A new affordable housing complex in Alton, called the Community of Sunnybrook, has nearly filled up with tenants as the developers announced the project’s completion on Wednesday.
“We crossed the finish line, and we won the gold medal because the gold medal is this development,” Mayor David Goins said.
The $20 million complex consists of 40 units across 10 fourplex townhouses, a 2,000-square-foot community building, an acre of greenspace, a playground and a basketball court.
All but one unit is currently occupied, and there is a lengthy waiting list, said Karlee Macer, the executive director of Laborers’ Home Development Corp., which co-developed the project.
“The opening of the Community of Sunnybrook represents more than just new buildings,” she said. “It is an investment in people. It is an investment in families and the future of this city.”
The not-for-profit Laborers’ Corp., which has built 14 affordable housing units in underserved Illinois communities using union labor, and Ed Hightower, former Edwardsville superintendent, Big Ten basketball referee and current Southern Illinois Board of Trustees member, are the investors of Sunnybrook.
Funding for the development included $12.3 million in low-income housing tax credits from the state and a $6.7 million grant from Illinois Housing Development Authority.
The 40 townhomes will primarily serve those making 60% or less of the metropolitan area’s median income, which sits just below $61,000 for a household of three, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The project started back in 2017 — but a number of legal challenges and issues with municipal permits slowed the progress and nearly prevented it from being finished, the developers said.
Some of the issues arose from confusion about the difference between affordable housing and Section 8, a federal program that helps lower-income families, elderly residents, veterans and disabled individuals afford private market housing, Goins said.
As it is in the rest of the country, the need for affordable housing is great in Alton, and the hope for Sunnybrook is that it can be the first step for residents seeking a place to live, Goins said.
“This is the step where people can actually come in and live in a nice home,” he said. “Maybe this will be the stepping stone to being able to afford their own single-family residence in the future.”
Sunnybrook is not the only new housing in town. AltonWorks, which also recently completed a co-working space, has plans to build some of the first new housing in the city’s downtown in decades with various apartments.
