In hopes that other developers and building owners will do the same, Marty Cerney of Chicago Greystone is pushing a plan to provide 12 affordable, handicapped accessible apartments in Rogers Park.

The units, one and two bedroom apartments, will rent for $745 and $945 a month. The unused basement space will be transformed into totally accessible living space, complete with extra wide doors, bars in the bathrooms, thoughtful layouts, and ramps or lifts in the entryways that will be separate from those used by the other residents.

Cerny unveiled the plan earlier this month at a community meeting sponsored by Alderman Joe Moore (49th).

Cerny said to the audience of community members, leaders, non-profit organization representatives, and disabled people, 'I promise they'll be terrific and well thought out. I am excited by my role as a company and I am humbled by it.'

He has worked with several organizations including Trilogy, O.N.E., Housing Opportunities, Access Living, and Section 8. He has also been in consultation with the Mayors Office of People with Disabilities to determine what would be needed in the units and what types of subsidies and grants are available for potential residents.

Cerny, whose company owns eight buildings in Rogers Park with over two hundred units, has built and sold over forty-eight condos and has fifty more in the planning stage.

Chicago Greystone will work with income eligible residents to take advantage of subsidies offered by the Illinois Housing Trust Fund.

When the meeting was open to questions, a much different picture emerged. Dave Star, who lives behind one of the buildings Chicago Greystone wants to use for the apartments, stood up and said, 'We must talk to you about garbage, not using large dumpsters in the streets (for your rehabs). You're using the tenant's garbage cans. This is now a waste transfer site.'

According to Star, who produced a set of pictures, the garbage from one of the rehabs is being carted to the other building and dumped in city garbage cans. 'You're coming before this group to add tenants and you're not managing what you have... It's like Beirut in the nineties.'

Rose Green of Trilogy applauded Cerny saying she had clients who couldn't find a place to live due to discrimination. 'I met Marty (Cerny) and we haven't had discrimination since then.'

In response to a question, Cerny revealed the units that use lifts will have ramps at the back door so residents aren't endangered in the event of a power failure. The building that uses lifts has a janitorial staff in the building across the way.

Questions were raised regarding the commitment to keeping the units affordable for ten years should the developer decide to sell the building. Zoning attorney Thomas Moore explained that they will be using restricted covenants to ensure their promise is kept. By using restricted covenants, the requirement that it will be affordable for ten years will become part of the title.

Many people, as is always the case in high density Rogers Park, raised the issue of parking. A Trilogy staff member assured the people that the vast majority of their clients do not own cars.

People that spoke against the project were more concerned about the management of the buildings rather than the idea of accessible housing. One suggested they postpone the date they will go before the zoning board to give Cerny time to correct the existing problems and prove himself to the neighbors.