| Housing
Roundtable Update
July 23, 2010
Action Alert: Sign Responsible Budget Coalition
Call to Action
The Responsible Budget Coalition is continuing o
raise public awareness about the need for a responsible budget in
Illinois. This work requires an engaged group of diverse leaders
to commit and spread these messages widely and give voice to what
an irresponsible budget does to the people of Illinois.
Over the past year we have worked diligently to
raise awareness about the need for a responsible budget in Illinois.
We have been successful in changing the discussion around new revenue,
engaging a diverse array of stakeholders in collective advocacy,
and educating elected officials on the impact budget cuts are having
on individuals and families across the state. These are important
successes and we must continue the momentum in the coming months.
As we all know, Illinois is still far from having a responsible budget.
Your active participation is essential.
Please sign-on your organization to the new RBC
Call to Action. Please do this even if you organization has endorsed
a previous version of this document.
You
can download a PDF of the Call to Action by clicking here.
In other advocacy activities, Illinois Partners
for Human Services just released a list obtained from the Illinois
Comptroller's Office detailing a total of more than $490 million
currently owed to tax-exempt, non-profit organizations. The
list is available here. If you or anyone you know doubts whether
Illinois needs a responsible budget, please refer them to this list!
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer
Protection Act Becomes Law
On July 21, President Barack Obama signed the historic
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law.
The parts of the bill creating a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
and a Financial Stability Oversight Council have received much of
the media attention. However, there are many additional provisions,
including those setting new standards for the mortgage industry and
addressing the foreclosure crisis.
The key mortgage reform provisions are as follows:
- Require Lenders Ensure a Borrower's Ability to Repay: Establishes
a simple federal standard for all home loans: institutions must
ensure that borrowers can repay the loans they are sold.
- Prohibit Unfair Lending Practices: Prohibits the financial incentives
for subprime loans that encourage lenders to steer borrowers into
more costly loans, including the bonuses known as "yield spread
premiums" that lenders pay to brokers to inflate the cost
of loans. Prohibits pre-payment penalties that trapped so many
borrowers into unaffordable loans.
- Establishes Penalties for Irresponsible Lending: Lenders and
mortgage brokers who don’t comply with new standards will
be held accountable by consumers for as high as three-years of
interest payments and damages plus attorney’s fees (if any).
Protects borrowers against foreclosure for violations of these
standards.
- Expands Consumer Protections for High-Cost Mortgages: Expands
the protections available under federal rules on high-cost loans
-- lowering the interest rate and the points and fee triggers that
define high cost loans.
- Requires Additional Disclosures for Consumers on Mortgages: Lenders
must disclose the maximum a consumer could pay on a variable rate
mortgage, with a warning that payments will vary based on interest
rate changes.
- Housing Counseling: Establishes an Office of Housing Counseling
within HUD to boost homeownership and rental housing counseling.
The new resources to address foreclosures are:
- Neighborhood Stabilization Program: Provides a third round of
$1 billion in funding for to states and localities for rehabilitating,
redeveloping, and reusing abandoned and foreclosed properties.
- Emergency Mortgage Relief: Building on a successful Pennsylvania
program, provides $1 billion for bridge loans to qualified unemployed
homeowners with reasonable prospects for reemployment to help cover
mortgage payments until they are reemployed.
- Foreclosure Legal Assistance: Authorizes a HUD administered program
for making grants to provide foreclosure legal assistance to low-
and moderate-income homeowners and tenants related to home ownership
preservation, home foreclosure prevention, and tenancy associated
with home foreclosure.
The bill also extends the Protecting Tenants at
Foreclosure Act (PTFA) through the end of 2014.
A
complete summary of the Dodd-Frank bill is available by clicking
here.
National Housing Trust Fund and Tax Credit
Extension Still in the Works
After a long delay, on Tuesday, July 20 the Senate
voted to extend unemployment insurance, but did not act on the other
provisions of the previously-passed House version of "the extenders
bill", including two housing provisions that we have long been
advocating for:
- Providing $1 billion for an initial capitalization for the National
Housing Trust Fund and $65 million in project-based assistance
for trust fund units.
- Extending the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit)
9 percent exchange program.
Senate leadership has stated their commitment to
passing the remaining portion of the extenders bill, hopefully before
the August recess. Stay tuned for future updates.
More
information is available here.
