Public bus, housing accessibility a priority for DeKalb, officials say

DeKALB – A panel joining local housing and transportation leaders Tuesday highlighted the various ways they are working to meet the accessibility needs of DeKalb-area residents.

It was all part of a community listening session hosted and moderated by Jessica Wexell of RAMP, a Rockford-based community organization dedicated to advocating on behalf of people with disabilities.

By federal statute, the city of DeKalb is required to have a dial-a-ride option for running a fixed-route public transit system.

Officials said paratransit services run 24 hours a day.

“If you’re approved for paratransit, you can get a call and get a ride anytime,” said Brian Van Hine, DeKalb’s assistant transit manager. “But you’ve got to set it up with everything.”

Some leaders acknowledged that issues could arise on public transportation.

Transdev Services Inc. general manager Ryan Neale said complaints aren’t taken lightly. Transdev is a private multinational company that leases buses to the city of DeKalb and Northern Illinois University, which operate public transit routes across the area.

“We take every bit of information that comes to us very seriously,” Neale said.

Van Hine said there are a lot of ways for people to make their voices heard beyond exchanging impersonal emails.

Van Hine said the city is in the process of updating its fleet by purchasing some new buses, a plan meant to make the transit system more accessible to everyone.

“They’re rather expensive, if you didn’t know,” Van Hine said of the buses. “A pure electric bus is like $1.3 million for a 35-footer. A hybrid electric diesel is $900,000, so it’s not going and taking out a simple loan. We’re also in the process of trying to build a [municipal transit] facility.”

As for the bus routes, Van Hine said he believes the city is doing its part to create greater efficiencies.

“We fixed a lot of the bigger problems,” Van Hine said. “But again, if stuff comes to us, we can always look at it. That’s how the [Route] 19 got changed. Before, it was four different routes depending on what time of day.”

DeKalb also has maintained the current fare rates despite pressure to raise them, he said.

“There’s been pushes to raise the fare structure, and we’re comfortable where we are,” Van Hine said. “The fare system doesn’t make us any money.”

Local housing accessibility

Also at the community listening session, leaders shared information about issues, needs and changes affecting the accessibility of local housing for area residents.

The DeKalb County Housing Authority is currently at capacity, officials said, with 580 housing choice vouchers, 20 for veterans and six for domestic violence victims.

Diana Carr, admissions manager at the county’s Housing Authority, said the voucher waiting list has about 3,500 people.

“We haven’t selected off the waiting list since February,” Carr said. “[We] don’t intend to for at least a couple of months.”

But Carr said public housing is a different story.

She referenced rentals such as those at Taylor Street Plaza, Civic Apartments, Garden Estates, Lewis Court and Mason Court.

“The turnover on those is significant,” Carr said. “We usually have more on [them] because there’s more of those. But we have turnover on those consistently throughout the year. [The] last selection we’ve done on those was roughly two, three weeks ago. We still have a lot of units processing for those. But anytime there’s a vacancy to fill, we make a selection, so there’s not standing vacancies at any of these properties.”