From the WNBA Court to West Englewood: Former Pro Baller Champions Affordable Housing at Historic School Site

By Socialhood News · Il/Chicago/West Englewood · May 3, 2026

West Englewood has a new kind of power forward — and she's working off the court. Devereaux Peters, a former professional basketball player who suited up for the Minnesota Lynx, Indiana Fever, and Phoenix Mercury, has pivoted her competitive drive into a mission that hits closer to home: redeveloping the long-vacant former Bontemps Elementary School in West Englewood into a landmark affordable housing development.

The proposed project would bring 72 units of multifamily housing alongside 60 units dedicated to senior residents — a two-generation approach to tackling the neighborhood's housing gap. Peters recently received a major boost when the Bontemps Apartments project was awarded federal low-income housing tax credits through the City of Chicago, part of Mayor Brandon Johnson's broader $300 million affordable housing push covering 15 developments citywide. Peters is also a participant in the statewide Next Generation Capacity Building Initiative, led by the Illinois Housing Development Authority and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, which equips emerging developers with the tools to see complex projects through. She's drawing on hard-won lessons from a 57-unit mixed-use development she recently broke ground on in South Bend, Indiana — and applying that experience to move the Bontemps project forward as quickly as possible.

For a neighborhood where Bontemps Elementary was one of nearly 50 schools shuttered in the painful 2013 CPS mass closings, seeing its former building reborn as a place of stability and community is deeply meaningful. Want to follow the project's journey? Keep an eye on updates through ragenglewood.org and the Illinois Housing Development Authority.

Sources:
1. https://news.wttw.com/2026/05/01/former-wnba-champion-leads-affordable-housing-development-effort-west-englewood