Public housing in Joliet transformed again with new senior apartments

“Amazing” or words to that effect were used repeatedly by residents of the new Stevenson Crossing, a former public housing project converted into affordable independent living apartments for seniors.

“I’m amazed because I didn’t expect anything like this,” resident Isabel Stevenson said.

“It’s a fabulous place,” said Rosemary Andrews, who moved 55 years ago into Stevenson Gardens, the building that the Housing Authority of Joliet has converted into Stevenson Crossing.

The place has changed since the remodeling, Andrews said.

“Everything’s just modern,” she said.

Andrews recently moved moved back into the apartment complex, which now has larger living units and a common area that includes a fitness center, small grocery and movie theater.

The former Stevenson Gardens at 102 Stryker Ave., originally built in 1971, was gutted in 2022.

“It was essentially gutted all the way,” HAJ Regional Asset Manager Mike Gentile said. “Just the floors and the outer walls were left standing.”

The subsequent reconstruction has created a new building with larger living quarters, new amenities and a cheerful interior with decorating aimed at the 62-and-over crowd that now resides there.

The building has 133 units, formerly 177, and is more than 90% rented since leases were first approved in March.

“If you look around here, you see a lot of color,” said Andrea Finch, an HAJ official who oversaw interior decorating at Stevenson Crossing. “I wanted to do something that was very welcoming and hopeful for all of our seniors.”

The recreation of the housing complex at 102 Stryker Ave. is the latest HAJ transformation of its former public housing projects.

HAJ has previously converted public housing complexes into the Liberty Landing subdivision and the Water’s Edge townhome development.

Both projects involved demolitions of apartment and rebuilds.

Stevenson Crossing marks the first building that the HAJ has kept intact but fully renovated for Hope Bound Development Corp.

Hope Bound Development Corp. is the new entity that is taking ownership of former public housing in Joliet.

It is gradually replacing the Housing Authority of Joliet as the ownership and management structure for previous public housing in Joliet.

The Stevenson Crossing project cost $35 million, which was funded with the help of financing from Bank of America and Chicago-based IFF.

The Housing Authority of Joliet is in the process of converting all of what previously was known as public housing into a new product that it prefers to call affordable housing.

“We are two-thirds of the way through repositioning all of the units,” said Michael Simelton, CEO of the HAJ.

Eventually all of the units will be under new ownership under Hope Bound Development Corp.

Simelton also is an officer in Hope Bound Development Corp., the entity that has acquired ownership of Stevenson Crossing.

Hope Bound also owns Liberty Landing and Water’s Edge, a subdivision and townhome development that replaced former public housing projects in Joliet.

The projects have proceeded with approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which wants local housing agencies to to find new ownership structures for traditional public housing.