House and Senate Committees Recommend Increases
to McKinney Programs
On July 21, the House Appropriations Committee released
the details of its version of the FY 2011 spending bill for Transportation,
Housing, and Urban Development (T-HUD). That bill included $2.2 billion
for HUD's McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program. This
is very positive sign of support for McKinney programs, as the full
committee rarely increases the amount proposed by the T-HUD subcommittee
($2.055 billion), The $2.2 billion funding level represents an 18
percent increase over FY 2010.
On the same day the Senate T-HUD Subcommittee marked
up its FY 2011 bill, and recommended providing $2.055 billion in
FY 2011, the same amount included in President Obama's budget and
a 10 percent increase over FY 2010.
Many advocates from Illinois—including members
of the Supportive Housing Providers Association, the Chicago Alliance
to End Homelessness and Housing Action Illinois—were on Capitol
Hill advocating for McKinney Programs earlier this month as part
of the National Alliance to End Homelessness Annual Conference. Thanks
to all of them and others who contacted their members of Congress
on this issue.
You
can get more information at the NAEH's McKinney Vento Campaign
here.
HUD also recently announced the homeless assistance
projects being awarded though the 2009 Continuum of Care (CoC) competitive
grants process. Agencies across Illinois received $79,675,377 in
funding. A
list of awardees is available here.
Housing Action Illinois Annual Conference
Registration
Registration
materials for our 2010 Conference on November 4 and 5 in Bloomington
are available here. Early bird registration rates are available
through September 20. Please join us because Housing Matters!
Affordable Housing Month on the Move Back
to March
In the last three years, Housing Action experimented
a couple times with having our Annual Conference in the Spring. Now
that we are firmly back to meeting in November, we are also going
back to organizing Affordable Housing Month activities in March.
If you were already planning something for November, we certainly
encourage local groups to hold public education activities at anytime
throughout the year. Please mark your 2011 calendars now!
Housing Roundtable
Update
June 4, 2010
National Housing Trust Fund Appropriations
Pass the House, Action In Senate Expected After Break
Just before leaving for the Memorial Day recess,
the United States House of Representatives passed a scaled-down version
of H.R. 4213, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of
2010, including an extension of unemployment benefits through November
and other provisions. This version of the bill maintained the $1.065
billion in requested funding for the National Housing Trust Fund.
The vote was 215-204. All Illinois Democrats except for Representative
Melissa Bean (R---Barrington) voted for the bill. It's expected that
the Senate will take up the bill when they return from the Memorial
Day break on June 7. More information is available at http://www.nhtf.org.
The bill also extended the Low Income Housing Tax
Credit (LIHTC) exchange program through 2010, which allows states
to exchange a portion of their allocation of LIHTCs for cash. Information
on how Illinois has used the exchange program to date is available
at http://www.ihda.org/ViewPage.aspx?PageID=335.
In addition, the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund
(ECF) was extended to September 30, 2011 with $2.5 billion in additional
funding. Illinois is using the ECF to fund the Put Illinois to Work
Program: http://putillinoistowork.illinois.gov.
House and Senate to Confer on Financial
Industry Reform Bill
On May 20, the United States Senate passed a financial
reform bill that consumer groups are generally calling a qualified
victory in light of all the industry efforts to weaken the bill.
Among the positive reforms, mortgage lenders will be prohibited from
making loans that borrowers cannot repay and from providing kickbacks
("yield spread premiums") for steering people into high
rate loans when they qualify for lower rates. The bill also creates
a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau within the Federal Reserve
that has the ability to take enforcement action against banks with
more than $10 billion in assets.
The Senate bill now needs to be reconciled with
the House version of the bill, which in many cases has stronger protections
for consumers. For example, the House version creates an independent
Consumer Financial Protection Agency, with it's own oversight board,
that will be better equipped to oversee banks.
Senators serving on the conference committee have
already been named. Senators Durbin and Burris were not included.
House members have not been named, but initial reports suggest that
Representative Judy Biggert (R-Hindsdale) will be a member.
More information is available from the National
Community Reinvestment Coalition at http://www.ncrc.org.
General Assembly Passed An Irresponsible
Budget
The Illinois General Assembly left Springfield before
Memorial Day after passing a budget that fails to address the ongoing
state fiscal crisis in a responsible manner and is still unbalanced.
The operating budgets of state agencies were cut
5% and lawmakers gave Governor Quinn sweeping powers to cut additional
funding. Moreover, nothing was done to reduce the nearly $6 billion
backlog of bills owed to schools, human service agencies and others.
