UPTOWN'S VOICE OF THE PEOPLE AIMS FOR LONG-TERM AFFORDABLE HOUSING THROUGH THE DIVERSITY LAND TRUST

Voice of the People in Uptown, Inc., a resident-controlled housing organization for more than 50 years, has formed an exploratory committee for a model community land trust to ensure lasting housing affordability. The “Diversity Land Trust” would begin with three Voice rental properties financed by Community Investment Corporation (CIC), structured with benefits that could attract other housing providers across the city.

The Diversity Land Trust comprises just a portion of the Voice portfolio: 22 units in the six- and eight-flats at 4409 N. Racine Ave., 4861 and 4927 N. Kenmore Ave. Tenants in these newly renovated units would continue to pay the same rent, said Michael C. Rohrbeck, Voice executive director.

4409 N. Racine Ave.

(Voice of the People photo)

The tenants are earning 50 percent of the Chicago Area Median Income (AMI), or $31,200 for a single-person household ($35,650 for two). The AMI has not yet been established for the Diversity Land Trust, Rohrbeck said.

The objective is to continue the affordability of these units, past the term of any one loan or mortgage. Citywide, the model seeks to pioneer a way to assure long-term affordability for multi-unit apartment buildings in gentrifying areas.

Property taxes are the biggest difference between high-cost and low-cost communities, Rohrbeck said. The advantage of the land trust will be that it taxes the units not at the market rate, but as affordable housing.

4927 N. Kenmore Ave.

(HotPads photo)

“We’re trying to achieve the ideal economic and racial diversity in our community, and you can’t sustain the economic diversity unless you can sustain the affordable housing,” he said. “You can’t sustain the affordable housing if the property tax or other tax pressures make it unfeasible.”

The 15-member exploratory committee includes Jack Markowski, president of CIC and former Chicago commissioner of housing; Jennie Fronczak, executive director of the Chicago Community Land Trust; Ted Wysocki, former CEO of the Uptown-based Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) and principal of U2CanDo consulting; and Janet Smith, University of Illinois Voorhees Center for Neighborhood & Community Improvement.

The committee will inventory issues and options for structuring the land trust this year. It will also meet with government and property tax assessment officials, funders and lenders, to consider startup in 2022.

–Suzanne Hanney