Continued...

Housing and Jobs

The collaborative is working with the Washington D.C.-based non-profit Self-Help Ventures Fund/Self-Help Credit Union to help lower income people buy homes in the new developments. And anticipating that the ongoing credit crisis may make it hard to find the desired number of homebuyers, they are preparing for long-term rental situations which still fit into the vision of forward-looking, stable communities.

Planners realize structural redevelopment can only go so far, and they hope their use of NSP funds can also help attract new employers and retail. The area’s cargo transport corridors and industrial history also make it a good candidate for green manufacturing, perhaps making wind turbine or solar panel components or weatherization materials, meaning manufacturers and developers could benefit directly or indirectly from the ARRA’s allocation of Weatherization and Energy Saving funds. Developers and homeowners could get stimulus funding for weatherization; and manufacturers of energy efficient building components who could potentially open factories in the area would also see healthy demand for their products thanks to the stimulus.

Planners also hope to entice existing or future employers to participate in employer-assisted housing, which they describe as a win-win situation wherein employers could subsidize employees’ housing. Porras points out that such situations mean lower turnover, hence lower costs, for both the housing management company or developer and the employer.

“At the end of the day everybody wins because the housing being built stands a better chance of success, and the employer reduces turnover and has their HR costs reduced,” said Porras. “It’s a no-brainer.”

To date, the two Collaboratives were awarded over $12 million in NSP dollars through Cook County (more than $9 million for South Cook and more than $3 million for West Cook).

For the highly competitive NSP 2 application which is submitted directly to the federal government, the south and west suburban Chicago communities are part of a larger regional application drafted by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), a regional governmental agency. In this case the official collaboration between the south suburban communities isn’t key to getting the funds, but the relationships and plans that were built for NSP 1 will be key to effectively carrying out projects with NSP 2 money and beyond.

“NSP is just a catalyst for this type of work to be done,” said CMAP senior housing planner Lee Deuben.” The intent wasn’t that these relationships would simply dissolve once NSP funds were gone, but rather that 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.”