Program provides regional context for Highwood’s efforts to preserve housing options
(Highwood, Ill.)….. Across the region, key working
professionals such as teachers, nurses and firefighters increasingly are unable
to afford homes in the communities where they work. The disparity is forcing
workers to endure “extreme” commutes from areas where the housing is not
expensive but where jobs are scarce, putting a strain on families, leading to
unnecessary turnover at local businesses, and causing unprecedented traffic
congestion for everyone on the roads. To call attention to the growing mismatch
between where good jobs are available and where people can afford to live, on
Wednesdays at 9 p.m. throughout September, Highwood TV-Channel 19 in Highwood
will air Welcome Home: Housing Our Community
, a program that takes a closer look at the need for workforce
and affordable housing in all communities in
northeastern
Illinois.
As of the 2000
census, Highwood boasted a housing stock that was 28 percent affordable overall, a
rare asset on
the
North
Shore. However, housing
costs already have escalated to a point of pricing many working families out of
Highwood, and development pressures are threatening to significantly reduce the
availability of affordable for-sale and rental homes in Highwood.
One analysis suggests that the
percentage of affordable homes in the city could plummet to as low as 16 percent
within the next few years.
To ensure that Highwood
continues to serve and attract residents with a range of incomes, city leaders
are developing strategies to improve their existing affordable stock and spur
new investments that provide quality housing options for both buyers and renters
alike.
Highwood Ald. Margaret
Ronzani recently said, “As an alderman in Highwood, and a member of our Housing
Committee, I am working with my peers to explore policies and programs that
enable us to preserve and expand such opportunities. It troubles me, for
example, that we have teachers who have to commute 60 minutes each day to school
because they can’t afford to live in the quality district where they teach. This
is as much a disservice for the kids in our schools as it is for the teachers’
own families.”
Welcome Home
–
created by the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC), a regional nonprofit
planning and advocacy group, and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, an organization
comprised of mayors of all 272 municipalities across the region, and produced by
Chicago Video Project – brings together mayors, developers and residents from
across Chicagoland to talk about why all communities need housing affordable to
the local workforce.
The program
also reveals innovative approaches local communities are taking to create and
preserve homes that both serve the needs of the local workforce and fit the
character of their neighborhoods.
“Local leaders across the region recognize the need for more workforce and
affordable housing, and many are taking steps to expand housing options for the
people who live and work in their communities,” said Joanna Trotter, manager of
the Metropolitan Planning Council’s Community Building Initiative. “City leaders
in Highwood have been working with us and with our task force of real estate,
finance, communications, and housing experts to develop strategies to create and
preserve housing at a range of prices because they recognize the importance of
providing homes for the local workforce.”
Preview a trailer of the 12-minute program, narrated by
longtime Chicago TV news anchor and journalist Bill Kurtis, on the MPC Web
site. For more information about Welcome Home, contact Mandy
Burrell, MPC communications associate, at 312-863-6018 or mburrell@metroplanning.org
.