A public-private partnership that's been building affordable homes on the south and west sides of Chicago broke ground on another one today in the Roseland neighborhood.
The lot is on 118th Street, just east of Michigan Avenue, where there are six new homes that have transformed the block.
The Reclaiming Chicago Initiative is a partnership between the Cook County Land Bank, the Hope Center Foundation and Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives.
One new homeowner who bought her house through the program, Doris Key, said it’s more than a house.
“This is about stability, a fresh start and chance to leave something for my children and grandchildren,” she said.
Pastor James Meeks, CEO of the Hope Center Foundation, said, “we’re trying to do the best we can to change these neighborhoods that have been too long forgotten.”
County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said empty lots are like missing teeth.
“There’s an empty lot here, there’s an empty lot there,” she said, “and what you want to do is kind of fill in the missing teeth.”
She said this is also about creating generational wealth, stable neighborhoods and improving safety.
David Doig, the President of Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, said the homes are priced at an affordable level.
“They’re mid-200s,” he said, “getting a house in Chicago for less than 400 or 500 thousand is amazing.”
He noted that Roseland has lost about 60 thousand people in the last 15 years.
The goal of the Reclaiming Chicago Initiative is to build two thousand affordable homes on the South and West Sides.