The only new revenue involves non-recurring sources
of funding, including issuing bonds to be financed with part of the
proceeds from Illinois' tobacco-lawsuit settlement ($1.2 billion),
a tax amnesty program ($250 million), and borrowing money from special
state funds ($1 billion).
The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability estimates
that FY11 recurring revenue is more than $10 billion short of FY11
estimated spending. After all revenue sources, recurring and non-recurring
are included, Illinois's FY11 budget deficit is $7 billion, or 26.7%
of General Revenue Fund spending. More information is available at http://www.ctbaonline.org.
The Responsible Budget Coalition (http://www.abetterillinois.com)
will continue working to get the State of Illinois to adopt a budget
including significant new revenue in order to avoid more harmful
cuts to vital programs, pay past due bills and fix the structural
deficit to prevent a similar crisis in the future.
Several Positive Affordable Housing Bills
Sent to Governor
Here's a summary of key affordable housing legislation
that passed the General Assembly this year. Unless otherwise noted,
these bills still need to by signed into law by Governor Quinn. Additional
information is available at http://www.ilga.gov.
HB 3762: This bill, which has been signed into law,
requires courts to stay foreclosure proceedings for a period of 90
days upon application by the homeowner if the homeowner is a person
who was deployed to a combat or combat support posting while on active
military duty and serving overseas within the previous 12 months.
House Sponsors: Rep. Mark L. Walker - Michael K.
Smith - Linda Chapa LaVia - Elizabeth Hernandez - Cynthia Soto, Thomas
Holbrook, Greg Harris, William B. Black, Jack D. Franks, Keith Farnham,
Patrick J. Verschoore and Eddie Washington
Senate Sponsors: Sen. Dan Kotowski - Linda Holmes
- Jacqueline Y. Collins, Antonio Muñoz, Martin A. Sandoval,
Michael Bond, Toi W. Hutchinson and Mattie Hunter
HB 5523: This bill will protect victims of domestic
violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault from unlawful
evictions by providing them with an affirmative defense to an eviction
if it is solely based upon the victim's status or solely due to actual
or threatened incidents of violence. Advocated for by the Sargent
Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and Housing Action Illinois.
House Sponsors: Rep. Karen A. Yarbrough-Naomi D.
Jakobsson-William Davis, Michael J. Zalewski, Harry Osterman, Lisa
M. Dugan, Cynthia Soto, Deborah L. Graham, Constance A. Howard and
LaShawn K. Ford
Senate Sponsors: Sen. Kwame Raoul, Antonio Muñoz,
Martin A. Sandoval and Mattie Hunter
HB 5735: Upon motion of the homeowner, allows foreclosure
judges to reject the foreclosure sale if it finds that the lender
has not complied with loss mitigation requirements that are part
of the federal Making Home Affordable Program. Advocated for by the
Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law and Housing Action
Illinois.
House Sponsors: Rep. Al Riley-William D. Burns-Elizabeth
Hernandez-Marlow H. Colvin-Karen A. Yarbrough, Edward J. Acevedo,
William Davis, Julie Hamos, Elaine Nekritz, Cynthia Soto and LaShawn
K. Ford
Senate Sponsors: Sen. Jacqueline Y. Collins - M.
Maggie Crotty - Kwame Raoul - Linda Holmes, Martin A. Sandoval, Michael
Bond, Mattie Hunter and Toi W. Hutchinson
HB 6038: Extends the Illinois Affordable Housing
Tax Credit, also known as the State Donations Tax Credit, through
December 31, 2016. Advocated for by the Metropolitan Planning Council
and the Chicago Rehab Network.
House Sponsors: Rep. Arthur L. Turner-Barbara Flynn
Currie-William Davis, Angelo Saviano, Esther Golar, Darlene J. Senger,
LaShawn K. Ford and Franco Coladipietro
Senate Sponsors: Sen. James F. Clayborne, Jr.-Iris
Y. Martinez, Pamela J. Althoff, Heather Steans-Jacqueline Y. Collins
and Mattie Hunter
HB 6241: Creates the Manufactured Home Installation
Act. Provides that a manufactured home installed on private property
that is not located in a mobile home park be assessed and taxed as
real property. This bill was negotiated with, and agreed to, by the
Mobile Homeowners Association of Illinois.
