News

By Delaney Nelson, Austin Weekly News | October 3rd, 2024 (Click Here For Original Article)

If you want to become a homeowner, but don’t think you can afford it, the Cook County Land Bank Authority wants to help.

The Homebuyer Direct program, launched by the CCLBA in 2017, connects prospective buyers with below market-rate houses in need of renovation. The program aims to remove barriers that come with fixer-upper properties through grants up to 6% of a home’s purchase price, capped at $20,000.

“[Program grants] allow them to buy, rehab and ultimately move into the home of their home of their dreams,” said Darlene Dugo, deputy director of the CCLBA.

In 2024, the program expanded to assist buyers in purchasing developer-owned renovated properties or newly built properties on former land bank plots. The grant is only available for property that will become the owner’s primary residence.

Homebuyers may use grant funds to finance renovations, contribute to a down payment or closing costs or pay for things related to property transactions, like insurance or inspection fees. In addition, buyers must contribute at least $1,000 or 1% of the home purchase price, whichever is less.

There are two ways to participate:

For buyers interested in purchasing a fixer upper directly from the land bank, search the CCLBA’s interactive property viewer for available properties. Buyers may show their interest using the “apply” button on the property’s listing. From there, a representative from the agency will take potential buyers on a property tour and talk them through needed renovations.

The second option is to purchase from a developer. A list of qualifying properties can be found on the CCLBA’s website under “equity fund program.” This includes both developer-renovated properties and previously vacant land bank lots on which developers have built new property. Application documents are also listed on the website.

In either case, buyers must be mortgage-ready to apply for the grant money. That may mean going to homebuyer counseling, meeting with a lender and getting pre-approved for a mortgage.

Darlene Dugo, deputy director at the CCLBA, said the homebuyer direct program intentionally has few limits, aside from mandating the property be owner-occupied for a minimum of three years.

“We don’t impose any income restrictions, we don’t impose any credit score requirements. Essentially, we’re letting the applicant know, ‘Follow your lender’s guidelines, because they’re going to direct you,’” Dugo said. The program’s purchase assistance can be layered with other purchase assistance or down payment assistance programs, she added, as long as the buyer’s lender allows it.

Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle, first elected in 2010, has led a charge to investigate and create solutions for historic disinvestment. The CCLBA, which, aside from this grant program, acquires vacant, abandoned and foreclosed properties and develops them in a way that’s consistent with community stakeholder priorities, is a branch of Preckwinkle’s work.

In addition to making home buying more affordable and accessible, the land bank’s grant program “continues its mission of promoting redevelopment and reuse of vacant, abandoned, foreclosured, tax delinquent property,” Dugo said.

“Imagine having one delinquent property on your street and the havoc that that causes,” said Dugo. “That impacts everyone on that block’s property values. What we want to do is turn these properties into an asset for that neighborhood.”

In the past decade, the CCLBA’s partnerships with private developers have done just that: created jobs, built affordable housing and aided in the revitalization of disinvested communities across Cook County, according to the organization’s ten-year impact report. At a cost of just over $185 million since 2014, the CCLBA’s programs generated $9.77 for every dollar spent.

In Austin, CCLBA’s reach extends beyond homeownership. On Oct. 10, PCC Community Wellness will host a ribbon cutting ceremony for its Austin Primary Care Pavilion, which was built on former Land Bank plots. The center will offer medical care, job opportunities, an urban farm and workforce development programming. And earlier this year, local developer Leodus Thomas Jr. unveiled a newly restored eight-flat residential building in Galewood. It includes five affordable residences and was also built on plots purchased from the Land Bank.

By Evelyn Holmes, ABC 7 News | February 23, 2024 (Click Here For Original Article and View the Video Broadcast)

CHICAGO (WLS) — The South Side neighborhood of Ashburn is stronger as a community Friday as they celebrated the opening of Jerk Soule restaurant.

“This is beautiful, this is so needed,” said resident Angel Harrell.

The grand opening of the Jamaican-soul food fusion eatery near 82nd and Kedzie is the dream of self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur Judith Smith as a way to honor her late father, who was a soul food cook, and her love of Jamaican food.

“He was a cook and it was my dream to always do something for him,” she said.

Smith was able to grow her restaurant from a food truck to a brick and mortar diner because she was able to purchase a vacant building through the Cook County Land Bank Authority.

“In the past, buildings like this would have sat vacant for 10 or 15 years, but now with visionaries like Judith, it’s now a community asset,” said Jessica Caffrey, executive director of the CCLBA.

Over the last 10 years, the CCLBA has acquired vacant and tax distressed properties which it then sells to buyers willing to invest in the area.

