City officials broke ground on 27 new units in North Lawndale as part of the Missing Middle Infill Housing Initiative. The project aims to rebuild middle-class housing on vacant lots across the South and West sides.
Local Impact
The initiative, led by the Westside Community Group, will bring affordable housing to eight vacant city lots. The project is being funded in part by the Johnson administration’s Housing and Economic Development Bond.
Ald. Monique Scott (24th) said, ‘Growth should not mean displacement.’ The Missing Middle initiative is intended to revitalize and repopulate neighborhoods by building homes in areas where the housing stock has been hollowed out.
The program sells city-owned lots in the program to developers for $1, with the city subsidizing up to $150,000 per unit to develop for-sale housing. Homes built on these lots will be designed for households making less than 140 percent of the area’s median income.
Community Benefits
Developer Jasmine Shaw, who founded Westside Community Group, said her work with the organization now allows her to pay it forward for future generations. ‘This community raised me, but today I have the privilege of helping build it,’ Shaw said.
The project is estimated to have an estimated value of $37.7 million across five projects designed to transform 35 vacant lots. The program’s first homes broke ground in January with seven two-flats on Douglas Boulevard.
Original reporting: Block Club Chicago — read the source article.
