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News 2020-09-18T12:53:42+00:00

A West Woodlawn native wants to right redlining wrongs with some greenlining — and he’s starting in the neighborhood where he grew up

By Darcel Rockett, Chicago Tribune  |  June 13th, 2020   (Click here for Original Article)
To fight the generations-spanning, discriminatory housing practice known as redlining with nine homes in a pocket of the South Side might seem, at first, like David going up against Goliath.
But Lamell McMorris has big plans for several lots in West Woodlawn, which he sees as one step toward building up the neighborhood where he grew up.
McMorris, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate developer and civil rights activist, has formed a new property redevelopment firm meant to right the wrongs of redlining, in partnership with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
Chicago TribuneThe firm, Greenlining Realty USA, broke ground in late June on Woodlawn Pointe, a mix of new and rehabbed residential properties in the West Woodlawn area including seven new-construction and two renovated homes in a mix of single- and multi-family buildings.
McMorris said he hopes the quality housing Woodlawn Pointe provides will kick-start the investment his community needs to flourish and to reverse the impact that redlining left in its wake.
“Ours is not necessarily a challenge of gentrification; ours is reverse migration. I’ve got people moving out and I’m trying to get people to move back,” McMorris said.
McMorris’ endeavor comes at a time of increased awareness of redlining, a systemic practice where Black people were denied the ability to invest in property from 1933-1968. Real estate agents created color-coded maps of cities, where areas colored green were safest and red were riskiest.
The ongoing policy was a creation of governmental agencies like the Federal Housing Authority, working in conjunction with banks, appraisers and the real estate sector to deny mortgages or housing loans to those in the Black community.
Redlining enforced segregation and created a wealth gap that Blacks have yet to rebound from (and area organizations continue to propose solutions for), while whites could build wealth through equity in homes.
To McMorris, people are investing in parts of Woodlawn, but not his neighborhood on its west side. But its proximity to the lake, Hyde Park, the Dan Ryan and Lake Shore Drive make it ripe for growth.
There’s history there, and big plans for the future. “A Raisin in the Sun” playwright Lorraine Hansberry based the drama on her family’s experience in its Washington Park subdivision. Gwendolyn Brooks, Joe Louis and Hugh Hefner have called Woodlawn home, and the Obama Presidential Center is set to be built on Woodlawn’s portion of Jackson Park.
“Why would you not invest in West Woodlawn?” McMorris said.
Work on Woodlawn Pointe has already begun on Evans Avenue — seven lots acquired through the Cook County Land Bank Authority, an independent agency of Cook County that acquires vacant, abandoned and tax-delinquent properties and sells them at below-market rates. Buyers must be community-based developers who then rehab the properties and sell them to homeowners.
The new-construction homes should be done by fall, McMorris said. But that — along with a gut rehab of his childhood home at 742 E. Marquette Road — is just the start; he hopes to see a revitalized community within the decade.
For the Land Bank, this is the first project under its umbrella to involve multiple nearby homes being built or rehabbed at once, said Executive Director Rob Rose. Infill development — an urban renewal strategy focused on transforming vacant lots or other unused property — such as Woodlawn Pointe is exactly what the Land Bank hopes to promote.
“Infill development is something that is a real economic boost, because you’re building off the strength of a neighborhood,” Rose said. “That southwest quadrant of Woodlawn is ripe for this kind of development, and it provides for opportunity all the way around. So it’s something that we’re excited to be a part of.”
While federal regulations are supposed to ensure housing discrimination doesn’t exist, modern forms of redlining still reverberate through Chicago’s South and West sides. A recent WBEZ/City Bureau study found that from 2012 to 2018, 68.1% of money loaned for housing purchases in Chicago went to majority-white neighborhoods, while 8.1% went to majority-Black neighborhoods and 8.7% went to majority-Latino neighborhoods.
Homeowners in redlined neighborhoods in Chicago lost an average of $232,000 in home equity compared to those in greenlined neighborhoods over the past four decades, according to a June report from real estate brokerage Redfin. The median home equity for those in the “best” neighborhoods was $462,000. That’s a 101% difference in home equity between homes deemed “hazardous” and those deemed to be in the “best” neighborhoods.
The historic segregation still impacts the city’s neighborhoods, said Taylor Marr, Redfin’s lead economist. Even now, Black homeowners, the report found, are nearly five times more likely to own in previously redlined neighborhoods.
“In Chicago, in particular between 1960 and 2010, not a single neighborhood went from majority black to white,” he said. “Those neighborhood boundaries that were explicitly designed back in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s by race and segregated, essentially didn’t change at all.”
As for what can be done to right those wrongs, Marr said there has been a shift in awareness over the past five years and more effort to take action. But real impact, he noted, takes time.
“What we’re seeing more and more is that these things are very stable over time,” he said. “And it takes a significant group of efforts to really change the effects of the discrimination or even how cities are so segregated.”
Rose considers Woodlawn Pointe a way toward building neighborhood wealth in Woodlawn. For two- or three-flats being built, buyers could engage in what some call “house hacking” — living in one apartment while renting out the others to cover the cost of the building’s mortgage with a passive income.
“It’s a great way to turn real estate from a liability to an asset,” Rose said.
McMorris said he’s trying to put forth a blueprint for equity with his South Side project, creating strategies and opportunities for his neighbors who have historically been unable to participate in their environment as equity partners.
But it’s a constant battle, he said. In some cases, his team has to fight to show his West Woodlawn properties deserve the same high-quality finishes found in properties on the pricey North Shore.
“There shouldn’t be two sets of rules, two different standards — there should be one standard of good, quality housing,” McMorris said. “I’m attempting to do real work that says quality housing, quality development deserves to live, can live and is still profitable in this place that was once dismissed and disinvested in.”
It can feel like an uphill battle, but McMorris said he has a point to prove.
“I just have to do it and show people that it can be done and that my neighborhood deserves good housing product and inventory,” he said.
And he wants to make sure that when the developers do come knocking, they do it with intention.
“Anyone can come in my neighborhood and flip houses,” McMorris said, “but if you’re really trying to do a true neighborhood transformation, it takes an amount of leaning in that will lead to the outcome that is (the) real community that was around when I was a kid — livable, walkable and playable.”
July 13th, 2020|Categories: News Articles, News articles on CCLBA|Comments Off on A West Woodlawn native wants to right redlining wrongs with some greenlining — and he’s starting in the neighborhood where he grew up
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Humboldt Park Developer Says Pandemic Is Right Time to Build Affordable Housing

