Ordinance Overview

Key components of the ordinance include:

• Affordability for Chicago’s lowest earners: On 25% of city-owned vacant land, 30% of units in each project must be affordable at 30-50% of Area Median Income
• $1.5 million for the Preservation of Existing Affordable Rental (PEAR) - This apartment building refinance program would help existing owners refinance their property to keep tenants in place and rents affordable.
• $1.175 million for Renew Woodlawn. $500,000 in city funding and pending grant request for an additional $675,000 from HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative. Renew Woodlawn is a rehab homeownership program tailored for low to moderate income households.
• $1.52 million for the Woodlawn Loan Fund to supplement $5 million from banks and other lenders. This is a program to purchase and rehabilitate vacant units to create new affordable housing.
• $1 million for the Woodlawn Long-term Homeowner Home Improvement Grant Program. The program will assist homeowners with 5 or more years of residency in their home with a grant of up to $20,000 for home repairs.
• Enhanced local hiring requirements - Residential developments that receive City land for development of rental housing would be required to meet enhanced local hiring requirements.
• Tenant Right of First Refusal pilot program for larger apartment buildings - Gives renters the right of first refusal if a landlord seeks to sell his/her building. Rather than tenants being automatically displaced from the sale of a building, tenants would have the right to form a tenant’s association and enter into an agreement with a not-for-profit affordable housing developer to purchase the building and maintain it as affordable.