WHAT IF KEY STAKEHOLDERS IN THE PUBLIC, PRIVATE AND NONPROFIT SECTORS WORKED TOGETHER TO ACHIEVE A COMMON VISION AROUND THE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY CRISIS?
Our Mission
Formerly known as the Rockford Housing Development Corporation, PlatFORM Group was established in 1979 as an offshoot of the Rockford Housing Authority Board of Directors. Today, RHDC has no relationship to RHA after a separation several years back.
PlatFORM Group is a mission-driven, private not-for-profit corporation dedicated to using our skills and financial resources to build and extend a planning platform intended to defeat the housing affordability crisis experienced by too many working people in our community.
We asked ourselves and others; what if key stakeholders in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors naturally worked together in our community to achieve a common vision around the housing affordability crisis?
What if we all agreed that hard-working people deserved safe places to live, with access to healthcare, healthy food, education, recreation, child care, and all the other things that contribute to healthy lifestyles? What if we got together and collaborated and leveraged each other’s resources, strengths, and passion? Wouldn’t that be truly transformational?
Of course, we believe the answer is yes.
And that is exactly what we have begun to do with our South Avon Street Project. The PlatFORM Group Board of Directors (Jerry Lumpkins, Ron Clewer, Phyllis Ginestra, Chandler Anderson, and Martesha Brown) joined forces with Place Foundry and Gorman & Company in the design and construction of a 64-unit apartment property, including spaces for nonprofit offices and a child care center. It will be purpose-built to meet the needs of working individuals and families who qualify for affordable housing assistance. In addition to the affordable rental housing, the site also includes missing middle housing options including single family options.
This work is an extension of the former Ellis Heights U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Choice Neighborhoods Transformational Plan. Part of a master-planned site, the project is slated to eventually include single-family and duplex homes.
Sited at nearly a 15-acre remediated brownfield location, our Mixed-Use Avon Street project is our first aspirational brick-and-mortar catalyst for closing the housing affordability gap in the Rockford Region. This site is intentional as it is central to decades of disinvestment and aims to return hope and wealth for our neighbors and for those who choose to call our houses – home. It is intended not just to be a model for helping low-wage-earning working people and their families live healthier lives, but to promote community with its intentional design and proximity to amenities such as fresh food, early education, adjacent healthcare, and nearby employment.
“We see this as an opportunity to not only renew my neighborhood, the West Gateway/Ellis Heights community,” said PlatFORM Vice Chairman Jerry Lumpkins, “but to prove that collaboration and teamwork can lead to solutions for what is becoming an increasingly troublesome crisis here: the lack of affordable housing.”
“Through research, we realized the need for quality, affordable housing in Ellis Heights is huge,” says Clewer. “The need for social services that exist within the neighborhood – as opposed to organizations that merely visit the neighborhood – was also identified by residents. The need for childcare is pressing and its lack of, is most negatively impacting our black and brown residents. The need for after-school youth programming is important, as is access to healthy food. Our plan prioritizes all these concerns as told to us by residents in the community.”
At PlatFORM Group, it is our hope that this master-planned project on Rockford’s west side will be the beginning of the end of the affordable housing crisis that is deepening in our community.