Earle Residences Opens in Chicago’s West Englewood, Bringing Affordable Housing to Former School

Historic West Englewood school returns as 50-unit affordable apartment community

CHICAGO — The former Charles Warrington Earle School in West Englewood has reopened as the Earle Residences, a 50-unit affordable apartment development at 1711 W. 61st St., nearly a decade after the building’s redevelopment process began. City officials and project partners marked the opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday, as about a third of the apartments had already been leased.

The 129-year-old school was among 50 Chicago Public Schools buildings shuttered in 2013 under then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel. It served students for more than a century before closing and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its conversion adds housing to a neighborhood where vacant former public-school buildings have remained a persistent issue since the mass closures.

Wisconsin-based developer Gorman & Co. redeveloped the building into one- and two-bedroom apartments for households earning up to 60% of the area median income. For a two-person household in Chicago, that income threshold is $58,320 annually, according to project officials.

Matt Burbach, Gorman’s director of development for Illinois, said roughly 34% of the Earle’s apartments were leased at the time of the opening. Nine apartments are reserved for households earning 15% of area median income through the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund’s Multiyear Affordability through Upfront Investment, or MAUI, program.

The MAUI program provides interest-free forgivable loans that can replace up to half of a developer’s private first-mortgage loan, according to the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund. The arrangement is intended to make deeply affordable units financially feasible within developments serving working households.

Supportive services and shared space included in redevelopment

In addition to apartments, the Earle Residences includes a community room, computer lab, fitness room, laundry facilities, playground, community garden and outdoor green space. Chicago Department of Housing Commissioner Lissette Castañeda said the project was designed for working-class residents and described the shared amenities as necessities for residents and families to thrive.

Gorman is also working with Chicago-based Phoenix Foundation and Phoenix Recovery Services to provide on-site supportive services for people and families experiencing homelessness or at risk of losing housing. The supportive-housing component is intended to pair affordable rent with access to services that can help residents maintain stable housing.

The nearly $35 million redevelopment received $4.2 million in tax increment financing and $540,000 from the city’s Chicago Recovery Plan Permanent Supportive Housing funds. Other financial backers included the Illinois Housing Development Authority, the Federal Home Loan Bank’s Affordable Housing Program and ComEd.

School reuse remains a major Chicago redevelopment challenge

Mayor Brandon Johnson, who worked as a Chicago Teachers Union organizer during the 2013 school-closing campaign, said he had opposed the closures because of the harm he believed they would cause to communities. At Wednesday’s event, Johnson said the Earle conversion represented a return of community value to a building that residents had sought to protect.

Chicago Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Charles Mayfield said CPS is focused on partnerships that return surplus school properties to productive neighborhood uses. The Chicago Board of Education has recently approved additional former-school sales, he said, with another round expected in the coming weeks.

The Earle is Gorman’s eighth Illinois project and one of more than 20 school-to-apartment conversions completed by the developer. Its next Chicago redevelopment, called Regenerator, would transform the former Woods Mathematics and Science Academy in West Englewood into a community and health center with affordable housing. A separate proposal involving the former Bontemps Elementary School remains subject to city approvals. Leasing is continuing at the Earle Residences, while city and school officials pursue additional reuse plans for closed CPS buildings.