More than a year after a committee charged with finding ways to privatize Wilmette’s housing subsidy program delivered its findings to village trustees, Wilmette has an official nonprofit fundraising group and a board of directors to run the entity.
Wilmette Village President Bob Bielinski announced at the regular village board meeting on Aug. 25 that he had appointed nine people to the new board of directors for Housing Our Own Wilmette, and asked one of the appointees, Wilmette resident Joan Criswell, to be the board president. Village trustees unanimously approved the appointments.
“When I first considered (Criswell), I was very excited about the possibility of her getting involved because she has a background in not-for-profit work,” Bielinski said.
Criswell said Aug. 28 in an email that she agreed to join the board of directors because Housing Our Own Wilmette reflected what she called Wilmette’s strong sense of community.
“I felt it was important to be a part of maintaining that, so members of our community who need assistance can continue to benefit from residence and the unique resources of our village,” she said.
In addition to Criswell, who has previously been active with the District 39 Educational Foundation, the Housing Our Own Wilmette board members include Assistant Village Manager Mike Braiman, one of the village administrators most involved in the process of turning the municipal Housing Assistance Program over to private hands; Village Trustee Cameron Krueger, who advocated for the program’s privatization; and Nancy Canafax, a former Wilmette village president who helmed the committee that provided Bielinski with privatization strategies last year.
Lisa Finks and John Thomason, who served with Canafax on the ad hoc committee, will join her on the board of directors, as will North Shore Community Bank officer Jolie Horen, former Wilmette Park Board commissioner Michael Murdock and Walter Reed, a longtime village resident and an advocate for special-needs children.
Braiman said board officials are trying to arrange their first meeting to be held later this fall, possibly in late September.
When he announced the new board, Bielinski said it is expected to name its own advisory board, “which will provide input regarding the community’s needs, including that of senior citizens and people with disabilities, who are the primary beneficiaries of the program.”
That advisory board hasn’t been formed, Bielinski said, but village Trustee Julie Wolf has agreed to serve on it once it is, as has Community Development Director John Adler, and Jane Hornstein, who currently serves on the village’s advisory housing commission.
Braiman said that once the Housing Our Own board of directors is up and running and has created its own bank account, all of the money in the village’s affordable housing escrow account will be transferred to the private account.
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The municipal housing assistance program was started in 1981 and, until 2010, was paid for by village revenue.
After 2010, Wilmette cut direct funding for HAP, instead paying for the program with money from an escrow account known as the Red Seal account. The account was funded with money paid by the developers of the former National Louis University property on Sheridan Road and was intended to help support affordable housing in Wilmette.
Village trustees unanimously agreed in 2013 to end all municipal funding once the escrow was depleted. At the time, trustees argued that in hard economic times, the village should focus on delivering infrastructure and public safety services. Social programs such as housing subsidies could be better handled by private entities, they told those who fought the change.
After the board approved that decision as part of its annual budget process, Bielinski appointed an ad hoc committee to recommend privatization strategies. In March of 2014 the committee advised Wilmette to create a nonprofit board for fundraising purposes.
The committee urged Wilmette to continue running its own program, to ensure that the roughly two dozen seniors and disabled citizens now receiving rent, mortgage or tax relief not suffer any disruptions to that service. The village board agreed to do so.
The committee also recommended that Wilmette maintain actual administration of the eventual private program, with some help from New Trier Township staff members. Administration of housing subsidy services will continue to be done through the village.
Donations to the current village-held and administered escrow account now stand at $22,563, almost $12,000 of which has been raised to date this year, Braiman said Aug. 26.
The account should also get a promised $80,000 that M&R Development plans to give Wilmette once its 611 Green Bay Road project starts, Braiman said.
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