CHICAGO HEIGHTS | A $492,000 federal grant earmarked for a transitional housing center for the homeless could be lost.

The City Council, earlier this week, denied an application from the Rev. John Rice to rezone nine parcels of land at 1330 Portland Ave. and 1327-1331 Shields Ave.

The grant was awarded to the Bethel Community Facility, which already operates a year-round, overnight shelter at 1250 Portland.

Rice, pastor of St. Bethel Baptist Church in Chicago Heights, had hoped to construct a new facility that would provide job training and allow those in need to live several months or more at the center while they save money for and find their own housing.

On Monday, the City Council unanimously accepted the decision of the Zoning Board of Appeals not to change the zoning of the land from a single-family residential district to a general family residential district.

Fifth Ward Alderman Lisa Aprati was not present.

Chicago Heights Corporation Counsel Thomas "T.J." Somer told the council that if built, the center would house about 20 people in a residential district and create a "hotel-like" atmosphere while "drastically change the characteristic of the neighborhood."

Comments at a public hearing came down against the center being built, he said.

"There were people who live there saying, 'Don't you dare do that,'" Somer said.

Rice painted a different picture, and said a community meeting brought out more than 100 residents who "voted a hundred percent for our project."

"We think that the city has another agenda," Rice said. "I think that their agenda is really not to see growth or new buildings on the east side."

Bethel program director Tonii Harris-Taylor said that although she believes the grant will be salvaged, as long as another suitable location can be found in Cook County, "our dream was to ... have it in a community where 80 percent or better of our clients are from this general area."