Cascade Garden
Cascade Garden was developed in partnership with Express Development, Inc., Community Housing Services, (CHS) and Tyson & Billy Development, LLC. Cascade Garden provides affordable housing and the apartments are open and available to the general public, however, preference will be given to households that include a person with a disability.

Cascade Garden was designed and constructed to meet special needs including wheelchair access, ramps, wider doorways, lower cabinets and roll-in showers in some units. The goals of the project are to meet the needs of persons with disabilities by: (1) removing the barriers to community living, (2) providing quality safe, affordable housing and (3) providing the case management, support services and activities required for long-term success.

The $13 million project was funded by a combination of a private first mortgage debt, affordable housing tax credit equity, Equity Replacement Funds (ERF) from the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA), Rock Island Housing Authority (RIHA) Operating Fund Financing Plan (OFFP), and RIHA Replacement Housing Factor Funds ( RHF).

Operating Fund Financing Plan: RIHA is the second Public Housing Authority (PHA) nationally to utilize the new Operating Fund Financing Plan (OFFP). And it is the first PHA to utilize OFFP to leverage its operating subsidy reserves to help finance new development. The OFFP allowed RIHA and CHS to utilize local federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds as part of the funding mechanism for Cascade Garden.

Supportive services available at Cascade Garden will be provided by the Robert Young Center staff. Robert Young services will offer Cascade Garden residents service-enriched housing that will allow persons with disabilities to live and work successfully throughout the community. Robert Young will ensure that residents have access to the services they need to create a safe and stable environment coupled with the enhanced quality of life required for the realization of individual goals and aspirations. The facility will also accommodate access to healthcare providers and public transportation to supermarkets and to other community amenities - each of which is critical to ensuring the independent lifestyle that the complex will offer.

Douglas Park Place
Douglas Park Place has served more than 25 women and their children since its construction almost 4 years ago. It is an eight-unit, affordable rental development that serves women coming out of an intense in-patient substance abuse treatment program. Douglas Park Place is considered transitional housing that is specifically created to keep families united while providing them with the life skills required too transition them back into society as fully functioning contributing members of their community. Douglas Park Place was developed by RIHA and CHS in partnership with the Rock Island Economic Growth Corporation (GROWTH) and the Robert Young Center.

Douglas Park Place is one of only four residential centers in the State of Illinois that allow children to live with their parents while they are in recovery.

Douglas Park Place Receives 2010 Governor's Illinois Affordable Housing Award
The Illinois Housing Task Force created the first annual Illinois Affordable Housing Awards Program in 2010. The Illinois Affordable Housing Awards Program is intended to spotlight outstanding and replicable affordable housing developments, programs and initiatives that support the objectives of the State's Annual Comprehensive Housing Plans. The inaugural round of three awards was presented on October 25, 2010 at the Governor's Affordable Housing Conference, held on Navy Pier in Chicago. One award was presented to highlight the diverse communities of Illinois in each of the following three geographic categories:

	Metropolitan Chicago
	Cities outside of Metropolitan Chicago with populations above 50,000 (including CDBG Entitlement Cities not included in Metropolitan Chicago area); and
	Rural/Small Cities/Non-Metropolitan Areas

Douglas Park Place won the Wyvetter H. Younge Award in recognition of an excellent and innovative development initiative in a Metropolitan Area outside of Metropolitan Chicago.

Affordable In-Fill Housing
RIHA and its partners built seven new affordable, for-sale, in-fill homes in four neighborhoods within the City of Rock Island. In-fill housing fills vacant lots and contributes to the revitalization of communities, positively impacting the people living there. The homes provide public housing-eligible residents opportunities for personal growth and the ability to become valuable, respected, contributing members of their neighborhoods and the community as a whole. Making a positive difference in neighborhoods that are turning around and becoming better, healthier places for people to live is the essence of community revitalization.

Phase I Warehouse Redevelopment: RIHA Administrative Offices
In 1999, RIHA purchased the Voss Brothers Warehouse on the edge of the downtown Rock Island district. The warehouse totals 60,000 square feet of useable floor space. Phase I of the space began in 2002 and includes the new RIHA Administrative offices, community meeting space and retail space. The administrative offices provide a professional environment and appeal to multiple constituencies. It gives both the residents it serves and the staff it represents a sense of pride and place portraying a credible organization. The new facility represents RIHA as a financially independent organization that provides housing of choice as opposed to housing of last resort.

Phase II Warehouse Redevelopment: Mixed-income Loft Apartments
The redevelopment of mixed-income loft apartments played an important role in the revitalization of Rock Island. Converting a once blighted property in a deteriorating neighborhood into a productive landmark has had a positive impact on and represents a significant investment in the community by RIHA and its partners. The $5.5 million project added 35 loft apartments to the downtown housing mix and complimented the additional $15 million in investments along Third Avenue.

Murphy Lofts
The Murphy house is a national historic landmark. The Second Empire double home was built in the late 1870s. The one-of-a-kind home sits along one of Rock Island's east-west thoroughfares. The redevelopment of the property included four Chicago style for-sale loft condominiums.

For additional information, please call 309.788.0825 or e-mail Housing@riha4rent.org.