Vacant Properties
Municipalities encouraged to attend workshop on Cook County Vacant Building Ordinance (City of Chicago, Downtown)
You are cordially invited to a workshop, hosted by the Cook County Bureau of Economic Development and Dept. of Building and Zoning, to explain the recently passed Vacant Building Ordinance and how it can help your municipality. As you may be aware, the ordinance allows interested municipal governments to "opt-in," with the goal of creating a uniform set of guidelines for maintaining and securing vacant properties throughout Cook County. Read more »
Chicago Southland Housing and Community Development Collaborative Meeting (South Cook County)
• Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer will describe the new county vacant property ordinance that takes effect in February 2012: Please Click Here to View Ordinance The ordinance requires a property's mortgagee to pay a fee to list buildings as vacant on a county wide registry. The ordinance applies to all areas of unincorporated Cook County. Read more »
Comprehensive Community Development in the Metropolitan Context (City of Chicago, Downtown)
Foreclosures have hit inner city, suburban, and exurban neighborhoods alike. What does this pattern of distress portend for future development patterns throughout regions? Has the exurban development model failed? Has the foreclosure crisis erased all the gains that city lower-income neighborhoods have made in recent years? Many cities are investing in new or substantially upgraded rail corridors. Do these improvements promise to bring new investment into previously distressed neighborhoods? Read more »
Growing Number of Vacant Properties Increases Communities' Costs and Challenges
By the Government Accountability Office
Housing collaboratives in South and West Cook County receive nearly $11 million in federal funds to stabilize communities across borders
The West Cook County Housing Collaborative and the Chicago Southland Housing and Community Development Collaborative received nearly $11 million in federal funding from the IKE Disaster Recovery Program to further their interjurisdictional work on stabilizing communities in south and west Cook County in the wake of the foreclosure crisis. The funding will help hard-hit communities preserve workforce housing, address blight, and recover from th
Suburban Housing Collaboratives: a Case for Interjurisdictional Collaboration
The November 2011 edition of ProfitWise News and Views, written by Susan Longworth and published by the Community Development and Policy Studies Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, features Suburban Housing Collaboratives: a Case for Interjurisdictional Collaboration.
West Cook County Housing Collaborative receives $2.9M HUD Sustainable Communities Challenge Grant
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced the recipients of the 2011 Sustainable Communities Grants, totaling over $97 million. Twenty seven communities and organizations will receive Community Challenge grants and 29 regional areas will receive Regional Planning grants. The goal of the Sustainable Communities grants is to help communities and regions improve their economic competitiveness by connecting housing with good jobs, quality schools and transportation.
City of Chicago Micro-Market Recovery Program Overview
The City of Chicago launched the Micro-Market Recovery Program, a coordinated effort among the City, not-for-profit intermediaries, and non-profit and for-profit capital sources to improve conditions, strengthen property values, and create environments supportive of private investment in targeted markets throughout the city.
