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The Daily Northwestern Tuesday, October 16, 2012
DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
City to plan HUD funds use By JIA YOU
the daily northwestern
Evanston will hold two public meetings Tuesday and Thursday to gather feedback on its proposed 2013 Action Plan, which outlines how the city would use funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to improve the quality of life for low- and moderate-income Evanston residents. “The Action Plan is an annual roadmap … that explains how we plan to use federal fund grants,” said Sarah Flax, the city’s grants administrator. “One of the things we really are trying to do is to get feedback and get people interested in what we are doing.” According to estimates in the draft plan, HUD would award about $2 million to Evanston for its 2013 program year, approximately 3 percent less than the actual grants received in 2012. The funds consist of the Community Development Block Grant, Emergency Solutions Grant and HOME Investment Partnerships Program grants. These funds would create more affordable housing for low- and
moderate-income residents, improve their living environment and expand their economic opportunities, Flax said. According to federal standard, these residents earn less than 80 percent of the area median household income, or $66,650 a year for a fourperson household in Evanston, she added. “These are not necessarily people who are absolutely destitute by any stretch of the imagination,” Flax said. “But they are below the median income and are likely to have more struggles accomplishing everything they want to have a stable, balanced life than people with a higher income.” Affordable housing remains the plan’s central focus, comprising about 45 percent of expected HUD funds. In addition to existing programs that provide below-market rate loans to eligible households for rehabilitating their homes, the city will also launch a new program called Tenant-Based Rental Assistance, which uses HOME funds to provide rental subsidies for low-income family housing, Flax said. Rental subsidies could offer critical support for low-income residents
struggling with crises such as job loss or injury, said Dan Lewis, director of NU’s Center for Civic Engagement and a member of the Mayor’s Homeless Task Force. “If we can figure out a way to get them over the crisis … without losing their place to live, then we could avoid people becoming homeless,” Lewis said. “So subsidies are really important ways to get people through these crises. The fact that Evanston is committed to thinking about those kinds of support … is a very good sign that it will be successful.” Activities to maintain a suitable living environment — including improvements on public facilities and services — will take 35 percent of the funds. Another 6 percent will be used to create economic opportunities, such as attracting new businesses and supporting existing ones in the neighborhood. The remaining 15 percent is reserved for administration and planning, Flax said. Flax added that the goal is not to eliminate the problems in one year but to work toward the city’s long-term aims in assisting low-income residents.
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City of Evanston Action Plan
BREAKDOWN The City of Evanston will recieve $2,305,500 in entitlement funding from 15% the Department of Housing and Urban 6% Development. The city’s Action Plan allocates the funds to three federal goals in the needs of lowand-moderate-income residents. These three goals are: decent housing, suitable living environments and economic opportunity.
1 Availability / Accessibility 1 1 1
the daily northwestern
Daily file photo
SHARING IS CARING Evanston City Council may approve a decision that will allow Evanston and Skokie Fire Departments to share a training site.
The Evanston City Council will vote Monday on an intergovernmental agreement between the city and Skokie that would allow Evanston Fire and Life Safety Services to use Skokie’s training facility. The Skokie Village Board approved the agreement Oct. 1 to share Fire Station 17, according to a Skokie news release. The training facility, 8157 Central Park Ave., would accommodate the needs of both fire departments while saving Evanston the cost of building its own. The partnership is contingent on approval by Evanston aldermen. The agreement would grant
the daily northwestern
Though anonymous gossip websites are nothing new to Northwestern, posts are filling the university’s forum on the Collegiate Anonymous Communication Board. Collegiate ACB launched in March 2012 “for college students throughout the country to discuss anything,” according to the website’s home page. The website is similar to the nowclosed College Anonymous Confession Board. For the past month, Collegiate ACB has received an average of
10,000 visitors a day, wrote Kirk Henf, the website’s co-owner and co-administrator, in an email to The Daily. In the Northwestern forum, comments were made on 12 different threads Monday alone. “We expect to see the numbers increase,” wrote Henf, explaining that the site will likely get more traffic as students settle into the school year and freshmen find it. Henf said the website could be used to discuss “popular controversial topics” ranging from stances on politics and religion to fraternity and sorority life. “The mission or purpose of
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
Collegiate ACB is primarily to provide students with a location to anonymously discuss issues they wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about elsewhere,” Henf wrote. Although the topics on the NU forum are often controversial, the board has yet to be used for political discussion. Threads titled “Fraternity Rankings” and “rich and famous” have received the most posts. “It seemed kind of catty but also not unlike what people talk about anyways,” said Weinberg sophomore Jenna Stoehr, who has visited the website. “I think that because it is written down it makes it seem more official
Administration & planning
35% 3 Sustainability 41% 63% 100%
PROJECT TOTALS: 1 37% 2
16% 3
37%
Infographic by Christine Nguyen/Daily Senior Staffer
Evanston firefighters the use of Station 17, a live fire-training tower, for 10 years with a five-year renewal option. In exchange, the city of Evanston would make a one-time payment of $286,000 to Skokie to cover repairs and upgrades to the tower, including a natural gas-burning facility, said Evanston Fire Chief Greg Klaiber. The agreement also includes a $15,000 annual fee for general tower maintenance. Klaiber estimated the improvements to the tower would be complete by next summer. Evanston firefighters would use the facility for live fire training; personnel could practice different emergency scenarios in a real-life environment. Skokie Fire Chief Ralph Czerwinski said the tower allows for active training in a controlled environment. For example, it enables firefighters to practice in a burning apartment building complete with stairs » See FIRE, page 6
Traffic increases to new Collegiate ACB site By CAT ZAKRZEWSKI
Economic opportunity
3 6%
Fire department could share Skokie facility By CIARA MCCARTHY
Suitable living environments
25% 3
» See ACTION PLAN, page 6
Council will vote Monday on potential use of training tower
Decent housing
2 Affordability
34% 2 31% 2
45%
than word of mouth.” Communication sophomore Jules Cantor was mentioned in a thread Aug. 19 called “Frattiest guy on campus?” Cantor said he initially thought the post was “hilarious” and thought it was likely posted by one of his fraternity brothers. “If this had been something about my character or my actions, I would not have appreciated it,” Cantor said. “(Collegiate ACB) encourages bad mouthing and unpleasant conversation.” Cantor expressed concern that » See GOSSIP, page 6
Chicago alderman supports Prentice demolition plan
Chicago Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) announced Monday that he supports Northwestern’s plan to build a new research facility in place of the old Prentice Women’s Hospital in Streeterville, despite preservationist efforts to save the Bertrand Goldberg building. The Prentice site falls within the 42nd Ward. Reilly stated his support of NU at a City Club of Chicago luncheon, the Chicago Tribune reported this afternoon. “It’s not something I’m excited or happy about, and I’m very, very sensitive to the preservation community’s concerns,” Reilly told reporters after the event. “But again, you can’t saddle a university with land that’s not useful to it.” NU maintains that the old hospital is outdated and unable to house modern research facilities. The University argues that demolishing Prentice and rebuilding on the site would transform the Streeterville landscape in favor of local businesses, create jobs and attract world-class professionals in the medical industry. Preservationists, including architects worldwide, have questioned NU’s assertion that the Prentice site in the only option for building such a biomedical research facility when the University in facts owns a large portion of Streeterville. Although they tend to acknowledge NU’s findings that the old hospital cannot continue to serve as a medical facility in the same capacity that it once did, they asked the University to reconsider demolition in favor of transforming the building into administrative offices or housing for students attending school on the Chicago campus. — Susan Du
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