City of South Bend moves forward with demolition and redevelopment of vacant Rabbi Shulman apartment building, formerly public housing

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- Nearly four years after the shutdown of the Rabbi Shulman apartment building in South Bend, the city is moving forward with plans to finally demolish, and eventually redevelop, the site across from Four Winds Field.

A 2021 gas leak forced out all the tenants in the building. The Housing Authority of South Bend chose not to renovate, saying the building was too dilapidated, so it's sat empty since. That's left a big gap in the community, which now needs more affordable housing.

The City of South Bend is finally moving forward with plans to demolish the structure, after receiving approval and appropriation of funds from the Redevelopment Commission on Oct. 9. It will be a process because of asbestos on-site, but should start sometime next month.

It's a $1.5 million undertaking, with much of that coming from various grant awards. In fact, the city expects to be reimbursed for the funds appropriated to move forward.

ABC57's Annie Kate caught up with Vernice Rogers, who lived in the building from 2004 through 2010. Now she says she's a resident commissioner on the housing authority's board, and says she's glad to see the building come down.

"Nothing worked, Everything was falling apart. I complained about it. Nothing was ever done," Rogers said. "They should've torn it down a long time ago if you ask me."

After the building comes down, the city will work with the housing authority and the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County to develop a new, mixed-income housing structure, a multi-million dollar investment. It includes bringing about 205 units online in phase one, replacing both the Rabbi Shulman building and the Monroe Circle Apartments.

A portion of those units, about 30 percent, will replace the aforementioned lost units and will be public housing, according to a presentation from Caleb Bauer at Thursday's Redevelopment Commission meeting. Another portion will be low-income-qualified units, and the rest, another will be market-rate.

"I guess they're going to make it worth living, I guess," Rogers said. "They're going to be doing a lot of stuff, they're going to have market rent and low-income rent at the same time, so it'll be interesting to see how all that works out."