Business leaders can help address their employees’ housing challenges in many ways, such as offering lunchtime credit counseling sessions, letting employees know about local and state rental and homeownership assistance programs, working with community leaders to market redeveloped homes in the area to employees, and even providing direct financial assistance. All of these are considered “Employer-Assisted Housing”— an idea MPC wholeheartedly supports.
In Carpentersville, 35 miles northwest of Chicago, family-owned OTTO Engineering has stepped in to address the housing crisis by buying 80 foreclosed homes in the community. OTTO has renovated 50 of the homes so far to make them more energy-efficient and, consequently, more affordable for families, through improvements such as new electrical and plumbing systems and new windows. The company already has sold 20 homes to local workers and other stakeholders.
“Carpentersville is our home, and we want to contribute to a strong, vibrant community,” said OTTO President Tom Roeser. “We are delighted to help our employees live in town and attain the dream of homeownership.”
Hear more from Roeser on why he embarked on this EAH initiative by watching this special CBS 2 report by Bill Kurtis.