“We don’t want to see vacant properties in our communities because it brings down our property values,” said 18th Ward Ald. Derrick Curtis.

Not only are Chef Orlando Currie’s traditional Jamaican favorites like oxtails and curried goat on the menu, Chef Marty Cunningham is also serving up mac and cheese, collard greens and fried chicken.

Jerk Soule is also the new home of Rib Jibz bbq sauce, the first time the sweet and tangy sauce is available in store.

“This is blessing just to have it inside a physical building until I can get my own building,” said Doretha Ferguson.

Friday afternoon the restaurant was packed, and the investment in the community is already paying off. There’s a Black-owned nail salon down the street already open, and Judith hopes to be able to expand buy another property pretty soon. She wants to turn it into an event space or jazz club.

By Trey Arline, Block Club Chicago | April 12th, 2023 (Click Here For Original Article)

WEST GARFIELD PARK — Elaine Bell-Quinn’s mother and father came to Chicago separately during the tail end of the Great Migration, looking for more opportunities.

The two met and married, raising their family — including Bell-Quinn — in West Garfield Park. But as Bell-Quinn grew up, the neighborhood struggled with disinvestment.

Now, Bell-Quinn’s helping to revitalize the neighborhood and reclaim her family’s legacy — starting with her family’s home block.

Earlier this month, the Cook County Land Bank Authority awarded Bell-Quinn the deed to the land at 4738 W. Monroe St., which is next to her family’s longtime home at 4742 W. Monroe St. The deed was free as part of a community wealth initiative to restore struggling neighborhoods and incentivize investment in them.

Bell-Quinn and her partner, Brian Quinn, plan to establish the Kitteh Soup Kitchen & Garden on the vacant plot to grow fresh produce for the neighborhood and beautify the area. It will also serve as a cat sanctuary for stray felines.

Bell-Quinn, who lives in Logan Square with her partner, said she saw a need to return to her childhood home and create a positive legacy.

The home, which has stood since the 1920s, has been set ablaze twice: once during the 1991 Chicago Bulls championship and again during 2020’s unrest, Bell-Quinn said. But Bell-Quinn’s project is reimagining the house and the land next door, turning it into a space that can feed neighbors.

The garden will be up and running by this July.

“There are still good people that live in these communities,” Bell-Quinn said. “We need to remember where we came from in order to know where we’re going. I’m just blessed, humbled and filled with so much gratitude.”

Bell-Quinn’s parents were both from Mississippi, but they didn’t meet until her mother moved to Chicago in 1960. Bell-Quinn, 50, was born, and her parents bought the Monroe Street home West Garfield Park with help from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, she said.

Bell-Quinn’s family was close: She remembers the way her dad taught her to make frozen pizza with the cardboard, and her mother shared her love of gardening.

Bell-Quinn left Chicago in 1990 to go to the University of Tulsa. Afterward, she lived in Louisville, Kentucky, and throughout the East Coast before returning to Chicago in 2000.

Bell-Quinn then worked as a stage actress and director throughout the United States — but she was always based in Chicago.

Bell-Quinn’s family had sold the Monroe Street home, but she and her partner bought it back in 2015 with big dreams of moving in.

Over the years, West Garfield Park had suffered from systemic neglect, Bell-Quinn said. There were vacant lots, a lack of food healthy food options and abandoned properties.

The couple began work to revive the family home. They’re doing a gut rehab: replacing the flooring, piping, stairs, doors, wiring and more.

As they’ve worked on the revival, they also set their sites on the property next door, they said.

The lot at 4738 W. Monroe St. had once held a two-flat that had been vacant for years, officials and Bell-Quinn said. It was set on fire during unrest in 2020 and demolished.

Bell-Quinn and Quinn learned they might be able to secure the deed to the land through an auction in 2021, they said.

The Land Bank hosts auctions for properties that are severely delinquent on taxes; eventually, the person who wins the auction can acquire the property through a complicated process. The idea is to restore the properties to the tax rolls and put blighted or vacant land and buildings into the hands of residents who can restore them.

The West Garfield Park land was given to Bell-Quinn through the group’s Holiday Sale initiative — which is providing her and 10 others with land for free.

“We’ve witnessed firsthand the impact when we empower community members and local developers to reclaim and resurrect abandoned parcels that depress home values and drain community wealth in Cook County’s Black and Brown neighborhoods,” Cook County Land Bank Authority officials said in a statement. “The sale is one step in the right direction toward putting these properties into the hands of residents and community organizations.”

Bell-Quinn had dreamt about owning the two plots when she was a little girl. Now, it’s reality — allowing her to strengthen her community rather than sever ties with it.

