Need for renovations in historic Family Focus building causes group, other tenants to relocate
Over the past few years, failed renovation efforts of Family Focus’s historic property has led to about a dozen other groups leasing space in the building to relocate, including Family Focus itself.
Family Focus, the Evanston-based group which offers social services such as early childhood home visiting, a family advocacy center, after-school programs and a Grandparents-raising-Grandchildren program, has owned the building at 2010 Dewey Ave since 1982.
Built in 1905, the property once served as the original Foster School, serving Black students in the Fifth Ward before shuttering in 1979 and being leased by and eventually owned by Family Focus.
By 2022, the building’s facilities had been deteriorating at an expensive rate that the city allocated $3 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for Family Focus “to rehabilitate its deteriorating facility at 2010 Dewey Avenue and to continue to provide services to residents of the 5th Ward and adjacent west Evanston neighborhoods,” a staff memo at the time said.
But after over a year of work, Family Focus “determined that their rehabilitation/redevelopment plan was not feasible because they were unable to raise the additional funding required, ranging from $17 million to $41 million,” the memo said.
“There was no way,” Dottie Johnson, chief financial operator of Family Focus said. “That is nearly double our operating budget. There’s no way we could have raised that on our own.”
As a result, Family Focus and all the additional tenants that worked in the building were forced to relocate.
In September, Family Focus moved to the space at 1601-07 Simpson St., according to Johnson.
“We were very happy to be able to find a location in the Fifth Ward which would literally keep us in the community and continue to provide the same level services that we had been providing, and actually expanded,” Johnson said. “I mean, our welcoming Center has grown by leaps and bounds and is servicing families, not only in Evanston, but farther north and to the west.”
Family Focus’s services like their doula, home-visiting and after-school programs have carried over to the new location, and the organization has not seen a drop off in the nearly 700 children and families that the group serves annually, she said.
Johnson said all of the organizations that leased space in the Dewey Ave. building relocated before September because Family Focus gave them advance notice beginning in February.
Nine tenants moved out of the old facility in June 2025, though by then some of those groups were only using the space for storage, according to Johnson.
Four tenants were offering services within the building, and all but one have since relocated to a new space in Evanston, except for Aunt Martha’s Health & Wellness’s juvenile justice program, which closed their Evanston branch.
Northwestern University’s Maker Circle, Open Studio Project’s Art therapy have also continued programs since June at different locations.
One of the largest programs in the building, Kingsway Preparatory School, founded in 2015 by educator and local religious leader Tamara Hadaway, moved after 10 years in the space to Faith Temple Church of Christ, located a block away at 1932 Dewey Ave.
Other groups that moved out in June were only leasing space for storage, according to Johnson, included:
- Delta Sigma Theta Sorority (storage only)
- Evanston Jr. Wildkits Football (storage only)
- Haitian Congress to Fortify Haiti (storage only)
- NAACP Evanston/North Shore Branch (storage only)
- AWE Sauce Hot Sauce (commercial kitchen space only)
Even before Family Focus notified tenants about the condition of the building in February, some had moved out. In 2024, Evanston Cradle to Careers, the Infant Welfare Society’s Teen Baby Nursery, and The McGaw YMCA relocated.
Additionally, AFSCME Local 1891 also moved out in 2024 though they were only leasing the space for storage, Johnson said.
Currently, the city of Evanston has begun pitching alternatives to redevelop the old building on Dewey Avenue, which now sits vacant.
During a City Council meeting last month, council members were planning on taking a vote to approve a public Request for Proposals to redevelop the building, which was pushed until Monday Dec. 8 after an amendment from Fifth Ward Councilmember Bobby Burns.
“Fifth Ward residents will have a defined role in the review of proposals to ensure community priorities are reflected in the selection process,” Burns said at the meeting on Nov. 24. “I know with the skate park, for example, we had skaters that participated in that review panel.”
Since Family Focus still owns the building, Johnson said she was glad to have the City Council be involved in the redevelopment process.
“We are not in the business of property redevelopment, but are willing to work with the city,” Johnson said. “I’m glad that Bobby Burns asked or indicated that he was willing to help assist in finding developers who would be willing to do this or work with this building.”
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