Citywide Affordable Rental Housing Analysis

The citywide and community area affordable housing data reflected in the links below are intended to help identify housing trends and establish attainable goals and design policies involving neighborhood growth and investment. The data is summarized for the entire City and each community area with a chart and table showing the results of the analysis. The underlying data used in the analysis is also available to download.

Citywide and Community Area Affordable Housing Charts
Data Table Used in the Analysis
Citywide Affordable Housing Maps

The data was developed by the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) in conjunction with the Department of Housing (DOH) in 2019, initially as a housing study of the Near West Side and East Garfield Park neighborhoods and later expanded to collect and analyze housing affordability data for all 77 community areas in Chicago.

The analysis identified the number of rental housing units in each community area using the U.S. Census Bureau's 2013-2017 American Community Survey data and programmatic data on affordable housing developments from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA), and the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA).

Units were classified as affordable at 60 percent of area median income (AMI) based on 2017 HUD rents limits. Affordable monthly rents for housing units vary by the number of bedrooms in each housing unit. Units were separated into four categories:

  • Legally Restricted Affordable Housing (LRAH) - subsidized by government programs for a defined time
  • Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing - no public subsidies with market rents at 60% of AMI
  • Higher Rent - market rents above 60% of AMI
  • No Rent - no information available

Notes:

  • The affordable housing analysis and methodology was developed by a team led by SB Friedman Development Advisors with input from DPD and DOH.
  • The analysis only includes data on rental units. It does not include information on ownership units.
  • The analysis is a representation of affordable units based on 2017 data and does not take into account current market conditions.
  • The analysis does not contain data on affordable units that were created by the Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO). Information on ARO units was not available at the time of the analysis.