A dozen studio apartments could be built at the former Illinois Bank & Trust building, 4048 E. State St., as part of a development plan to create affordable housing for veterans at nine sites in the Rockford area. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — An ambitious new initiative sets out to create quality affordable housing for veterans ranging from studio apartments to single-family homes at nine sites spread throughout Rockford and Cherry Valley.
Rockford Resurgence Housing Developments is a nonprofit development group led by Abdul Ahed and Mustafa Abdall that plans to create nearly 240 subsidized living units including two-bedroom townhomes and duplexes, single-family homes and studio apartments. Each site would also have either a community center or other dedicated space to help veterans access needed services.
“We want to offer them real housing,” said Abdall, vice president of Rockford Resurgence. “They deserve, when they come back from the service, their own backyard, garage, two bedrooms and living room.”
Related: District 815 plans to break ground on multiphase development in early 2025
The six locations in Rockford and three spots in Cherry Valley are all vacant land with the exception of the former Illinois Bank & Trust building at 4048 E. State St., which would be converted into a two-story apartment complex with a dozen living units. That change would require City Council approval.
The nonprofit is hosting a public meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday at Veterans Memorial Hall, 211 N. Main St., to detail its plans as it prepares to move the project forward.
6 Rockford sites
Here’s a breakdown of the six Rockford sites for veterans housing. There are also three sites in the works in Cherry Valley — two on Bell School Road and one on South Bell Valley Road — with six retail buildings, 22 duplexes and 24 townhomes.
| Where | Building type | No. of buildings | Living units |
| 5900 block Wildflower Bend | Duplex | 24 | 48 |
| 1100 S. Mulford Road | Duplex, community center | 19 | 36 |
| 900 block of Phelps Avenue | One family, community center | 20 | 19 |
| 4340 Maray Drive | Two-story apartment | 1 | 12 |
| 2550 W. Riverside Blvd. | Two-story apartment | 1 | 20 |
| 4048 E. State St. | Two-story apartment | 1 | 12 |
| Total | 66 | 147 |
Ahed, the development group’s CEO and founder, said the project’s goal go beyond housing. It also aims to foster an environment with supportive services, including mental health assistance, for the veterans who live there.
Those mental health services are key to addressing issues that lead to veterans being homeless, said Sean West, executive director of the Veterans Drop-In Center, a nonprofit that helps veterans access support services and transition into civilian life.
“Studies show that homelessness is a direct result of traumatic experiences,” West said. “Due to traumatic experiences, people look for ways to cope, which leads to bad habits. Those things are tied hand-in-hand.”
West said this approach to veterans housing “changes the narrative of how we view homelessness” because it looks at providing support for for the underlying causes rather than assigning blame to homeless people.
“Most vets join right out of high school, 18 years old, not necessarily knowing what they’re getting into or the potential mental health issues you get from experiencing trauma in the military whether that’s war or something to do with your peers in the military,” West said.
Mustafa Abdall, Raven Ross and Abdul Ahed of Rockford Resurgence are pictured on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, at the Solutions Business Center in Rockford. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)The Veterans Drop-In Center would work with the developers to provide on-site support services at the nine locations. It would also help veterans access the housing, which would be subsidized through Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing vouchers.
Ahed and Abdall “are allowing us to distribute our services not to one big site downtown, but to nine separate sites around the community, where those spaces won’t cost anyone anything,” said Eric Willard of the Veterans Drop-in Center. “It’s wonderful to have these free, distributed spaces to focus on veterans.”
Willard said if the project moves forward they would seek grant or donations to help fund the operations.
Ahed and Abdall are also behind the for-profit development venture District 815, which could bring 220 residences, a grocery store, restaurants and other businesses to land behind Forest Plaza. That project earned City Council approval this week.
They said they both have family members in the military, which inspired them to take on this project for veterans.
“People who fight for our democracy, fight to save this country and make it a safe country, we need to pay them back, they deserve to be paid back,” Abdall said.
Pending approval, Rockford Resurgence hopes it can begin its work in May.
“These are all new builds, and they’re going to be very nice and quality and make veterans feel like valuable citizens,” Willard said. “From a macro perspective, people will finally have nice places to live in that they earned through their time in the service.”
Learn more | Rockford Resurgence
What: Rockford Resurgence Housing Development will hold an informational meeting to provide details on its plans to create affordable long-term housing options for veterans and their families.
When: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21
Where: Veterans Memorial Hall, 211 N. Main St., Rockford
Online info: ProjectRRHD.com
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas