Lawson House Reopens, Bringing Back 400 Affordable Micro Apartments To Gold Coast

DOWNTOWN — More than 400 affordable micro apartments are now open in the Gold Coast after a two-year renovation of the former Lawson House YMCA.

The 24-story art deco building, 30 W. Chicago Ave., was once the largest single-room-occupancy building in the city, with 583 apartments. It has been transformed into 406 micro apartments for low-income renters. The $128 million project in the heart of the Gold Coast includes amenities, on-site social services and a ground-floor retail space for lease.

Rooms are 145-160 square feet with a kitchenette and a bathroom, something the previous apartments did not have. Each unit is furnished with a twin bed, drawers, kitchen table and chairs.

All apartments have accessible features, like lower countertop heights and shower seats. One-fourth of the rooms are fully accessible with removable kitchen base cabinets, accessible showers and visual fire alarms.

Part of the 19th floor roof is being converted into a rooftop terrace to be used as a program space for social service organizations as well as common shared space for residents, developers have said.

There is also onsite laundry, a gym, storage and a residential lounge on each floor.

The Lawson House partially reopened in January, moving about 200 residents into completed floors.

Andy Muentes, one of those residents, moved to Chicago in 2019 and became homeless after his relationship ended, he said. Muentes lived at Pacific Garden Mission until he was given a room at the Lawson House, he said. At the time, Lawson House was single-room occupancy without private bathrooms or kitchens.

“Once I got in here, it was nice to have my own place again. But some things were a little rough: sharing … communal bathrooms and showers. … We were dealing with COVID at the time,” Muentes said.

Muentes was temporarily relocated while the Lawson House was under construction in 2021, and he moved back in January.

“I was really looking forward to coming back here. … I didn’t know what to expect, but as soon as I got here … there’s no other way to put it other than fantastic,” he said.

Mayor Brandon Johnson was joined by Tracy Scott, CEO of the Chicago Housing Authority; Lissette Casteñeda, commissioner of the Department of Housing; Sendy Soto, the city’s new chief homelessness officer; and other officials at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the building Monday morning.

Johnson reiterated his commitment to fighting homelessness by announcing Soto’s appointment. He also seemingly hit back at those who opposed the Bring Chicago Home referendum to generate funding for homelessness services. The referendum failed earlier this month.

“If my advocacy is defiant, what does that say about the systems that wish to keep people without dignity? … I call it wicked. So that’s why we are demonstrating in the first few months of this administration that we are committed to ending homelessness,” Johnson said.

The Lawson House first operated as a full-service hotel with social services to help people through the Great Depression before shifting to housing after World War II.

The building was sold to developer Peter Holsten in 2014 for $1 with an agreement to keep the building as affordable housing for at least 50 years. The renovation was completed by Holsten Real Estate Development Corporation and Holsten Human Capital Development.

A total of 322 apartments will be rented out using subsidies:

• 122 apartments will be allocated for Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund rental subsidies.
• 100 will rented through Chicago Housing Authority project-based vouchers.
• 100 will be rented through Project-Based Rental Assistance under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Lawson tenants with any of these subsidies will not spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent, according to developers and the Chicago Housing Authority.

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