New housing for veterans may be on its way to Rock Island

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (KWQC) - The Rock Island City Council voted Monday night to move forward with a process that could bring new permanent supportive housing for veterans.

The vote kickstarts a process for which the city can negotiate the sale of about four acres of city-owned property to Community Home Partners, a nonprofit arm of the Rock Island Housing Authority.

The property is an open lot located just west of Highway 67 off 31st Avenue.

“Community Home Partners approached the city with interest in this site because they’d like to develop a permanent supportive housing development for veterans,” Miles Brainard, director of community and economic development, said. “And the idea would be that it’d be a cluster of small homes with a community center. And it just so happens the city owns the site big enough to accommodate that.”

Brainard said the city expects to retain about one acre of the lot that sits along the street for future commercial development while the other four acres would be for the non-profit to develop the housing project.

John Chow, chief executive officer of Community Home Partners, said the project is desperately needed for veterans.

“It’s just a shame to see that there’s a large number of homeless population within our veteran groups, so it will be a great project, to address the homeless population, or affordable homes, for our veterans,” he said.

Now that the city has approved an intent to sell the property, Community Home Partners will be able to complete their application for tax credit funding with the Illinois Housing Development Authority. The application is due by the end of the week.

Both Brainard and Chow said it could take at least a few months before we see the property officially sold and the project get up and running.

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