $13 million in
tax-exempt bonds for the development. A lot of this is pass-through
from the state and federal government, but the city has to approve a
project, and use its bonding authority for the Lighthouse to attract
investors to buy the tax credits and the bonds.  If Mayor Lightfoot
did not support the project, it would not have happened.  Overall, the
project will receive about $45 million in loans and tax credits. This
is in addition to an undisclosed donation from Vince Foglia, who
founded Sage products that makes medical equipment.

Any developer has to choose appliances, countertops, flor and wall
coverings, fixtures, and lighting systems for residential units.
Selecting blind and low-vision friendly versions of all of these items
would add little to the cost of each unit or the development as a
whole. I envision Each apartment will be  like the model home being
built at the Illinois Assistive Technology Project in Springfield.
Yes, Federation philosophy empowers blind people to learn alternative
techniques of blindness so they are not reliant on high contrast this
and tactically different that as well as talking devices and voice
activated controls. I can easily afford all of this stuff and feel no
need to use most of it. Unfortunately, not all blind people have had
the opportunities we have had. Some rely on these approaches for their
independence, and I am glad these individuals are independent. Others
may just be working at the Lighthouse and want a highly affordable
place near where they work to live and the modifications may be less
important to them. The Lighthouse might feel a need to justify the
uniqueness of the residences to the private donor and the government
funders who are attracted by the blindness supportive aspects of the
project. Realize though only about 55 percent of the units will be
modified for blind people.

I am pleased the Lighthouse has found a way to turn an empty parking
lot into housing for blind people, many of whom are working in jobs at
the Lighthouse earning competitive wages. A lot talk about independent
living, economic independence, and support services to enable
employment. This is one model of what this can look like, given
problems with housing affordability.

Kelly



On 8/28/22, Kyle Chellino via IL-Talk <il-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hmmm! Sounds interesting!
>
> On 8/28/22, Robert via IL-Talk <il-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> Hi Bill
>>
>> I'm being lazy and taking advantage of your post to Il-Talk to sent you a
>> msg.
>>
>> My question for you is: do you know if any people in the IL blind
>> community
>> are using MS Mail as their email client for gmail? If so, assuming they
>> are
>> also using JAWS, do you know what kind of success they have had?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Bob
>> 309-236-6606
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: IL-Talk <il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Bill Reif via
>> IL-Talk
>> Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2022 3:42 PM
>> To: il-talk at nfbnet.org
>> Cc: Bill Reif <billreif at ameritech.net>
>> Subject: [IL-Talk] New Chicago housing complex designed for visually
>> impaired
>>
>> How is Mayor Lightfoot involved? Is the city contributing funding? What do
>> people think about the modifications? Does anyone think they would be
>> helpful enough to make living there worth considering? I have never been
>> in
>> a housing unit with such modifications.
>>
>> Cordially,
>> Bill
>>
>> https://wgntv.com/news/wgn-news-now/new-chicago-housing-complex-designed-for-visually-impaired/
>>
>>
>> Sent from Bill Reif’s iPhone
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> IL-Talk mailing list
>> IL-Talk at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/il-talk_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> IL-Talk:
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/il-talk_nfbnet.org/rgardner4%40gmail.com
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> IL-Talk mailing list
>> IL-Talk at nfbnet.org
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/il-talk_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> IL-Talk:
>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/il-talk_nfbnet.org/chellinoramtruck%40gmail.com
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> IL-Talk mailing list
> IL-Talk at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/il-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> IL-Talk:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/il-talk_nfbnet.org/kellytalk%40gmail.com
>