Just how much money has been spent – some might say wasted – on the Salvation Army’s fledgling homeless shelter on Ninth Street is becoming clear as Evans Construction this month filed a $340,000 lien against the property, which records in the Sangamon County recorder’s office show was purchased in 2009 for $3.4 million. Renovations of an existing building on the site that were supposed to be accomplished with a city subsidy courtesy of tax-increment financing suddenly stopped a couple months ago when Mayor Jim Langfelder suggested that there might be better places for a homeless shelter than the parcel that lies a stone’s throw from Horace Mann, which reportedly is interested in buying the land so it can be turned into a parking lot. Meanwhile, residents near the former Gold’s Gym a few blocks away are up in arms as the mayor recently has touted that building as an excellent spot for the homeless. Don Evans, owner of Evans Construction that was renovating the Ninth Street property before being called off the job, says that his company has submitted two bills for work to the Salvation Army and hasn’t seen a penny. So far as Evans knows, the Salvation Army, not the city, is on the hook. “Our claim on the property is with the Salvation Army, because that’s the one we have a contract with,” Evans said. “We don’t have any involvement with the city on this fiasco.” Langfelder, meanwhile, says that just $80,000 of work performed on the site qualifies for reimbursement under the city’s tax-increment financing program. Officials from the Salvation Army did not respond to two messages.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2016.