House Sponsors: Rep. William B. Black-Betsy Hannig-Dan
Reitz-Roger L. Eddy, Linda Chapa LaVia, Arthur L. Turner and Mike
Bost
Senate Sponsors: Sen. James F. Clayborne, Jr.-John
O. Jones
HB6439: Requires the Structural Pest Control Advisory
Council to convene a subcommittee to develop a report to the General
Assembly by December 31, 2011 with recommendations on the prevention,
management, and control of bed bug infestations.
House Sponsors: Rep. Kenneth Dunkin
Senate Sponsors: Sen. Heather Steans
SB0374: Creates the H+T Affordability Index Act.
Provides that the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity,
the Department of Transportation, and the Illinois Housing Development
Authority shall use the Housing and Transportation Affordability
Index as a development tool and a consideration in funding allocation,
distribution of incentives, and facility siting in Metropolitan Planning
Organization areas. Provides that the Act does not reduce or divert
funding away from areas not located in a Metropolitan Planning Organization
Area. Advocated for by the Center for Neighborhood Technology. More
information on the Index is available at http://htaindex.cnt.org.
Senate Sponsors: Sen. Kwame Raoul
House Sponsors: Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie-Karen
May-Dave Winters-William B. Black-Michael W. Tryon, Deborah Mell,
William D. Burns and Suzanne Bassi
SB 3180: Creates the Common Interest Community Association
Act to regulate housing, other than condominiums or cooperatives,
in which homeowners are obligated to pay for common areas administered
by an association. Includes provision that allows 501(c)(3) organizations
that currently rent out affordable units in Common Interest Community
Associations to continue to rent those units, even if townhome association
rules change to prohibit rentals. Advocated for by Housing Action
Illinois and the DuPage Housing Action Coalition.
Senate Sponsors: Sen. A. J. Wilhelmi-Kwame Raoul-Iris
Y. Martinez
House Sponsors: Rep. Tom Cross-Sandra M. Pihos-Emily
McAsey-Timothy L. Schmitz
SB 3782: Requires that court files shall be sealed
on eviction actions against a tenant who would have lawful possession
of the premises if not for a foreclosure on the property. This will
help keep tenants from being negatively impacted by having an eviction
on their court record.
Senate Sponsors: Sen. Michael W. Frerichs
House Sponsors: Rep. William B. Black-Al Riley and
John A. Fritchey
Weakened Foreclosure Legislation Passes
General Assembly
SB3739: For almost a year, advocacy and community
organizations from around the state, including Business and Professional
People for the Public Interest and Action Now, worked on state legislation
that would have helped homeowners struggling to save their homes
and communities struggling with boarded-up properties. However, the
foreclosure legislation that recently passed the Illinois legislature
mostly fails to accomplish what the advocates sought.
Here's a summary of the bill that passed with a
description of where it falls short of the original proposal.
Foreclosure Prevention
SB3739 will generate about $7 million a year for
housing counseling and community outreach. Half will be spent in
Chicago and half outside Chcago. The advocates' proposal would have
generated around $40 million for a wider range of activities.
SB 3739 also places lots of restrictions on how
the money can be spent. For example, unlike the advocates' proposal,
it can't pay for legal assistance, so folks in places where legal
services attorneys are the only ones helping people to try to save
their homes will not get additional resources to provide the services
they need.
On top of all this, banks mostly won't pay for the
foreclosure prevention program. Funding will come from a fee on foreclosure
filings, which are initially paid for by the bank but usually passed
on to homeowners. The advocates' proposal would have imposed a fee
mostly paid for by banks from the proceeds of a foreclosure sale.
Help for Municipalities
The advocates' proposal would have authorized municipalities
to make banks responsible for maintaining and securing vacant properties.
That would have created leverage to get banks to clean up vacant
properties and write down loans. But SB3739 doesn't include such
authorization. It will put no pressure on banks to maintain properties
or write down loans.
Instead, SB3739 will impose a small fee on some
judicial sales, proceeds from which would go to municipalities to
clean up vacant properties. In most sales, the fee will generate
no more than $50 even though municipalities often spend thousands
of taxpayer dollars to maintain and secure a single vacant property.
Making the positive impact even more minimal, banks won't pay the
fee. If a mortgagee (like a bank) is taking back a property through
foreclosure, the bill says they are exempt. That means that the fee
won't be collected in more than 95% of all foreclosure cases.
Advocates and community groups are now strategizing
about how to keep pushing these issues and how to get homeowners
and communities the help they need. For more information, or to see
how you can help, contact Adam Gross at agross@bpichicago.org.