Noticiero Bilingue Lawndale News  |  May 21st, 2020   (Click here for Original Article)
Now that COVID-19 has turned the world upside down, Luis Castro and his wife Marsha, co-owners of L&MC Investments, are determined now more than ever to pursue their mission of creating affordable housing in communities like Humboldt Park, Hermosa, Berwyn and East Garfield Park.
“This is the right time to create affordable housing for people,” said Luis Castro, president of L&MC investments, and a Humboldt Park resident. “With affordable housing, people might still be able to carry their mortgage and have a little bit left over.”
L&MC Investments is currently building 12 brand new affordable single-family homes in Humboldt Park through a partnership with the City of Chicago. And during the past five years, the company has also partnered with the Cook County Land Bank Authority to rehab vacant, abandoned properties. The company has rehabbed about five properties that it acquired from the Land Bank and is currently rehabbing a property in the Hermosa neighborhood. 
“The Land Bank helps make things affordable,” Castro said. “They’re easy to deal with, and we’re able to close deals a lot faster. These programs are important. Otherwise, everybody would be priced out. People who have been renting a long time in these areas deserve to have an affordable house.”
The Cook County Land Bank Authority acquires properties that have sat tax‐delinquent, abandoned and vacant for years and sells them at below‐market rates to qualified community‐based developers, who then rehab the properties. The Land Bank recently released 250 new abandoned properties for sale on its website: http://www.cookcountylandbank.org/.  In spite of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Land Bank is receiving more applications for its abandoned properties now – about 30 each day – from small developers like L&MC Investments than this time last year.
“Understandably, there’s a fair amount of trepidation among some small developers because of tighter lending criteria from banks, making it harder for small developers to get new loans to acquire property,” said Rob Rose, executive director of the Cook County Land Bank Authority.  “But many of our developer clients are optimistic that transactions can move forward. The pandemic is not slowing down rehabs or new applications for our properties.  For those small real estate developers who are well-capitalized, this economy presents a great opportunity to acquire property and revitalize communities.”
Castro said his company, which has redeveloped and built about 50 properties since its inception in 2007, will continue building up its rental pipeline and acquiring new properties for which they’ve already secured funding.
Although the pandemic has not slowed down Castro’s development work, it has impeded rent payments from some of his tenants.  He owns four rental buildings in Humboldt Park and Ukrainian Village.
 
