[Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs]
DUNNING — Work on a partially built facility in Dunning designed to house veterans suffering from Alzheimer's Disease and dementia will resume after state lawmakers reached a six-month stopgap spending agreement, officials said.
The budget deal reached Thursday includes the remaining $8.5 million needed for the project near Oak Park Avenue and Irving Park Road.
Originally scheduled to open this month, the veterans home — the first of its kind in Chicago — got caught in the crossfire between Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democrats who control the General Assembly.
Construction stopped in June 2015, prompting criticism from Democratic lawmakers who blamed Rauner for using ailing veterans as a bargaining chip in the fight over the budget.
"It's outrageous that projects like the Chicago Veterans Home ever got caught in the line of fire with the budget impasse," State Sen. John Mulroe said.
For more than a year, the construction site has been fenced off, with the half-built husk of the building visible from Irving Park Road and Oak Park Avenue. It is on the grounds of the former Chicago-Read Mental Health Center and adjacent to the Read-Dunning Conservation Area, a 23-acre oasis of wetlands and woodlands being restored to its natural state.
Crews began building the facility in October 2014.
"People aren't bargaining chips. I've been working hard for the past year to get things moving on this facility," Mulroe said. "I'm angry that this was the way to get this project going, but I am glad to see work begin again."
[Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs]
While a federal grant will cover 65 percent of the cost to build the facility, the state must cover some start-up costs, officials said.
The five-story facility at 4250 N. Oak Park Ave. will feature single rooms with private bathrooms as well as common dining and recreation areas for its residents, officials said. Forty-four beds will be set aside for veterans with dementia or Alzheimer's Disease.
Work is set to begin July 11 on a project to rebuild Oak Park Avenue near the under-construction veterans' facility without disturbing the remains of Chicago's poorest and sickest residents who died between 1890 and 1912.
The project was postponed last year after DNAinfo reported an expert's warnings that the planned work could unearth thousands of bodies buried in the long-forgotten Dunning cemetery. As many as 10,000 bodies are under what is now Oak Park Avenue in Dunning.
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