Recession
Continues to Push Rental Housing Further “Out of Reach” for
People with Low-Incomes: Housing Wage is $17.44 for Two-Bedroom
Apartment in Illinois
April 23, 2010
According to a report released
today, the Housing Wage for Illinois is $17.44 for a two-bedroom
apartment. The Housing Wage is the hourly wage a family must earn—working
40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year—to afford a modest two-bedroom
apartment renting for $907. The Housing Wage has increased 34.6%
since 2000.
The report, Out of Reach 2010, was jointly released by the National
Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), a Washington, DC-based housing
advocacy group, and Housing Action Illinois.
Federal guidelines state that no one should spend more than 30% of
their income on housing, including rent or mortgage payments, utilities,
property taxes and insurance.
In Illinois, among metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas, the lowest
Housing Wage for a two-bedroom apartment is $10.83 in the metro-east
Bond County metropolitan area. The highest housing wage for a two-bedroom
apartment is $19.52 in the Chicago metropolitan area.
In 2010, the estimated average wage for renters in Illinois is only
$15.05, a decline from $15.33 in 2009. In Illinois, a minimum wage
worker earns an hourly wage of $8.00. In order to afford market-rate
rents for a two-bedroom apartment, a minimum wage earner must work
87 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. (On July 1, 2010 the minimum
wage will increase to $8.25 per hour).
“The statistics in Out of Reach 2010 show that the rents low-income people
pay continue to go up at the same time as the wages of renters are decreasing.
Therefore, it is increasingly difficult for low-wage workers to find decent,
stable housing,” said Bob Palmer, Policy Director for Housing Action
Illinois.
Housing Action Illinois’ mission is to increase and preserve
the supply of decent, affordable, accessible housing in Illinois
for low-and moderate-income households through advocacy, public education,
and technical assistance to nonprofits.
Data for every state, metropolitan area and county in the country
is available online, at www.nlihc.org/oor2010/.
Housing Needs in Metro Chicago
Discussed for UN Report
April 13, 2010
How housing needs are impacting the Chicago metropolitan
area were addressed at an all-day program on Tuesday, April 13, as
a United States delegation gathered information for a United Nations
(UN) report on human rights.
The program was hosted by The John Marshall Law
School Fair Housing Legal Support Center and Housing Action Illinois.
Representatives from the US Department of Housing
and Urban Development, the US Department of State, and the US Department
of Justice gathered information at the hearing for use when the United
States submits its report to the United Nations Human Rights Council
as part of the UN’s periodic review of a country’s human
rights record.
The program opened with a panel discussion on “Discrimination
in Public and Subsidized Housing in the Chicago Metropolitan Area” with
participants outlining various efforts to reduce segregation, and
the effects of discrimination against various ethnic groups and those
who use Section 8 housing vouchers. Speakers outlined efforts to
preserve or develop accessible and supportive housing.
An afternoon panel focused on “The Role of
Discrimination in Contributing to the Present Crisis in Lending and
Foreclosures in the Chicago Metropolitan Area.” Discussants
outlined foreclosure rates and the destabilizing impact they have
in the region; unfair lending practices; measures that are and are
not being taken to counter the loss of homes; the impact of foreclosures
on desegregation efforts and the destabilization of Chicago’s
neighborhoods; and the impact of foreclosures on homelessness.
Other panelists addressed “The Problem of
Homelessness in the Chicago Metropolitan Region” and “Discrimination
in the Private Market in the Chicago Metropolitan Area.” Topics
covered included segregated housing and its effect on health, education
and other essential indicators; refusals to rent and sell; racial
and ethnic steering; advertising and the impact of the Internet;
and problems faced by private developers in locating and building
integrated low-income and affordable housing in the Chicago metropolitan
area.
To
view photos click here.
To
view the agenda and testimonials click here.
To
view the U.S. Department of State schedule and summaries of al
UPR Civil Society Consultations click here.
More
Budget Cuts and Delayed Payments Will Increase Homelessness in
Illinois
March 24, 2010
Four advocacy groups working to
create affordable housing and end homelessness released a report
today demonstrating that unless the State of Illinois passes comprehensive
tax reform even more people will lose their housing and become homeless.
The report was based on a survey of state-funded
providers of homelessness prevention funds, emergency shelter, homeless
youth programs, transitional housing and permanent supportive housing.
