Heartland Alliance Closes Its Affordable Housing Division, Will Sell Its Properties in Chicago & Wisconsin

1207 Leland, one of the affected properties

After years of providing affordable housing to residents in Chicago, Madison, and Milwaukee, a dire financial situation is forcing Heartland Housing (a division of Heartland Alliance) to close its doors and sell off its 14 properties.

The move to close the affordable housing division was made to ensure that Heartland Alliance's other divisions could remain financially stable and continue to function.

The handwriting was on the wall earlier this summer, when the properties were placed into receivership due to Heartland Housing's inability to properly maintain them and to pay its bills. The City of Chicago took Heartland Housing to court to force it to turn over control of its buildings to a receiver.

This week, Heartland Housing announced it had laid off 65 employees and was seeking to sell its properties, which contain 1178 units of affordable housing, including approximately 1000 units in Chicago. That number includes two properties in Uptown and two in the surrounding communities.

The affected buildings in and around Uptown are:

• 1207 West Leland, The Leland, 137 studio apartments, one-person households only. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
• 907 West Argyle, The San Miguel Apartments, 71 one- and two-bedroom apartments.
• 3600 North Halsted, The Town Hall Apartments (in Lake View), 79 studio and one-bedroom apartments, for residents aged 55 years and older. This is the adaptive reuse of the old Town Hall Police Station.
• 5700 North Sheridan, Hollywood House (in Edgewater), 197 studio and one-bedroom apartments, for residents aged 62 years and older.

The Sun-Times quotes Heartland Housing's Chief External Affairs Officer as saying:

"We are currently working with investors and the receivers to transfer the properties to other owners who can continue to operate them as affordable housing. We are cooperating with receivers, public agencies and the investors to try to assure that tax credits are not affected."

No scenario was given for what would happen if prospective buyers could not be found who would be willing and able to operate the buildings as affordable housing.

Stay tuned.