News

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.

The 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.

“Why would you not invest in West Woodlawn?” McMorris said.

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.

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.”

“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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

“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.”

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.”

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.

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.

Then, 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.

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.”

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.