Joliet housing authority has plans for Heritage Place

The Housing Authority of Joliet is making plans to redevelop its Heritage Place public housing project as it gets almost $2.7 million in federal funding.

The project still is about two years away, HAJ CEO Michael Simelton said. But HAJ plans to demolish the existing building and redevelop it the way it has at other public housing projects to create the Water’s Edge and Liberty Landing communities.

Heritage Place at 420 N. Bluff St. was formerly known as the John O. Holmes building. It contains about 170 residential units.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, this week announced federal funding for housing authorities in Joliet and others parts of her 14th District.

The money will be used to “build, renovate and modernize public housing,” according to a news release from Underwood’s office.

Simelton said the $2.7 million is HAJ’s annual federal allocation for capital projects.

“It’s definitely more than we expected to get, which I’m happy about,” he said.

The funding is an annual allocation used to make improvements at HAJ buildings.

“Our plan will be to continue to reimagine the housing systems that we manage in a different light,” Simelton said.