This is episode 12 in our series on the history of Oak Park housing as it relates to diversity and equity:
Between 1968 and 1974 Oak Park continued to build its historic narrative, a professed exceptionalism in coming to grips with its decades old racially, socio-economically, and religiously exclusionary housing policies.
Almost 30 years after its popular effort to provide affordable housing to 148 World War II veterans and their families, the village did the same for the parents, aunts and uncles of the “Greatest Generation.” It was the first of a series of village developments from 1974-80 that focused on affordability and access to housing for low-income seniors.
A focus on affordability came shortly after the village Fair Housing Ordinance was passed in 1968, and in 1973 when a new village Comprehensive Plan and the Oak Park Diversity Statement were adopted. Village leaders wrapped the success of each of these landmark documents around the common goal of non-discriminatory access to housing.
They explicitly committed to a future of ensuring affordable housing for all residents regardless of race, age or socio-economic position. Subsequent housing development plans reaffirmed these aspirations in 1979, 1990, and 2014.
Taking care of seniors
In preparing the 1973 Comprehensive Plan, community survey data documented the challenge seniors faced in remaining in Oak Park as they aged. The village immediately responded with a major zoning variance to construct the highly popular Mills Tower 19-story high-rise with 198 one-bedroom units for low-income seniors. Then in 1980 private investors, also with federal support, built the 14-story, 200-unit Heritage House at Lake and Lombard for low-income seniors (2).
Two final affordable developments for seniors and individuals with disabilities closed the era of providing significant affordable and accessible housing. The late lifelong Oak Parker Frank Muriello who served as a village trustee and for decades directed the Oak Park Residence Corporation (ResCorp) worked passionately for a much-needed innovation in Oak Park affordable housing.
Muriello’s unwavering dedication urged village leaders to address housing challenges faced by adults with special needs. The village responded and constructed The Oaks, a senior/handicapped, 79-unit, income-assisted building, and the income-assisted Farrelly-Muriello Apartments for severely mobility-impaired adults (3).
The affordable housing surge of the ’70s complemented the work of ResCorp, formed by the village in 1966. Its mission focused on buying, rehabbing and managing distressed multi-unit buildings and providing that 20 percent of their units would be affordable. ResCorp today owns 32 properties, mostly in high-density corridors along Austin and Washington and manages Mills Tower and other properties for the Oak Park Housing Authority.
Rehabbing apartment buildings, providing affordable housing for seniors, and upward trending home sale prices calmed economic uncertainty as the village was rapidly integrating. The village added one more entity, the Oak Park Development Corporation (OPDC) to ensure the trend continued. From 1974 forward the OPDC, a private/public collaboration, would become the dominant voice in shaping economic development, including housing.
By 1980 the average village home selling price skyrocketed during a period of national hyperinflation from $26,200 in 1970 to $66,300 (1) and village pride soared as the national media showered praise on the village for the initial success of its multi-faceted “Oak Park Strategy” for racial integration and economic stability.
OPDC
The Oak Park Development Corporation (reorganized as the Economic Development Corporation in 2014) comprised representatives of six local banks, members of major businesses, two non-voting members from village government and Bobbie Raymond, founder of the Housing Center. OPDC operated in secrecy without public minutes of their proceedings.
Local renowned business and civic leader Art Replogle directed the OPDC for its first 23 years. By the conclusion of its first decade, business sections of Chicago enthusiastically praised OPDC as housing prices soared, distressed properties were renovated, and District 97 adopted a successful integration plan (4).
Replogle and the OPDC imitated the national Republican economic mindset which was skeptical of and opposed excessive governmental involvement in business — with the exception of federal funding of Oak Park’s large affordable housing projects for seniors. As Replogle was wont to say, “Business people believed developers prefer to meet with other business people rather than government officials” (5).
OPDC provided low-interest loans for startups and established businesses while winning new investment in the village. Many loans went to help rehab deteriorating apartment buildings — complementing efforts of ResCorp and the Housing Center to get white renters into East Oak Park. Just as importantly, OPDC amped up Oak Park tourism when it facilitated the purchase and restoration of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio in 1974.
Five decades later, OPDC, renamed as the Oak Park Economic Development Corporation (OPEDC), faced increasing opposition from both affordable housing advocates and traditional village preservationists who opposed the multiple high-rise buildings OPEDC backed in downtown Oak Park in the 2000s. More importantly, the organization was dealing with its own internal dysfunction and growing tensions with economic development officials at village hall. In 2023, the OPEDC’s 50-year run was over (6). The village assumed direct control of housing and commercial development operations, freeing up over a half-million dollars in the village’s budget.
The tumultuous ’80s
Following the burst of affordable housing in Oak Park in the first years of managed integration, the Reagan administration gutted funding for public housing, halted new construction and raised, from 25 to 30 percent, the monthly contribution of tenants in public housing — contributing to a national explosion of homelessness and the last significant affordable developments in Oak Park until 2014.
The next episode in this series turns to the mid-’80s and beyond as progressive and conservative grass roots groups challenged Oak Park’s housing and development strategies, including growing concerns about school integration (7).
Source citations can be found in the online version of this article at oakpark.com.
Episode 12 citations
1. U.S. Bureau of Census, Decennial Census of Housing, 1980-2000.
2. Christine Vernon. “The high-rise wars,” Wednesday Journal Viewpoints, March 28, 2017.
3. Deb Quantock McCarey. “Frank Muriello championed affordable housing for the disabled,” Wednesday Journal, May 29, 2012.
4. John Duffy. “The promise and challenge of managed school integration,” Wednesday Journal Viewpoints, Nov. 25, 2020, https://www.oakpark.com/2020/11/25/promise-and-challenge-of-managed-school-integration
5. Anne Little. “Development Corp. built confidence,” Chicago Tribune, Feb. 25, 1986.
6. Stacey Sheridan. “Oak Park may restructure OPEDC out of business,” Wednesday Journal, May 16, 2023.
7. John Duffy. “The volatile ’80s in District 97,” Wednesday Journal Viewpoints, Dec. 16, 2020, https://www.oakpark.com/2020/12/16/the-volatile-80s-in-district-97.