Volunteers of America Illinois on Tuesday celebrated the start of construction on Joliet apartments for women recovering from opioid addictions, a project that Mayor Terry D’Arcy said spurred his decision to run for mayor.

The 48-unit housing complex is being built on the old Silver Cross Hospital campus.

Construction actually started in July. But the groundbreaking ceremony brought attention to the fact that the project is on the way.

Volunteers of America (VOA) Illinois President and CEO Nancy Hughes Moyer said she considered foregoing the groundbreaking ritual altogether in light of tragic events nationally in the past few weeks.

“It feels really good right now to be able to be part of something that is going to bring so much good to the world,” Hughes Moyer said at the ceremony.

The apartments will provide housing for women, particularly those with children, trying to recover from opioid addictions.

The project faced resistance from City Hall under previous Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, and Volunteers of America Illinois dropped the plan in January 2022.

Moyer credited D’Arcy’s election to mayor as the reason the project was revived.

She called D’Arcy “probably the one person without whom the project would not have come off the shelf after 2022.”

D’Arcy at the ceremony said he ran in mayor in large part because of the opposition at City Hall to Hope Manor Village.

“I would not be here as mayor had it not been for this project,” D’Arcy said. “This is one of the reasons I chose to get into public service.”

D’Arcy, a new car dealer, said he met with other business leaders to talk about a change in leadership at City Hall after the Hope Manor Village plan was blocked.

“I said, ‘Somebody’s got to run for mayor. We’ve got to change the temperature here,’” D’Arcy said.

O’Dekirk and previous City Manager James Capparelli argued that Joliet was the home of too many social programs providing housing and other services. They said more of the programs should be located elsewhere in the county.

Hope Manor Village is being built on Copperfield Avenue, across the street from Hope Manor Joliet, an apartment complex opened by VOA Illinois in 2017 for homeless veterans.

The land for Hope Manor Village was donated by Silver Cross Hospital.

The former hospital campus now is the site of several several social service and medical facilities, including the Joliet Veterans Affairs Clinic.

Hughes Moyer said the first apartments are likely to open in late summer 2026.