January 22, 2007

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley reported on the city’s 2006 accomplishments in affordable housing. They include a new five-year senior housing plan, progress on the Plan to End Homelessness and changes to the New Homes for Chicago program.

Daley said 2006 was a successful year and that Chicago made significant strides in expanding affordable housing by working with all of the city’s housing partners citywide to help more Chicagoans gain access to affordable housing.

In 2006, the Department of Housing (DOH) made measurable progress towards meeting its affordable housing goals. Outcomes of all housing programs include investments in affordable rental housing, homeownership opportunities, home improvement, service-enhanced housing to help the homeless and incentives for private developers to create more affordable housing.

DOH is now in the third year of its ambitious five year plan Build, Preserve, Lead that will commit $1.9 billion in resources for 48,000 affordable units by 2008. In 2006, DOH estimates that it will have committed over $485 million in resources to support more than 11,700 units of housing.

Through the third quarter of 2006, DOH committed over $283 million in funds to support over 8,800 units, which represents 78 percent of the 2006 unit goal and 73 percent of the 2006 resource allocation goal.

Through its two previous five-year plans and other programs, DOH has helped to support 125,000 units of affordable housing in the city with $3.7 billion expended since 1989.

The city has made significant strides towards increasing homeownership. Programs like TaxSmart and New Homes for Chicago were expected to assist more than 1,500 families with nearly $107 million in commitments from the city. In the first quarter of 2006, DOH made changes to the New Homes program that will make it more attractive to potential developers and first-time homebuyers by focusing subsidies on those who need them the most and using Downtown Density Bonus funds to encourage construction in difficult-to-develop areas of Chicago.

The return of the City Mortgage Program has been successful in the current environment of rising interest costs. In May and December, Daley introduced ordinances supporting the issuance of up to $100 million in single-family mortgage revenue bonds to underwrite the cost of and to continue the program for first-time homebuyers. Since 1996, City Mortgage has provided $409 million to help over 3,800 families and individuals become homeowners.

Preservation and rehabilitation initiatives such as Home Repairs for Accessible and Independent Living, TIF Neighborhood Improvement Program and Emergency Housing Assistance Program included a commitment of $18.7 million to the improvement of housing citywide.

A new five-year senior housing plan announced in early 2006, which calls for the construction of 4,000 new units of housing by 2010 by aggressively pursuing available resources and working closely with public and private sector partners.

The plan identifies community areas with the greatest need for different types of senior housing so the various needs of seniors can be met, from affordable independent living apartments for low-income seniors to supportive living facilities.

The Troubled Buildings Initiative, a unique program that integrates several preservation strategies to restore atrisk buildings to viable status and prevent them from becoming abandoned, has assisted more than 4,200 rental units since its inception in 2003. Chicago was one of nine cities awarded the prestigious 2006 Award for Municipal Excellence from the National League of Cities for the initiative. The award honors outstanding programs that improve the quality of life in America’s communities.

Also in 2006, the city initiated the preservation of more than 3,000 units through our efforts on the Lawndale Restoration project and the Chicago Equity Fund portfolio.

The city also reported progress on the Plan to End Homelessness. In the last year alone, more than 6,900 households have avoided the shelter system, twice as many as in 2003. The City has also phased out 1,900 emergency shelter beds and replaced them with more than 1,500 permanent housing units and more than 1,500 interim housing units.

Also in 2006, additional funding from the Statewide Rental Subsidy Support Program was made available to support the city’s Low Income Housing Trust Fund. The trust fund serves the city’s lowest-income households through rental subsidies to landlords. In 2007, the extra money will allow the city to expand the program and double the number of households served – from 2,000 to 4,000 – with half of those households being homeless families.

The Chicago Community Land Trust (CCLT) was incorporated in 2006 as a non-profit organization with a 16-member board of directors named by Daley. The CCLT is an initiative whose goal is to preserve the long-term affordability of homeownership units created through city programs. All affordable units developed through these programs will be considered for inclusion in the CCLT to maintain long-term affordability.

For further information, contact Molly Sullivan, Chicago Department of Housing, at 312-7420595.