THE CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO CROWN FAMILY ANNOUNCE NEW PARTNERSHIP

THE CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AN UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO CROWN FAMILYANNOUNCE NEW PARTNERSHIP

CHICAGO – The Chicago Department of Housing (DOH)
and the University of Chicago Crown Family School for Social
Work, Policy and Practice announced a new partnership to examine
how city governments around the world are using housing
policies to promote wealth building in communities that are
majority people of color. This research will inform the department
and others on what governments are doing to address and reverse
decades of disinvestment and predatory housing practices that
have prevented communities of color from building generational
wealth through homeownership.

“Decades of disinvestment - redlining, restrictive covenants,
contract buying, predatory lending - have left many Black and
Brown communities with vacant lots, vacant storefronts, and low
land values, issues that prevent the residents of these communities
from building generational wealth through homeownership,” said
DOH Commissioner Marisa Novara. “I am happy to say that we
at DOH and many other housing agencies worldwide are establishing
equitable solutions that are revitalizing communities. This
partnership with the Crown Family School will provide a road
map of what is working and what is not and the path to creating
more affordable homeownership opportunities throughout our
cities. Government has long been complicit in creating inequitable
outcomes by race and class; as such, this is our work to do.”

This partnership will identify inclusive housing policies
that can effectively build wealth among Chicago’s traditionally
marginalized populations and shrink the City’s racial wealth gap.
Over the coming months, a research team led by the Crown Family
School’s Office of Community Partnership and Impact, and
McCormick Foundation Professor Robert Chaskin, will survey the
myriad ways that city governments around the world are enacting
policies that leverage housing policy to accelerate wealth building
for marginalized communities, particularly communities of color.

Upon completion, the team will produce a report identifying
promising housing practices and policies that increase financial
security for low- and moderate-income households and improve
wealth equity. The University’s Mansueto Institute for Urban
Innovation will then convene a global symposium that will bring
together housing leaders from a select group of cities – including
those featured in the written report – to delve into research findings
and to discuss how housing policy and related wealth-building
interventions in other communities can inform new, targeted, and
more equitable outcomes here in Chicago.

“The Crown Family School is thrilled to partner with the
Department of Housing on this important effort to help build
wealth in Chicago’s underserved communities,” said Deborah
Gorman-Smith, dean of the Crown Family School and the Emily
Klein Gidwitz Professor. “We are committed to strategic partnerships,
like this one, that leverage our faculty expertise and the
talents and energy of our students to help civic partners tackle
pressing issues that impact our communities.”

This partnership is part of the Chicago Department of Housing’s
continued commitment to examine the outcomes of its work
by race and adjust accordingly. In 2021, DOH released the country’s
first Racial Equity Impact Assessment (REIA) on a Qualified
Allocation Plan for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC).
REIAs examine how different racial and ethnic groups will likely
be or have been affected by an action, decision, or policy. The
recommendations included increasing opportunities for developers
and contractors of color to participate, ensuring tenant applicants
are not unfairly screened out by conviction records or credit scores,
and addressing residents’ mental health needs. Through the REIA,
and thanks in part to the Lightfoot Administration and Chicago
Recovery Plan, DOH selected 24 awardees, more than double the
number selected in 2019, for a total investment of $1 billion in
affordable rental housing.

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