Public housing officials are expecting 1,000 slots on a waiting list for a new subsidized housing project in Champaign to fill up quickly, when the list starts taking applications at 9 AM Tuesday morning. The list is for people hoping for a chance to live in the new Bristol Place development, which is going on the north side of Champaign.
Six months after the last family moved out of Champaign’s Bristol Place neighborhood, the last structure on the site has been torn down, to make room for construction of a new housing development in the coming months.
The last family was scheduled to move out of Champaign’s Bristol Place Friday, as the city and local housing authority prepare the north side neighborhood for redevelopment. Meanwhile, a major funding component for the new development meant to replace the old neighborhood was approved by a state panel in Chicago.
On the north side of Champaign, a seven-block section of residential neighborhood is being torn down. City officials say all of the old houses that made up Bristol Place will be gone by the end of the year, to be replaced by entirely new housing --- and, they hope, better living conditions.
The city has been working on tearing down and rebuilding homes in the northeast Champaign neighborhood since outlining its goals in 2007. Unanimously backed by the Champaign City Council Tuesday, the plan initiates an agreement with suburban-Chicago based AHDVS, a minority-owned contractor. But city council members stipulated that hiring local minorities was key to the plan's continued backing.
