Ask Jeanne Caswell what she likes best about living at the Juniper Tower senior high-rise in Park Forest and she’s likely to respond she values living independently.

“I can go and come as I want. I have a car, I still drive,” said the 80-year-old, who has developed close friendships with several other residents.

Caswell is also excited about planned upgrades to the 10-story facility, the first in the 19 years she’s lived there. Those include fresh interior paint, new appliances including a stove and refrigerator, and window replacements.

The upgrades are a dream come true for Caswell, who can’t imagine living anywhere else.

“The next time I move, they’re gonna have to carry me out,” she said.

Juniper Tower is one of five Housing Authority of Cook County sites due to receive major infrastructure upgrades. The others are Golden Towers in Chicago Heights, Turlington West Senior Apartments in Harvey and Edward Brown Senior Apartments and Richard Flowers Homes, both in Robbins.

The $75 million project will upgrade 456 housing apartments for senior and disabled residents and 100 units for families. Some personal living quarters, such as Caswell’s apartment, will receive new appliances, along with repairs, maintenance and, in some cases, improved handicap access.

But all of the residents will benefit with improved common areas, where work primarily will address long-deferred repair, maintenance and access issues. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in December.

Junior McReynolds, 66, who recently lost his wife to cancer, is among the select group of Edward Brown residents looking forward to a new window air conditioning unit and new appliances as part of the rehabilitation project, which includes converting several of the 78 units in his complex to units designed for those with visual and hearing impairments.

McReynolds was on the verge of becoming homeless due to medical bills related to triple bypass surgery when he moved in to the Edward Brown facility in 2017. The apartment has “been a blessing for me,” he said.

A few blocks away, the rehabilitation of the Richard Flowers Homes, where Lena Cobbins and her three children have lived for 18 months, includes converting 17 units from two-story townhouses into apartments, making nine ground-level units handicap-accessible and adapting two units to better accommodate tenants with visual and hearing impairments.

The attached community center will offer training and classes in workforce development and family self-sufficiency as well as after-school activities. Cobbins, who moved from Aurora to Richard Flowers, said her appreciation of Richard Flowers includes the area’s transportation and job opportunities as well as the schools. “It is a big, big difference,” she said.

Richard Monocchio, executive director of the county’s housing agency, said the improvements represent the largest rehabilitation project the housing authority has undertaken since 2005 and the largest rehabilitation of affordable housing in the south suburbs at one time. It’s also the first project funded through tax and private investment revenue in a collaboration among Cook County, the Illinois Housing Development Authority and BMO Harris Bank.

By “layering seven to eight different funding sources,” including tax credit equity and state and county grants, “we cobbled together the funding necessary to pull this off,” Monocchio said. That “complicated” approach was prompted by anticipated budget cuts at the federal Housing and Urban Development level coupled with concerns that federal housing tax credit financing would be unavailable or drastically reduced.

Monocchio said residents are able to remain in their buildings during construction, though many, including Caswell in Park Forest, have had to temporarily move to another apartment in the building.

“You name it, we have to take it,” she said, already counting the days until she can unpack her belongings in her upgraded living quarters. “They said two weeks and then I’ll be back.”

Dennis Sullivan is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.