The Application Process: Part I

Last week, I received the email below from one of my high school friends, Colette; she lives with her husband in a suburb 30-ish miles from Chicago, in the house where they raised their family.

She and I are part of a group of nine high school friends who keep in pretty regular touch. Plus which she reads my blog. Her email makes reference to my March 3 post, where I write about dropping off an application for an affordable senior apartment at North Park Village in Chicago.

“Keep us posted on your application….Actually, I didn't know that you'd have to go thru an application process.  Just wondering what the criteria is.”

And so I thought, now there’s an appropriate topic for a blog post (or two): what are the criteria for applying for affordable senior housing in Chicago?

So in Part I, I’m just going to list all the places I stopped in at and/or applied for, most on the far north side of Chicago where I currently live, starting in Uptown and going north, more or less following the Red Line. I also looked at some west of there, and one west and south of the Loop.

In no particular order:

The Pomeroy

Morningside Court

The Pines of Edgewater

Nathalie Salmon House

Hollywood House

Thorndale Manor

North Park Village

Levy House

Kenmore Apartments

Judge Fisher

Caroline Hedger Apartments

Kenmore Plaza

Johnston R Bowman Residential Apartments

Farwell-Jarvis Apartments

Thorndale Manor

Harry J. Schneider Apartments

Friendly Towers

Belle Shore

William Castleman Apartments

In The Application Process: Part II, I will describe how and why these particular 19 buildings; whether or not I filled out an application; and, if so, what kind of information was requested in them.

So stay tuned, especially those readers who might themselves eventually seek affordable senior housing, or know someone who might. Forearmed is forewarned: there is an affordable housing crisis in Chicago--and beyond--including for seniors.