Home Grown: Local Housing Strategies in Action, the "living" collection of housing best practices implemented by local governments throughout the Chicago metropolitan region, has been updated for 2007.
Originally released at the end of 2006, and created through a partnership between the Metropolitan Planning Council, Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, and Chicago Metropolis 2020, Home Grown contained more than 35 housing best practices from theChicago region.
We're happy to announce 16 additional case studies have been added for 2007.
Home Grown shows municipal officials and housing developers how their peers are working on housing issues, and provides ideas for replicating or improving upon these approaches to address their own local housing challenges. This collection demonstrates there are many innovative local housing efforts occurring in our region. This document is meant to be a “living” resource, and it will be updated annually with new examples of housing best practices across the region. This year’s inserts were researched and written by Elana Berenson of Chicago Metropolis 2020.
Home Grown includes such topics as housing affordability, preservation and rehabilitation, inspection policies, accessibility, homeownership programs, and fair housing. For instance, Joliet's Local Homestead Program uses funds from the Illinois Housing Development Authority to provide housing opportunities for low and moderate-income families and improve property conditions in Joliet. Seven new housing developments have been added in 2007, including Park Forest's Legacy Square (pictured above), which resulted from a partnership between Park Forest and Bigelow Homes. Once the site of a defunct shopping mall, Legacy Square has rejuventaed Park Forest's downtown and is a model for other communities.
If you would like a hard copy of the 2007 updates or of the entire Home Grown publication, or you would like to suggest a local housing development, policy, or program to be included in future editions, please contact Beth Dever with the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus (312/201-4507; beth.dever@mayorscaucus.org), Nancy Firfer with Chicago Metropolis 2020 (312/332-2020; mailnancy.l.firfer@cm2020.org), or Josh Ellis with the Metropolitan Planning Council (312/863-6045; jellis@metroplanning.org).