“I just want to be an inspiration as much as I can so that we can move in the right direction,” Bell-Quinn said. “It’s people that are the largest resource that’s missing from our community. It’s important that we are proud of who we are and where we come from.”

Though the area is struggling, Bell-Quinn’s happy memories from her youth give her hope, she said.

“We want to give people more than just blight,” she said.

Bell-Quinn has long prided herself on her love of nature; now, as an adult, she’s delved into sustainability work, making her own soap and other cleaning products while gardening, she said.

Bell-Quinn credits her green thumb to her family’s roots as sharecroppers who were experts at working the land in Mississippi. Her mother, who lives in North Lawndale, still gardens today at 81.

But converting the long-neglected land at the house in West Garfield Park into a thriving garden has been a large project, costing about $5,000 in seeds, fertilizer, tools and other needs, Bell-Quinn said.

But Bell-Quinn and Quinn plan to distribute the food they grow to neighbors throughout the area.

“It’s very lovely to go grocery shopping in your backyard,” Bell-Quinn said.

Sustainability for the garden is also important to Bell-Quinn, given the systemic pollution on the West Side. She hopes to have a net-zero environmental impact and wants to install solar panels.

“We’re not treating the Earth right, so I’m doing my duty as a human citizen to have a positive impact on my environment,” Bell-Quinn said. “What we do with our lives and how we treat things is not sustainable.”

Bell-Quinn and Quinn said the community is grateful for the garden, as West Garfield Park has become a food desert in recent years. They’ll grow raspberries, strawberries, onions, peppers, asparagus, thyme, elderberries, gooseberries, turnips, beets, collards, kale, tomatoes and corn, helping to nourish their neighbors with fresh produce.

The garden has also become home to 17 stray cats. It is designated as a cat colony by Cook County, and the couple is certified to train and assist others with animal spay and neuter work.

Bell-Quinn hopes their level of investment in the garden inspires others to invest in the communities’ health, she said.

“I can see the negligence and what the lack of care does to us,” Bell-Quinn said. “It’s in my roots to care for Mother Earth. I am just doing my due diligence as a human being to take care of whatever I’m doing to not have a negative impact on this Earth.”

By Michael Romain, Village Press | July 14th, 2022 (Click Here For Original Article)

The village of Bellwood is looking to build even more homes just as two of the most recent homes the village constructed are close to selling for $425,000 each. 

In an interview on July 14, Bellwood Mayor Andre Harvey said purchases are currently pending on the two homes at 130 49th Ave. and 132 49th Ave. The homes were built on a lot just off St. Charles Road that used to be a gas station. 

According to Harvey’s count, Bellwood now has 25 of what Crain’s Chicago Business dubbed “village hall-built houses,” or homes that the village has been building on its own since 2016, as a way to improve its housing stock. 

In Bellwood, most homes are between 900 and 1,200 square feet. The two homes on 49th Avenue are each 2,150 square feet. 

Last month, the village board approved the purchase of another eight vacant residential lots in Bellwood through the Cook County Land Bank Authority, an agency that helps restore vacant land and abandoned properties. 

The lots are at 241 Bohland Ave., 411 48th Ave., 119 50th Ave., 610 S. 23rd Ave., 2402 St. Charles Rd., 2408 St. Charles Rd., 3403 Monroe St. and 3407 Monroe St.

Harvey said that because the lots are small, the homes that get built will be roughly 1,900 square feet — smaller than the two new homes built on 49th Avenue, but still larger than the typical Bellwood home. 

“The amenities on the inside of the future homes will be the same [as the ones on 49th Avenue],” Harvey said. 

According to Redfin, the two new homes in the process of being purchased feature granite countertops, a master bedroom with a soaking tub and stainless steel appliances, among other amenities. 

The mayor said the village hopes to start construction on the lots “as soon as possible,” adding that he recently learned that the price of lumber “is going down a little bit. We’re eying the price every day. We hope it decreases a bit more. We don’t want to pass on too much additional cost to the consumer.” 

The housing construction is part of Bellwood’s plan to attract more homeowners to the village, Harvey said. 

“We have to build,” the mayor said. “I’m trying to make Bellwood a true destination community where everybody and anybody wants to come and live. We want to keep people interested in coming to the community.” 

By Josh Niland, Archinect | February 11th, 2022 (Click Here For Original Article)

As part of the firm’s desire to fill the “middle market” of residential housing options with inspiring contemporary architecture, Chicago-based practice Future Firm has designed a new 1,300-square-foot residential project, called Hem House, that has provided the city with a sustainable model for building the bedrock of successful mixed-income communities. 