“Some of my tenants have been laid off,” he said. “Some are behind paying rent. You have to be lenient with them. It’s a crisis. It’s not their fault. You can’t kick anybody when they’re down.”
In fact, Castro and his wife are finding ways to lift up their tenants and other people in their community. They’ll use a $5,000 grant they just received to buy toys for the children of their tenants who’ve been laid off, donate food to the Chicago Police Department’s Shakespeare District and homeless people in Humboldt Park and provide hand sanitizers and gloves to senior citizens.
Castro said that because both he and his wife grew up in working-class households, they are committed to giving back to their community. 
“We didn’t have the bells and whistles,” he recalled. “Our parents lived from paycheck to paycheck. We always said if we could, we’d give back. Affordable housing is really a way to give back.”
May 22nd, 2020|Categories: News Articles, News articles on CCLBA|Comments Off on Humboldt Park Developer Says Pandemic Is Right Time to Build Affordable Housing
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South Side developer thriving despite COVID-19, thanks to pipeline offered by Cook County Land Bank Authority

The Chicago Citizen  |  May 20th, 2020   (Click here for Original Article)
South Side developer thriving despite COVID-19, thanks to pipeline offered by Cook County Land Bank Authority
The mortgage crisis of 2008 put real estate developer Keith Lindsey, founder and CEO of Solar Energy Construction, out of business for four years. But this time around, Lindsey’s business is thriving, in spite of the COVID-19 crisis.
A general contractor for more than 20 years, Lindsey recently sold two single-family homes in Englewood since the pandemic hit Chicago, and he is now rehabbing a six-unit Englewood building that will be discounted housing for veterans in honor of his father, a veteran who died last year. He credits his success to being smarter with money, plus the Cook County Land Bank Authority’s vast pool of low-priced abandoned properties, tailor-made for small local developers.
“You learn from your mistakes,” said Lindsey, who has been back in business for five years. “You learn what not to do. You’re just smarter with money. And having a pipeline with the Land Bank makes it easy to keep going.”
Lindsey is one of several small developers who is putting bids on the 250 abandoned, vacant properties that the Cook County Land Bank Authority recently released for sale on its website: http://www.cookcountylandbank. org. In spite of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Land Bank is receiving more applications for its abandoned properties now – about 30 each day –than this time last year. Last year, the Land Bank averaged 300 applications a month from developers vying for its properties.
“Understandably, there’s a fair amount of trepidation among some small developers because of tighter lending criteria from banks, making it harder for small developers to get new loans to acquire property,” said Rob Rose, executive director of the Cook County Land Bank Authority. “But many of our developer clients are optimistic that transactions can move forward. The pandemic is not slowing down rehabs or new applications for our properties. For those small real estate developers who are well-capitalized, this economy presents a great opportunity to acquire property and revitalize communities.”
“I believe if you buy something very cheap and you put your good love in it and make it affordable, I think it will sale, I don’t care where it is,” Lindsey said. “Right now, with the interest rates being low, it’s cheaper to own than rent. So you should give people what they want to buy.”
The Cook County Land Bank Authority, an independent agency of Cook County, acquires properties that have sat tax‐delinquent, abandoned or vacant for years and sells them at below‐market rates to qualified community‐based developers who rehab the properties.
Since its inception in 2013, the Land Bank has worked with more than 400 small developers to rehab more than 600 single family homes and generate $77 million dollars in community wealth.
“The Land Bank offers a very fair program for small developers,” Lindsey said. “They make you crawl before you walk. They come and make sure your rehab work is up to par. It’s a very nice opportunity that came to Chicago, and for me, personally, the Land Bank changed my life.”
May 20th, 2020|Categories: News Articles, News articles on CCLBA|Comments Off on South Side developer thriving despite COVID-19, thanks to pipeline offered by Cook County Land Bank Authority
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Land Bank to give away free South SIde home rehabbed by HGTV’s Downing Brothers

ABC-TV News  |  August 11th, 2019   (Click here for Original Article)
CHICAGO (WLS) — The Cook County Land Bank Authority is giving away a free, newly rehabbed home in the Washington Heights neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side this fall.
The Land Bank opened its lottery registration Saturday, and it’ll run through Sept. 15.
The winner would be awarded a single family home with a mortgage that has already been paid in full. The new homeowner would only be responsible for paying property taxes, insurance and utility bills.
The popular twin Downing Brothers of the HGTV pilot show “Double Down” helped rehab the home.
Anyone interested in entering the giveaway can register online at www.cookcountylandbank.org/homeownergiveaway.
Authority officials said the third annual home giveaway is intended to raise awareness about its Homebuyer Direct Program, which helps people purchase vacant, abandoned homes at below-market rates, rehab them and earn immediate equity.
The program has provided more than 140 homes to home buyers since 2017, the Land Bank said.
The authority will select a winner once the lottery closes next month.
September 23rd, 2019|Categories: News Articles, News articles on CCLBA|Comments Off on Land Bank to give away free South SIde home rehabbed by HGTV’s Downing Brothers
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Here’s how to win this newly rehabbed home in Washington Heights

