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Housing plan to get 1st reading Attorney alerts DeKalb to fair housing law ahead of council meeting for University Village By BRITTANY KEEPERMAN bkeeperman@shawmedia.com DeKALB – The University Village Tenants Association wants the city of DeKalb to approve a Seattle company’s plan to rehab the apartment complex, and warns that not allowing the plan to go ahead could violate federal law. If city officials don’t approve zoning changes necessary for the plan to go ahead, they would be neglecting their duty to further fair housing, said Emily Coffey, an attorney with Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. Coffey is representing
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both improve the community and to rehab the property so that it is accessible to people with disabilities would be a conflict with the city’s duty to comply with fair housing law.” Security Properties plans to buy DeKalb’s largest low-income housing How much Security Properties plans complex and renovate it. The redeto invest into the renovation project for velopment would include interior University Village and exterior upgrades, installation of new appliances, replacement of security equipment, including cameras the tenants association. “The city has a duty to affirma- and fire alarms, and the development tively further fair housing,” she said. of a community center with social “Preventing the sale of University Vil- services and a computer lab. The developer plans to invest at lage to new owners who have plans to
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least $21 million into the renovation project and put up an additional $200,000 toward social services up front, with annual payments of $20,000 for 15 years. The project would also bring the decades-old 534-unit property into compliance with current Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. The project would be paid for in part with federal low-income housing tax credits and would make University Village 100 percent subsidized housing. About 87 percent of residents already receive housing subsidies. In order for the purchase to go for-
A STEP CLOSER
Geri Hopper reclines the chair for her mother, Irene Clay, 86, as she receives a chemotherapy treatment for her stage 3 lung cancer July 27 at KishHealth System Cancer Center. Hopper and her husband were living with Clay in Fairdale when the April 9 tornado destroyed their home.
Fairdale family could get new home next month
What’s next The DeKalb City Council will next consider Security Properties’ plans for renovating University Village at their Aug. 24 meeting. ward, the City Council would need to approve rezoning of the property so that it could be rebuilt at its current density in the event of catastrophic loss.
See PLAN, page A7
Democracy sought in Cuba on historic day Kerry addresses relations between countries Friday By BRADLEY KLAPPER and MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN The Associated Press
Photos by Monica Synett – msynett@shawmedia.com
Ron Hopper, son-in-law of Irene Clay, supervises Tom Hart, of Hart & Sons Excavating, as they prepare the ground for a foundation Aug. 5 on Clay’s property in Fairdale. Hopper and his wife, Geri Hopper, lived with Clay when the tornado hit Fairdale and destroyed many homes. By ADAM POULISSE apoulisse@shawmedia.com
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AIRDALE – If the blueprint for her new home was a birthday card for Irene Clay, then the muddy hole created last week on her property was the pretty little bow on top of the present. Clay, 86, was one of several Fairdale residents whose home was destroyed in the April 9 tornado that struck the small community on Route 72 just west of Kirkland. In her twilight years and battling lung cancer, she is eager to have a place of her own once more. “I can’t tell you how much it would mean to me,” Clay said. “I just want to get in my own house.” Slowly but surely, owners of houses and sheds in Fairdale are
“I’m going to get a lot of relief, and it’s going to make Irene (Clay) extremely happy. She can spend the rest of her life here, hopefully. This is where she’s lived since ’55 and she wants to be here.” Ron Hopper, Irene Clay’s son-in-law replacing the splintered wood and debris that littered the area after the tornado mostly leveled the small community of about 150 people. On July 1, the DeKalb County Board and the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved rezoning Fairdale to give residents more freedom to rebuild their homes as they were, despite many of them not conforming to modern zoning codes. Clay has left the logistics of rebuilding to her children and inlaws. Meanwhile, she’s been in and
out of chemotherapy treatments at KishHealth System Cancer Center. Last week, Ron Hopper, Clay’s son-in-law, stood at the edge of the hole that was now a few feet deep thanks to an excavator, occasionally taking measurements with a dummy stick. When the excavator struck water, Hopper took a break to look over blueprints of the house that will stand where their former two-story home was destroyed by the tornado – a new beginning for the Hoppers and Clay.
The new modular home is expected to arrive Sept. 9, Clay’s 87th birthday, or maybe even the day before. “I’m going to get a lot of relief, and it’s going to make Irene extremely happy,” Hopper said at the site. “She can spend the rest of her life here, hopefully. This is where she’s lived since ’55 and she wants to be here.” Clay, the Hoppers and their Labrador retriever pup Isabelle have been staying with the family of Denise Willit, who is related to Geri Hopper, in nearby Kirkland. Clay said she’s grateful, but she wants her old life back. After the family received a building permit last week, crews began digging the foundation for the family’s new one-story home.
LOCAL NEWS
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Shared space
Accident at show Editor’s Note
10 different ways to make sharing a bathroom easier / C1
Man airlifted to Rockford after his arm was injured at Thrashing Bee / A3
Olson: Dreaming of a day when gas prices won’t matter / A2
See HOME, page A7
HAVANA – Jubilant crowds waved American flags and chanted “Long live the United States!” as the Stars and Stripes rose over the newly reopened U.S. Embassy in Cuba on Friday after a half-century of often-hostile relations. Secretary of State John Kerry celebrated the day but also made an extraordinary, nationally broadcast call for democratic change on the island. Hundreds of Cubans mixed with American tourists outside the former U.S. Interests Section, newly emblazoned with the letters “Embassy of the United States of America.” They cheered as Kerry spoke, the U.S. John Kerry Army Brass Quintet played “The Star-Spangled Banner” and U.S. Marines raised the flag alongside the building overlooking the famous Malecon seaside promenade. Meeting more than 54 years after the severing of diplomatic relations, Kerry and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez set a September date for the start of talks on full normalization of a relationship so long frozen in enmity. Not all the talk was as warm as the sunny summer day. Kerry and Rodriguez said their nations would continue to disagree over issues such as democracy and human rights. But they also said they hoped to make progress on issues ranging from maritime security and public health to the billions of dollars in dueling claims over confiscation of U.S. property and the U.S. economic embargo on the island.
See CUBA, page A7
AP photos
U.S. Marines raise the U.S. flag Friday over the newly reopened embassy in Havana.
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