Housing

Rental vs. Home Ownership

Construction of affordable rental housing has been de-prioritized throughout the past few years as Chicago has focused instead of promoting single-family home ownership. City of Chicago programs aimed at creating affordable housing have been ill-supervised and often served as profit-making ventures rather than providing reprieves for people in need. more

Impact of Foreclosure Trend

Chicago has been hit hard by the recent foreclosure crisis: more than 40,000 homes have been put into foreclosure since the beginning of 2008. At the same time, many multi-unit apartment buildings have also been foreclosed, resulting in the eviction of thousands of city renters. more

Public Housing

The Chicago Housing Authority’s 10-Year Plan for Transformation—now in its final year—proposed that mixedincome development with private sector investment would be used to offset public housing costs. In reality, scores of public housing units have been destroyed before replacement housing was constructed. Many former public housing residents were additionally rendered ineligible for CHA assistance as a result of modifications to CHA policy. The city has attempted to acquire funding from philanthropic foundations and the federal government to offset decreased private sector investment. However, currently there is no mechanism for tracking how many former public housing residents have been displaced in the process. more

Homelessness

The realities of homelessness in the City of Chicago have shifted as more and more families are finding themselves on the streets. The city’s lack of investment in resources has compelled advocates serving the homeless to look to the state for funding, but recent state cutbacks have strapped many homeless assistance providers. The City of Chicago has no real means for keeping track of the number of people who have been made homeless. The city has even discouraged homeless service providers from acquiring detailed data. In addition, many families have been doubling or tripling up, making counting the homeless even more difficult. more

Stimulating Whose Economy?

The city's long-standing relationship with Mercy Housing, Inc. isn't the only partnership that will prosper from stimulus money. The proposed individual tax credits are connected to the same networks that have been engaged with the city since the beginning but are skittish about risking their own money without the additional safeguards provided by public funds. Another component of the Find Your Place Program, for instance, is the TaxSmart Mortgage Credit Certificate, which is offered by the city in partnership with local lenders to give an individual a federal income tax credit of up to 20 percent of the interest they pay on their mortgage. Some of these banks are listed as municipal depositories for the City of Chicago; however, there are no requirements as of yet for any of these banks to assist with the provision of affordable housing. More than that, these incentives are offered only to first-time homebuyers, or individuals who have not owned a home in the past three years, which means that a person or a family that has lost a home due to the recent private housing market meltdown is not included in the city's proposal. At this time, there are no publicly accessible records that show which banks are accumulating the majority of the foreclosed properties.34 more

Co-Operative Housing

Co-operative housing support in Chicago has dwindled over the years even as economic realities have forced many families and individuals into de facto cooperatives. Since 2004, the city of Chicago has only twice invested in cooperative housing development and has no stated goals for cooperative housing development in its 2009-2013 plan for economic growth. more

Housing for Disabled Residents

Chicago has not provided sufficient amount of affordable, accessible and integrated housing for people with disabilities who receive SSI or SSDI and whose incomes are below 10% of the area media income. The need is evident in the number of people with disabilities who are in nursing homes or homeless because of the increase in housing costs.

Providers in the private rental market continue to grossly discriminate against people with disabilities. In 2004 the Urban Institute – under contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – worked in partnership with Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago to design, and conduct the study “Discrimination Against Persons With Disabilities: Barriers At Every Step.” The study, which was released in 2005, focused on the Chicago area private rental housing market and its treatment of people with physical disabilities and people with hearing impairments. The findings were based on more than 200 tests where people with and without disabilities posed as applicants for rental units. The findings showed that people with disabilities were discriminated against more than any other protected class. more

Thinking Outside the Box

Decreased federal assistance in affordable housing development encourages non-government organizations to take the lead. This is where the Chicago Community Loan Fund plays a role. The Chicago Community Loan Fund was created in 1991 and has provided over $36 million in 160 low-interest loans to nonprofit business, commercial/retail space, industrial and social service facilities, and affordable housing initiatives like Stone Soup Cooperative in Uptown, which secured a first loan at $355,000 in 2000.47 more