The design team worked with real estate developer Jacob Root to create the project with the hopes of diversifying the housing stock available to those interested in the area where new residential construction costs usually begin at $600,000. 

“While there’s a very vibrant art and culture scene in Chicago, there isn’t a lot of bespoke contemporary architecture, and what exists in residential is almost exclusively very high end — so we’re hoping to help change that narrative,” co-principal Ann Lui explained. “Because Chicago residential lots are all the same size, it’s easy for people to repeat plans and end up with a lot of underwhelming architecture. We’d like to be a trend in a different direction.” 

Located in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago, the array of brick townhouses and two-flats typify the neighborhood’s residential structures. Using a narrower footprint than that of its neighbors, the designers say they were able to create an “easily replicable model” apt for use in one of the city’s myriad vacant lots. 

“This unique use of the typical Chicago 25’ x 125’ residential lot allows Hem House to be experienced as though it is on a much larger site,” Future Firm’s co-principal Craig Reschke shared. “It also allows for large windows that let in natural light but also remain private from the street.”

The home is defined by dual-stacked volumes clad in black metal siding that is typically used as a roofing material to give it the “sharp” and “clean-looking” aesthetic associated with contemporary residential design. A central entrance is tucked into the side yard, opening into a combination mudroom and laundry station followed on the right side by an L-shape kitchen and the distribution of the living areas which have been positioned to maximize light and seclusion in unison with its vibrant white gypsum board interior.

The house was completed last summer and hit the market for $399,000. It later sold and, as Darlene Dugo of the Cook County Land Bank Authority tells it, now stands as a shining example of the ways in which flexible single-family units can reshape communities by recharging disused areas. 

“For too long, blight caused by decades of redlining and the 2008 housing crisis has depressed property values and economic investment in Black and Brown neighborhoods,” she said. “By reclaiming vacant lots and building affordable, beautiful community assets, Hem Development is demonstrating what is possible when we enable local architects and developers to resurrect abandoned space.”

By Stacey Sheridan, Forest Park Review | January 16th, 2022 (Click Here For Original Article)

Construction is underway on Garfield Street, where crews are building a new welcome center and front-facing adoption center for the Animal Care League (ACL) at 1003 and 1009 Garfield St. Crews broke ground last month, but the transformation of the two buildings is starting to materialize.

“The outline for the walls is up and you can really see what the two buildings are going to look like and the space that we’re going to have for animals,” said ACL Executive Director Kira Robson.

The work is the first phase of a wider four-part plan to expand the nonprofit animal shelter’s premises, which will ultimately allow ACL to take in more animals and increase its in-house care services.

“It is well overdue, and we are so excited,” Robson said of the planned expansion.

ACL spent over a decade trying to buy the run-down, abandoned building at 1009 Garfield St., which sits between three other shelter-owned structures. The shelter was finally able to acquire the property in the summer of 2019, with the help of the Cook County Land Bank Authority.

The first phase of the expansion plan focuses entirely on 1003 and 1009 Garfield St. Eventually each of ACL’s four buildings will be joined to create one large structure, but in the meantime, Robson is thrilled that ACL will finally have a lobby.

“We’re very excited about it because if you’ve ever been here, we don’t have that kind of a space right now,” she said.

The lobby will house the welcome center, as well as offices and a community room, where ACL plans to host birthday parties and seminars. The center is meant to be, as Robson described, “an engaging space for the community.”

Currently, ACL takes in about 1,200 animals each year. With the new adoption center, it will have the ability to house two to three times as many rabbits, cats and dogs and do so in a lower-stress environment. It will also allow for discrete adoption, as well as medical and intake spaces. The full adoption center includes dog suites as opposed to kennels, plus communal cat adoption rooms and suites for cats with feline immunodeficiency virus and feline leukemia. Rabbits haven’t been left out either. The center will feature an expanded rabbit adoption area.

“It’s going to have a really serious impact, not only on the animals we serve, but our volunteers will have a better space to come and volunteer,” said Robson, who expects the first phase of the project to be finished in March or April of this year.

Upon completion, the plan is to move directly into the following phases, which focus on the expansion of ACL’s in-house medical capabilities and construction of training spaces for animals, as well as “real life rooms,” which Robson explained are designed to feel like a home environment to get the animal adjusted to that lifestyle.

How quickly ACL can move forward with phases 2-4 depends entirely on the community, according to Robson. Funding will be key in determining how quickly construction crews will be able to move from phase to phase. ACL plans to announce a capital fundraising campaign in the coming weeks.

“I truly hope that Oak Park is going to realize how important it is for us to have this kind of a facility, both for the animals and the community,” she said.