September 05, 2024
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McHenry County needs more workforce housing, officials find

By Claire O'Brien
Dignitaries, including U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, file back into the Old Feed Mill following a ceremonial groundbreaking at the future Taylor Street Apartments in McHenry. The mill and adjacent brick building will be repurposed, with other buildings being torn down.

Dignitaries, including U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, center in suit and tie, file back into the Old Feed Mill following a ceremonial groundbreaking at the future Taylor Street Apartments in McHenry last year. The mill and adjacent brick building will be repurposed, with other buildings being torn down. (Janelle Walker)

McHenry County has a shortage of workforce housing, and about a quarter of county households are cost-burdened, according to a new report addressing housing in the county.

Cost-burdened households are those that spend more than 30% of their income on housing. The county lacks enough housing for those whose jobs are located in the county, according to county documents.

Workforce housing is tailored toward people making 30% to 80% of an area’s median income. In McHenry County, those ranges are between $30,000 and $80,000, county documents indicate. Deputy County Administrator Scott Hartman said Thursday that nearly 79% of the county’s workforce falls into that category.

McHenry County officials have been working to address the issue, and the county convened a workforce housing workgroup last year. County officials presented the workgroup’s findings and report Thursday, adding that most of the county’s housing stock is single-family homes.

Some housing projects have been proposed in the county. Cary Mayor Mark Kownick addressed the county board Thursday and shared his experience with workforce housing when Cary voted on the Garden Place project years ago.

“It got to be pretty toxic in the community, to the point where I was being threatened,” Kownick said, adding that around that time someone blew up his mailbox and that nails were placed in his car tires.

Kownick said he was the tie-breaking vote to approve the development, which is now located on First Street near downtown Cary. Garden Place had a ribbon cutting and hit full occupancy in 2017.

After officials looked through the new report, several county board members weighed in on the topic and asked questions.

“I think that we desire sometimes to believe” the county is an upper-middle class, upper class community, board member Brian Sager, R-Woodstock said, adding that much of the community is blue-collar.

McHenry also is set to have a workforce housing development in Taylor Place Apartments, which broke ground last spring. Taylor Place is set to be up and running next year and will offer 50 workforce apartments once completed.

In the report, county officials included a photo of several county board members at the groundbreaking, but noted the total cost per unit is over $500,000 “due to the legal, financing, and administrative requirements.” The report says comparable market rate apartments “can be built for considerably less and have a greater rate of return.”

Officials also said the housing mismatch affects the workforce. About 90,000 jobs are based in McHenry County and roughly half, about 43,500 workers, live outside the county and commute in. According to the report, those workers commuting in typically live in “areas of the region with lower housing costs.”

Some of the recommendations in the report included creating a “positive narrative” about workforce housing, educating leaders about what to expect when looking at such projects and working with municipalities.

“There’s a lot of education that needs to be involved in this,” Kownick said.

The full report is available online at pub-countyofmchenry.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=135677.

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