From the POAH Midwest Office
Friends: Let me introduce myself — For the past decade I have worked — first in Woodlawn and now across POAH’s portfolio — with the people who live in our housing and with the people who live and work nearby.
My job — my passion — is connecting with people and community. We create opportunities for residents, certainly, but we also work to connect our residents and communities to the surrounding neighborhoods. For us, providing housing is but one part of the mission.
Needless to say, these past 18 months have been challenging. But for us at POAH they also have been times of new lessons learned and relationships built.
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Felicia Dawson, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships
POAH Midwest
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POAH Renovation Update
As part of its long-standing commitment to the preservation of affordable housing, POAH is renovating several properties or about to begin making improvements in the coming weeks and months.
In Chicago, POAH will soon begin renovating two buildings—Emil Jones Jr. Senior Housing at 110th Place in Roseland, and the Fred C. Matthews Senior Housing, near 51st & Indiana in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood. Both properties, 60 apartments each, are among a portfolio of properties POAH acquired from the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago in 2019.
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New Casual Dine-In Restaurant Coming Soon to Woodlawn Station
POAH is excited to announce that a new dining option for the Woodlawn community is arriving this fall. Conscious Plates — an organization dedicated to providing access to meat-free and vegan food, holistic healing services, and fulfilling work opportunities — will open its first-ever dine-in restaurant at the eastern end of Woodlawn Station.
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“Straight Out of Summer” Kicks Off Back to School Season
With students and teachers getting ready to return to in-person schooling, POAH wanted children and their families to get the tools they need to start the school year on the right foot. So, on August 13, POAH held its annual “Straight Out of Summer” back-to-school event at the Woodlawn Resource Center.
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Purchase of Island Terrace Apartments Preserves Neighborhood’s Affordable Housing |
POAH continued its mission of preserving affordable housing in the changing Woodlawn community in June by purchasing Island Terrace Apartments at 6430 South Stony Island, across from Jackson Park and the future home of the Obama Presidential Center.
This acquisition expands POAH’s preservation of housing opportunities from the west end of Woodlawn to the neighborhood’s very eastern edge. Since beginning its work in Woodlawn in 2008, POAH has acquired or built nearly 1,000 apartments in Woodlawn.
POAH’s $29.5 million purchase of Island Terrace from PNC Bank, which includes plans to renovate the property, was greeted with enthusiastic support from 5th Ward Ald. Leslie Hairston. “PNC’s thoughtful sale of Island Terrace to POAH ends the anxiety that so many felt,” said Ald. Hairston. “POAH’s record of housing preservation, high-quality building, renovation and thoughtful management makes us confident in the future of affordable housing in this fast-changing community.”
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Red Clay Dance Center Now Open
at Woodlawn Station
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Woodlawn celebrated one of its most highly anticipated grand openings in early August with the arrival of a new cultural amenity — Red Clay Dance Company’s 3,700-square-foot dance center at Woodlawn Station. The new venue brings the company into the heart of the Woodlawn community with its focus on transforming cultural and socio-economic inequities through the creation, teaching and performance of dances rooted in the African diaspora.
In addition to dance programs, the Center’s Red Clay Dance Academy and Youth Ensemble brings world-class training to people of all ages, aiming to serve as a pipeline toward professional careers in the arts. The Center also offers dance education to schools and community groups throughout the city, while its innovative Making the Activist program creates spaces that empower local youth to share stories while learning to work toward social change.
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POAH and Claretian Associates Create New South Chicago Community Center |
In an exciting renewal of a threatened community asset, this summer witnessed the opening of The Salud Center, a new community center in a space formerly used by the South Chicago YMCA.
The renewal and reopening was made possible by a partnership between POAH and Claretian Associates, who together purchased the building in 2019. Claretian Associates, which for decades has provided services and advocacy for the South Chicago community, will provide recreation, education and business programs on the ground floor of the building, while POAH maintains the 101 senior apartments as affordable to low- and moderate-income residents.
The new 40,000-square-foot Salud Center — Salud is Spanish for “health” — at 3039 East 91st St. features an Innovation Lab, a classroom with 30 computers and free WI-FI to connect the community to youth and adult education resources.
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