South, West Cook County housing collaboratives lauded for innovation, but face new challenges

An in-depth look at the innovative regional planning and cooperation going on to revitalize neighborhoods hard hit by foreclosure in South and West Cook County can be found in the Fall/Winter edition of Shelterforce, the National Housing Institute’s journal of affordable housing and community building. The formation of the South and West Cook housing collaboratives, which include 34 municipalities and more than ten other partners, was spurred by the opportunity to apply for Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) dollars, which allow communities to buy and rehab or demolish vacant, lender-owned properties. The collaboratives worked across municipal borders to collaborate on setting priorities for their NSP applications, instead of competing against each other for limited funds and with limited resources. By working together, municipalities can use federal funds to target NSP activities to areas with high concentrations of foreclosed properties or those near transportation corridors, where the money will likely have the highest impact—no matter the jurisdiction. Over 100 homes are targeted for acquisition and rehab. 
 
Reporter Kari Lydersen assesses the challenges facing community leaders, such as high concentrations of vacant properties and the departures of major local employers. She also examines how the collaboratives’ priority-setting across borders and ability to leverage Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) dollars,  to achieve other regional priorities, such as advancing transit oriented development and employer-assisting housing, resulted in a pioneering partnership focused on turning around communities that have long been facing severe economic challenges.
 
However, the news is bittersweet. When the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the awards for the second round of NSP, or NSP 2, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) regional application that included the South and West Cook Collaboratives unfortunately did not make the cut. NSP partners are not wallowing in their disappointment; instead, they are focusing on establishing a strong track record with current NSP funds and making the most of the relationships they’ve built through the collaborative process. As CMAP senior housing planner Lee Deuben told Shelterforce, “NSP is just a catalyst for this type of work to be done…we have now built capacity and established a system to bring in other resources, create more partnerships, and increase staffing. I think NSP was really the spark for something greater.”