Local nonprofit to transform The Auberge site into housing co-op for adults with disabilities

Highland Park will soon see its first co-op dedicated to housing adults with disabilities. 

The Collaborative Community Housing Initiative, a local nonprofit, obtained a special use permit from the City of Highland Park this week and is officially launching its capital campaign today, Friday, July 18, to fundraise for renovations to a former memory care facility at 1651 Richfield Ave. in Highland Park.

Once renovations complete in April 2026, the building will reopen as the CCHI Commons, a 50-unit apartment complex with dedicated spaces for social activities for adults living with physical and intellectual disabilities.

Laurie Mansfield Williams, a parent of an adult with disabilities, created the CCHI with her husband in 2018 after noticing a lack of supportive resources in Illinois. She said there are thousands of adults with disabilities in Highland Park who lack access to community-driven assisted-living. 

“We’re giving families an option for a future,” Williams said. “That’s not just a future with a roof over their head, it’s a future of community living, of friendship, of having a vibrant life and having great living options, not just having a room in a house.”

The co-op will offer a mix of ADA-compliant studio and one-bedroom apartments, as well as opportunities for residents to gain vocational training and social enrichment through community spaces they requested, such as a teaching kitchen, fitness center, art studio and sensory room. 

Williams said that individuals with disabilities often lose the chance to regularly socialize with peers once they graduate from school unless they live in a group home. 

But the CCHI Commons will be special in that, besides a few staff members, the residence will be member owned and operated. This mirrors the nonprofit’s existing framework where families with individuals in the CCHI are part owners and required to help facilitate activities.  

Lynn Mohr, a CCHI member and parent of an adult with a disability, said the co-op will diminish isolation among adults with disabilities and ensure members have control over its environment.

Social activities will include enjoying movie nights, singing karaoke and watching sports games together.

“One thing I really like about this community, it’s family owned and family directed, so we can help guide the path that is best for our child and not have somebody else make those decisions for us,” Mohr said.

By banding together, families can leverage their shared needs to obtain better support services and personalize how each resident accesses them. CCHI partners with other organizations like Keshet, JCFS, TotalLink to Community, Glenkirk and MyHappy Life. 

Williams said that CCHI has been looking to acquire a physical location for its activities for years, but nine previous properties all fell through before the nonprofit acquired the former memory unit in March this year.

Highland Park City Council voted unanimously on July 14 to rezone the building’s lot from commercial to special use. 

Friday’s event outside the building marks the beginning of the nonprofit’s capital campaign as it seeks $2.7 million to refurbish what used to be The Auberge at Highland Park memory unit. Construction is estimated to begin in October, though renovations are already underway, Williams said. 

“I felt like we’ve hit a momentum and we’re right at that tipping point,” Mohr said. “We’ve had ramped-up interest in the last month and things are just coming together with people donating their time and support.”

“The more people hear about us, the more they want to be involved,” Williams added, “which makes me very hopeful that this continues to be a community hub and something that the entire community is involved in.”

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