Among the survey’s key findings were:
1. Agencies are already turning people in need of
housing away due to state budget cuts. Sixty-one agencies turned
away 1,292 people in January 2010 because of prior year state budget
cuts, representing 9% of the 13,720 people they were able to serve.
This does not include additional people who were turned away for
issues not related to state budget cuts, such as lack of bed space.
2. Agencies are already owed a significant amount
of money by the state and are taking on additional debt to manage
the crisis. In total, 54 agencies are owed $10.2 million from the
state in delayed payments, or about $189,000 per agency. The average
delay in state payments is slightly less than 3 months, with delays
as high as 9 months.
3. State-funded programs create jobs and leverage
federal funding. State funding for 61 agencies supports more than
1,600 jobs across Illinois. Forty-nine agencies are leveraging $47.7
million in federal funds every year that depend on a state match.
4. More budget cuts will result in fewer people
receiving services and the loss of state-funded jobs. Based on the
responses of 66 agencies, if programs are cut substantially in the
FY11 budget, 79% of agencies would have to reduce services and 74%
of agencies would have to lay off staff. Forty-one percent of agencies
would have to eliminate programs.
The agencies surveyed are funded by line items that
receive a combined $36.5 million in state funding. While that total
represents only a small portion of state funding—less than
1% of the $4 billion in total General Revenue Funding for the Illinois
Department of Human Services—the harm caused by cuts to these
programs are troubling examples of the larger impact of cuts to human
services overall.
“While Governor Quinn deserves credit for
acknowledging the need for revenue increases, his proposal falls
far short of what is needed,” said Bob Palmer, Policy Director
for Housing Action Illinois. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn released
his fiscal year 2011 budget proposal on March 10. He proposed over
$2 billion in cuts. Although not included in his formal proposal,
Governor Quinn is advocating for a 1% increase in the income tax.
The report was prepared by the Chicago Alliance
to End Homelessness, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Housing
Action Illinois and the Supportive Housing Providers Association.
All four groups are members of the Responsible Budget Coalition.
“The 200-plus organizations of the Responsible
Budget Coalition believe the best and fairest way to adequately fund
all our essential priorities—education, health care, human
services, public safety and more--is through comprehensive tax reform
like House Bill 174, that passed in the Illinois Senate in 2009,” said
Lore Baker, Assistant Director for the Supportive Housing Providers
Association.
Click
here to download a PDF version of the complete report.
CHA Voucher
Holders Continue to Be Concentrated in Segregated, Poor Chicago Communities
February 8, 2010
A report issued today, "Are We Home Yet?
Creating Real Choice for Housing Choice Voucher Families in Chicago" finds
that the majority of the Chicago Housing Authority's 35,000
Housing Choice Voucher households reside in predominately African-American,
high poverty neighborhoods within the City of Chicago, and that more
voucher families are now concentrated in these types of communities
than ten years ago.
Because these communities continue to struggle with
high rates of unemployment, foreclosures, and above average
rates of crime and poor health, voucher families do not currently
have a real opportunity to live in healthy communities.
The report recommends that there must be a comprehensive
effort by the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), the City of Chicago,
housing advocates, and public officials to advance housing mobility
and opportunities for voucher families, as well as to strategically
invest in the communities where voucher families currently live.
Specific recommendations include:
-
The CHA should partner with an established
housing mobility counseling program to provide education and
services to all voucher families, not just residents relocating
from public housing;
-
The federal government should establish more
community specific Fair Market Rents for the Chicago region,
so that the CHA and voucher holders can access quality housing
in low-poverty communities of opportunity, currently out of reach
due to high rents;
-
The CHA and area public housing authorities
should conduct an information campaign to dispel myths about
the voucher program and educate landlords on how it actually
works. At the same time, these housing authorities must
streamline their voucher programs to encourage landlord participation
and seek out opportunities to incentivize landlords with properties
in low-poverty opportunity communities to participate;
-
The CHA should project-base vouchers in areas
of opportunity, so as to create a permanent source of affordable
housing in healthy communities; and
-
The City of Chicago and the CHA should invest
in all communities where voucher holders currently live and work
to make these communities healthy.
Click
here to download a PDF version of the complete report.
"Are We Home Yet?" is a project of
the Illinois Assisted Housing Action Research Project (IHARP), in
collaboration with Housing Action Illinois, the Latino Policy Forum,
the Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement,
and the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. The
report is made possible by generous support of the Field Foundation
of Illinois.
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