Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance

A Diversity Inc. Special Evening Presentation

A special evening presentation sponsored by Diversity, Inc. to allow interested elected officials, administrators and planners to know about more about this important topic.  The event will be held at Diversity, Inc. South Suburban Mayors and Managers Offices, 1906 W. 174th Street in East Hazel Crest starting at 7:00 p.m. 

South Suburban Cook County. Cook County’s stock of affordable rental housing has decreased over the last decade.

The Chicago Southland’s housing is affordable and the market is soft for most of the rental market.  The Preservation Compact examines the fact that for more than a decade, Cook County’s supply of affordable rental housing has been shrinking and suggests means by which the remaining affordable rental properties can be preserved.

Preservation of affordable rental units is important the vitality of the economy and the region, the lack of affordable rental complexes in high job growth areas has been one of several factors contributing the concentration of assisted households in the Chicago Southland.

We agree that rental dwelling units are important to the entire Metropolitan Region. There is a need to preserve, enhance maintain our existing stock of housing; while we focus on further development of economic opportunity in the Chicago Southland.

Guided by ULI Chicago the Preservation Compact has brought together leaders from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to reverse the downward trend in Cook County’s affordable rental housing supply. The Compact has launched a comprehensive Rental Housing Action Plan for Cook County, including six Initiatives designed to preserve and improve 75,000 existing affordable rental homes that might otherwise be lost to condominium conversion, demolition, or rising costs.

The mortgage foreclosure issue has also hit the south Cook County with higher rates of sub-prime lending in diverse communities the numbers of foreclosures that have resulted are also high.  There is predicted that an increase in demand for affordable rental property will be the residual effect of the crisis. As landlords and investors loose their properties to foreclosures pressure rises on rentals increasing rental costs in the region and adversely impacting the economic vitality of the housing market here in the southland.

Stacie Young (former Diversity, Inc. staffer) and others from the “Preservation Compact” will present this comprehensive Cook County rental housing analysis.   The Compact has launched a comprehensive Rental Housing Action Plan for Cook County, which includes six Initiatives designed to preserve and improve Cook County’s existing affordable rental homes.

Diversity, Inc.  is pleased to bring this timely and important program to you.  Please register and find out how the affordable rental housing challenge should be addressed.  Learn what it means for you and your community and the south Cook County area generally. Listen to how the “Preservation Compact” will relieve the hyper-concentration of rental housing assistance in communities located in the southern region of Cook County.

To register for this event please call (708) 206-1204 or (708) 922-4603.