Tag: Chicago
How Tax Assessments are Racist
Between biased property appraisals that undervalue Black-owned properties and biased tax assessments that levy an unfair burden, homeowners of color are flanked by a double-whammy of racism.
When the Unemployed Fought Back
During the Great Depression, unemployed people organized and put their lives on the line to keep each other in their homes.
Living in a Bubble: Development When Community Doesn’t Matter
How suburban luxury high-rises are lowering everyone’s quality of life.
What’s the Best Way to Judge How Well a City’s Housing...
CityHealth revamps its housing medal criteria, shifts away from inclusionary zoning to flexible funding and tenant protections. “We realized there is no singular policy intervention that can address the whole of affordable housing.”
Blame Policies, Not Places, for Poor Health
Shifting blame from people to ZIP codes is not enough to create healthy communities. Here’s how to do better.
Making Inclusionary Housing Programs a Force for Racial Equity
Three city administrators go beyond the press releases to talk about what it really takes to make an inclusionary housing requirement serve households of color.
Chicago Changes How It Allocates Tax Credits to Improve Racial Equity
How did the Windy City expand the idea of advancing racial equity through low-income housing tax credits beyond where affordable housing is built?
Affordable Housing for LGBTQ Seniors
LGBTQ seniors are more likely than peers their age to experience discrimination, leaving them more likely to be poor and have chronic health problems. What does it take to create affordable, LGBTQ-friendly senior housing?
Fighting No-Fault Evictions with a Just Cause Ordinance
Despite a state-wide eviction moratorium, thousands of people have been evicted in Chicago since March. A coalition of housing advocates is proposing a just cause ordinance that would halt no-fault evictions.
Three Local Policy Innovations that Promote Inclusive, Equitable Mixed-Income Communities
Making inclusion and equity a reality in more American metropolitan areas is possible. Doing so requires innovations in local, regional, and state policies related to mixed-income communities.
Funding to Purchase Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing
A closer look at three funds that have helped preserve NOAH properties and kept them affordable for years to come.
Systemic Racism Starts and Ends with Housing
Along with standing up against police violence and systemic racism, we must also fight to end housing systems that devalue Black people.
Feeding People in a Pandemic
Across the country, community organizations and food-related businesses have found creative ways to provide meals and groceries to low-income people in need.
History Shows that in Times of Crisis, Housing Activists Get Radical
A recent spate of vacant home occupations echo squatters campaigns of the past.
Under Fire, Aldermanic Prerogative Is Turned to Democratic Ends
Long used to maintain segregationist and discriminatory policy, aldermanic prerogative is now being wielded in a more inclusive way.
Building Healthy Housing Through Health Action Plans
A pilot program required CDCs to collaborate with public health professionals in order to discover—and address—a community’s pressing health issues. What the collaboration uncovered were issues that the participating CDCs hadn't even considered.
Preserving Affordable Housing by Buying, Not Building
Two organizations are quietly furthering income integration in higher-income Chicago neighborhoods without new development.
Who Will Benefit From Opportunity Zones? It’s Still Unclear
Who will benefit most from these investments remains the biggest question.
Eviction Filings Hurt Tenants, Even If They Win
From Monday through Friday, 52 weeks a year, thousands of tenants, landlords, and attorneys make their way to the Daley Center in downtown Chicago....
Chicago Activist Convention Shifts Focus to Community Benefits Campaign
Standing on a truck in front of a group of several hundred protesters, Tom Gordon expressed a feeling shared often at the ONE Northside...