By Manny Ramos, Chicago Sun-Times  |  September 7th, 2019   (Click here for Original Article)
Elaine Lee was facing an extremely difficult time in 2007.
Her husband had recently died. Her arthritis was getting worse. And then she lost her job. Like many homeowners in that year leading up to the Great Recession, she started falling behind on her mortgage.
“I was forced to sell or lose everything,” Lee said.
With the proceeds, “I was able to live on my own for a little more than a year.” But after that, money eventually dried up; she lived with her daughter or her sister for nearly a decade.
Chicago Sun-TimesThen, in 2017, she received a call about a raffle that was underway; the winner would get the keys and deed to a newly renovated home. Naturally skeptical about “free” things, she assumed there was some sort of catch.
“I honestly thought this home giveaway wasn’t real because a lot of time people offer things up for free, and you just get a bunch of junk afterwards,” Lee said. “My daughter insisted it was real, and on the last day of registration I agreed to let her sign me up.”
Good thing, too.
The 68-year-old great-grandmother won the Cook County Land Bank Authority’s first Home Giveaway” that year, which she called a divine “blessing.”
This year, over 14,000 people have entered to win the Land Bank’s third annual giveaway.
That’s far more than the 3,700 who entered last year or the 2,800 in 2017, the year Lee won.
The deadline to register is Sept. 15.
The home being given away this year is in the Washington Heights neighborhood and is newly renovated. The winner is responsible for property taxes, insurance and utilities.
Entrants must be at least 21 and able to move in within 90 days of winning.
Plan on staying, too. The home must also be the winner’s primary residence; they aren’t allowed to rent it out.
South Side brothers Anton and Anthony Downing led the renovations with sponsorship from Fifth Third Bank.
“We are committed to helping people achieve affordable homeownership and enhancing their financial literacy, and that’s why we’re proud to sponsor the Land Bank’s home giveaway,” Nicole Johnson-Scales, a Fifth Third vice president and head of community development, said in a statement.
The Land Bank was formed in 2013 by the Cook County Board of Commissioners to address communities hit hard by the mortgage crisis. It promotes the “redevelopment and reuse of vacant, abandoned, foreclosed or tax-delinquent properties.”
The annual giveaway also raises awareness of the Land Bank’s Homebuyer Direct Program, which allows people to buy vacant land or abandoned homes at below-market rates to rehab them.
Rob Rose, executive director of the Land Bank, said many homes were lost during the foreclosure crisis and there wasn’t anything in place to address those issues early on. The homebuyer direct program does just that, he said.
“What we wanted to do at the Land Bank was to stabilize the housing stock,” Rose said. “As families started to recover and get stable jobs, we wanted to be able to provide them with a way to get into the housing market, earn home equity quickly while also stabilizing communities by getting families into homes that were often seen as eye sores.”
Rose said the annual giveaway shows how abandoned homes can be rescued.
“It feels good to be able to stand on my own two feet now and have a place where my grandkids and great-grandkids can visit me or stay the night,” Lee said. “I am able to enjoy and watch them grow up.”
September 23rd, 2019|Categories: News Articles, News articles on CCLBA|Comments Off on Here’s how to win this newly rehabbed home in Washington Heights
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A Lucky Chicagoan Will Win a Free House Rehabbed by HGTV’s Downing Brothers

By Erin Ivory, WGN-TV  |  August 28th, 2019   (Click here for Original Article)
CHICAGO — The Cook County Land Bank Authority is giving away a mortgage-free next month, with an assist from a pair of local celebrities.
One lucky Chicagoan will receive the keys to the Washington Heights home rehabbed by brothers Anton and Anthony Downing of HGTV’s “Double Down.” It was a perfect pairing for the job, taking place in the same neighborhood where they grew up.
“It means everything to us to get to make a difference in these neighborhoods across the South and West Side,” Anthony Downing said.
The three bedroom home sits on a tree-lined street, and has a newly rehabbed kitchen and hardwood flooring throughout.
It’s the third house the Cook County Land Bank Authority is giving away, and Executive Director Robert Rose says anyone can enter as long as they are over 21, can move in by October and commit to living in the home long-term.
“This giveaway changes lives. There’s no mortgage payment to worry about… the new homeowners have all the equity,” Rose said.
Anyone interested in participating has until September 15 to enter.
August 29th, 2019|Categories: News Articles, News articles on CCLBA|Comments Off on A Lucky Chicagoan Will Win a Free House Rehabbed by HGTV’s Downing Brothers
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