Housing in Illinois
October 19th, 2009Chicago is nationally renowned for its vibrant neighborhood development sector, energetic community organizations and a city administration that is transforming public housing and promoting green development policies. But signs of the recession are abound: home foreclosures are up 48% from a year ago; over 40% of homeowners and 50% of renters pay more than 30% of their income for shelter.
On this edition of Community Media & You, we take another look at how the economic slowdown is affecting affordable housing development. When budgets are crunched, how can public officials best target limited resources to produce the maximum impact? How is the growing home foreclosure crisis impacting rental housing? How are private landlords coping with rising vacancy rates and operating costs?
Thousands of renters are on public housing waiting lists; households are doubling up in apartments as people are laid off; 17,000 units of federally subsidized housing could disappear in two years and a record 12,000 CPS students were identified are homeless during the last school year.
Previously, we talked with city experts; today we look more broadly at affordable housing policies at the state level. On this edition of Community Media & You we’ll talk with the governor’s newly appointed head of the Illinois Housing Development Authority Gloria Materre, Bob Palmer of Housing Action Illinois, and Katrina Van Valkenburgh of the Corporation for Supportive Housing.
www.colum.edu
