Today’s 27-item-long Housing Committee agenda includes about $75,000 in city-owned land sales, seven Board of Education property acceptances, and a $1 lease to Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS) for a community triage center in the city’s Roseland community.

The Cook County Board approved the $1 lease agreement with CCHHS at the end of last month. CCHHS would use a roughly 10,000 square foot space at the Chicago Department of Public Health’s Roseland Clinic (200 E. 115th Street) for a community triage center, where police can drop off arrestees they believe are suffering from mental health issues for treatment rather than taking them to jail.

Dr. Jay Shannon, CEO of CCHHS, testified the triage centers are intended to “reduce costs in correctional health and reduce the human misery index,” for arrestees who might otherwise be sent to emergency rooms or the Cook County Jail. If this pilot program is successful, CCHHS plans to open as many as five additional centers. Another lease agreement allowing the Cook County Department of Corrections  use of the West Town Neighborhood Health Center “for the provision of mental health services to ex-offenders” is also up for committee consideration. The 10-year, $1 lease is for about 750 square feet of clinical office space.

The committee will also vote on a handful of property moves from the Board of Education:

• O2016-2526 - the conveyance of 7.34 acres of green open space to the Chicago Park District.
• O2016-2507 - the site of Crispus Attucks Elementary School in Bronzeville, which closed in 2008. 
• O2016-2505 -  used in connection with the Yale School Elementary, which closed in 2013.
• O2016-2504 - a bundling of sites once utilized by Metcalfe and McCosh schools that the Board of Ed no longer needs.
• O2016-2483 - the site of Von Humboldt Elementary, which closed in 2013. It was one of four shuttered Humboldt Park Chicago Public Schools.
• O2016-2472 - the former site of Powell School, which relocated to a new school building nearby. The site is currently occupied by Excel Academy of South Shore.
• O2016-2461 - the former site of Davis Developmental School, which relocated to a new building.