Community development manager details projects, funding and risks to CDBG/HOME/ESG funding

At a commission meeting, Community Development Manager Ashley Miller presented a year-in-review of DuPage County’s Community Development Division covering the program year from April 1, 2025, through March 31, 2026, outlining completed neighborhood-investment projects, public-service awards, and several housing developments under construction or in closing.

Miller emphasized the program’s timeliness performance under HUD rules: the county must hold no more than 1.5 times its annual allocation in its treasury at the program-year end, and Miller said the timeliness ratio was at 1%, about 0.5% better than the benchmark—an outcome she described as a testament to staff, municipal partners and nonprofit partners helping move projects to completion.

Completed neighborhood-investment projects Miller named included work in Bensenville (roadway and water improvements), Addison (Janice Lane water/street work), Glendale Heights (Cambridge Lane and Westchester Drive water-main work), and West Chicago (Bishop Street water-main rehab and new street lighting). Total project costs in these examples were described as roughly $1.6 million to $2 million; CDBG contributions were commonly listed at $600,000 per project.

Miller described a capital-acquisition and rehab project with a partner cited in the transcript as “United Cable Poly Sewin of Greater Chicago” (transcript spelling garbled) that created an ADA-compliant community integrated living arrangement in Villa Park. She reported total project costs near $662,000 with about $526,000 in CDBG funding; the beneficiaries were four low-income adults with developmental disabilities.

On public-service and ESG-funded projects, Miller said Catholic Charities received $165,000 for emergency services and as of January had served 1,118 beneficiaries; DuPage County Community Services received $160,000 and reported 392 beneficiaries as of January. Miller also described tenant-based rental-assistance HOME projects: one with Catholic Charities reported at $300,000 serving 15 households (30 individuals, including 11 children) and another with DuPage PADS at $200,000 serving nine households (15 individuals, including eight children).

Miller highlighted completed and newly financed affordable-housing developments. The Alden Addison Horizon project was described as a three-story, 62-unit building for independent seniors 62 and older (57 units designated affordable; five market-rate), with total development costs reported just under $26 million and DuPage County HOME funding of $5.25 million; the county imposed an additional 20-year extended-use period for 40 years of affordability.

Looking ahead, Miller described four neighborhood-investment projects expected to be completed in the upcoming construction season (Glendale Heights, Addison, West Chicago and Warrenville), each forecast to receive $600,000 in CDBG funds, and a Full Circle Communities project in Glen Ellyn (42 units, 10 county HOME-funded units, 26 project-based vouchers) with estimated development costs just under $22 million and $1.75 million in county HOME funds. Miller said financial closing occurred in mid-March 2026 and construction had recently begun, with full lease-up anticipated in August 2027.

Committee members asked for clarifications about specific allocation amounts and timing for a future HOME funding round. Miller said all current HOME funds are conditionally committed and that a new round would depend on future funding availability. A member asked about a reported $10 million for 'missing middle housing'; Miller clarified it was not a federal grant but a county general-fund set-aside—$5 million for down-payment assistance and $5 million for affordable housing programs—and that it was part of an initiative associated with Chair Conroy.

Near the meeting’s close, a participant warned that the president’s initial 2027 budget proposal would zero out CDBG, HOME and ESG funding; presenters encouraged members to contact federal representatives because Congress determines final appropriations.

Miller’s presentation included project images and cost breakdowns and concluded with an invitation for questions. The transcript contains several numeric and proper-name fragments that are garbled in the record; where amounts or names were unclear in the transcript, the article notes those as reported in the audio rather than substituting corrected figures.