Hope Center Foundation Aims To Build Affordable Homes In Roseland

Hope Center Foundation, in partnership with United Power for Action and Justice and Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (CNI), is Reclaiming Roseland by building affordable homes in the community. PHOTO PROVIDED BY HOPE CENTER FOUNDATION.
Hope Center Foundation, in partnership with United Power for Action and Justice and Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (CNI), is Reclaiming Roseland by building affordable homes in the community. PHOTO PROVIDED BY HOPE CENTER FOUNDATION.

Hope Center Foundation Aims To Build Affordable Homes In Roseland

By Tia Carol Jones

The Hope Center Foundation is taking on affordable housing and is on a mission to build new affordable homes in Roseland as part of its Reclaiming Roseland.

The Hope Center Foundation, in partnership with United Power for Action and Justice and Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (CNI), is providing financial education, coaching and homeownership counseling. The hope is that with these resources, people will be home loan ready.

Affordable Housing is just one part of United Power’s focus. In Lake County, United Power is focused on gun violence prevention. In Cook County, the focus is on affordable housing, with Reclaiming Communities. This campaign includes the initiative to build homes on the South side and  homes on the West side.

“The goal of that is to take over entire blocks with new homes; rebuilding neighborhoods and creating jobs leads to safer communities,” said Shenita Muse, Executive Director of the Hope Center Foundation.

The initiative also benefits the communities where the houses are being built because it places new homes on blocks where there once were vacant lots. Repopulating these neighborhoods helps people in those communities build wealth and equity through homeownership.

Currently, on the South side Hope Center Foundation and Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives have 100 lots. There are 10 modular homes, with one more waiting to be delivered. There will also be stick-built, wood frame homes that will be built. The United Power member institutions have raised about $25 million from public and private sources to write down the cost of construction for the homes and to provide down payment assistance for potential homebuyers.

Muse said the goal is to build equity and generational wealth for people who have historically been left out of those opportunities because of systemic racism. Muse said this initiative fits into the Hope Center Foundations’ mission and vision to transition people out of poverty into a career pathway and to generational wealth. In addition to its affordable housing initiative, Hope Center Foundation also provides programs for workforce development and financial literacy.

A Chicago Community Trust study, Color of Wealth in Chicago, showed that white Chicagoans net worth far outpaced Black, Mexican and Puerto Rican households. The study also found that Black families have the lowest rate of homeownership. Muse called those statistics startling.

“It underscores the need for us to focus more on African American’s not to be displaced, but actually, have the opportunity to own a home, if that is one of their goals,” Muse said.

Muse said the goal is that potential homebuyers’ mortgage payment matches what they might pay in rent. For example, a two-story, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home, with appliances and a two-car garage is affordable through their program, because they wrote down the cost of construction and they offer down payment assistance.

Because the money being given is a grant, the homeowner has to live in the home for at least five years and be their primary residence. The other criteria is that they have at least a 580 credit score and $45,000 in income.

For more information, visit hopecenterchicago.org/home-ownership, or call 773-371-2371.

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