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Reaching the Dream -- Chicago![]() According to the leaders of the city of Chicago, affordable housing is a priority issue for the city. The available stock of affordable rental housing cannot meet demand. New affordable housing is not being produced without government subsidies, and existing resources for this purpose are insufficient. To this end, the Chicago City Council passed a new 5-year affordable housing plan entitled "Build. Preserve. Lead: An Affordable Housing Agenda for Chicago's Neighborhoods." The plan calls for the city to commit a total of $1.9 billion from a variety of local, Federal, and State sources to build, preserve, or otherwise assist 48,000 units of affordable housing. In the 1990s, Chicago added 40,000 new homeowners and 100,000 new residents, revitalized the downtown area, and increased levels of homeownership, particularly among Latinos and African Americans. However, amidst this prosperity there are new challenges to affordability-many residents pay too high a percentage of their income for housing, and much of the city's housing stock is aging. Therefore, the city plans to address its housing needs through four core strategies: 1) build new affordable rental and homeownership housing; 2) preserve Chicago's existing affordable housing; 3) assist households in staying in their homes; and 4) pursue policies and funding to support affordable housing. With this in mind, the HUD Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (CFBCI) has chosen Chicago for the "Reaching the Dream" initiative. The following information provides a look at one neighborhood undergoing significant revitalization, as well as an overview of the city of Chicago's demographics. Neighborhoods Chicago
has been called a city of neighborhoods because of the 77 communities
within the city limits. The neighborhood boundaries and their distinctive
characteristics have been formed by waves of immigrants-Irish, German,
Polish, Asian, Latino, and others. These diverse communities give
Chicago its rich tradition as an international city. Summary of Statistics The City of Chicago has a population of 2,896,016. Between the years of 1990 and 2000, Chicago saw population growth of 4 percent. The
racial composition of the residents of Chicago is: Caucasian-42 percent Forty-four percent of residents own the housing quarters in which they live, while the other 56 percent are renter occupants. The 2000 median value of all owner-occupied housing is $144,237. Based on 2000 census statistics, the median household income in Chicago is $39,179 per year. Over 20 percent of households operate on an estimated yearly income of less than $15,000. The unemployment rate is 6.5 percent. HUD's
Regional Faith-Based Liaison HUD's
Regional Director
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Content Archived: April 9, 2010 | |
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