Chicago Housing Trust Board

Updates: New board members will be at the next meeting. Anthony Simpkins, Liz Butler, Tania Kadakia, and Joel Rodarte.

Finance committee report by Calvin Holmes: the board received written copies before the meeting and voted to approve it.

Audit status: check in call last Friday with auditor, who said the process is going smoothly. No findings as of April 1. Holmes says this is good. Next meeting May 24.

Review of Quarter 3 and 4 Financials: net assets shrunk by about $7,000. Holmes said this is just a small dip. “Cashflow will be great”. 2021 will end a little bit in the red.

Budget: The budget approved at the end of last year. TBI Reimbursement can’t be counted as new revenue. Budget can afford a new employee. Joy Arguete says “We need an additional staff person which will bring us to three.” Currently Jennie Fronczak and Destiny Edmonds are on staff

The initial work was managing ARO units coming in, providing services to home buyers, and doing the work of the Chicago Community Land Trust. Demolition program has created a significant volume of work.

TBI: Troubled Business Initiative tool to help reclaim troubled & abandoned buildings w hazardous conditions for residents, neighbors & 1st responders
ARO: Affordable Requirements Ordinance (requires new residential developments have 10+ affordable units among other requirements)

Homeowners & Marketing Report by Nyasha Nyamapfene. Marketing website updates on logo, vision statement, colors, etc. Next phase of rebrand will be social strategy, press release. Staff will post on their LinkedIn pages & Chicago Housing Trust will launch a LinkedIn page too.

Website: http://chicagohousingtrust.org Next step is to create a place for participants to submit applications through the site. Rebrand from Chicago Community Land Trust to Chicago Housing Trust

Behind the scenes work with media to pick up press release? Maybe present as a solution to community fears of Obama Presidential Center? WTTW Chicago Tonight “best local news in whole wide world” Calvin Holmes, would love to see this here

Rollout of opt-in program, opportunity for news story, website will be live by April 17. Application window at least 8 weeks, maybe 10, to give applicants opportunity to understand the program and gather/submit documents

Another new marketing project: equity metrics and corresponding goals. This is in early stages. Race, size of household, age, and ethnicity are some of the metrics they’ll consider. We do some tracking of income already.

“Non-college elites” are benefiting from the housing trust. We want to support “working people who haven’t had the benefit of a university degree”.

Affordable units priced at 80% AMI (Area Median Income) or lower.

Policy and projects report: Will Towns.

New opportunities and programs to create affordable and sustainable housing. One is the opt-in program. Developing metrics to evaluate the success of the program. Ability for people to stay in their homes and neighborhoods is extremely important.

Process to create an easy online permit process. Public would like demolition surcharge money to go back into housing, not administrative costs. If houses demolished in Pilsen cost $1,000, that money should go back into Pilsen. Pilsen Housing Cooperative has contacted CHT

Department of Housing passed Land Bank ordinance and reached out about properties in CHT land properties. This is an opportunity to concentrate housing in communities/neighborhoods. W Humboldt Park housing and vacant land - working together to acquire land and put plans in place

Labor and construction costs fluctuate. Rising inflation and interest rate impact on housing means maybe we should save money to subsidize housing.

Over 20 million closed mortgages. AMI ranges of homebuyers at closing: average of 80%. A lot of legacy units are posted at 60-80%. New units are most priced at 100-119%

Data on homeowners by race. Not too much movement between 2020-2021, but adding a lot of larger units this year. Graphs compare by race including Black, white, and Asian, Pacific Islander, and by ethnicity Latino and non-Latino. Why do they leave out so many racial/ethnic groups?

Ribbon cutting for Emmett Street Apartments May 20 at 9am in Logan Square. Big event, opportunity for press

CHT board is unsure whether to go back to in-person meetings or stay remote. Zoom attendance has been better than in person, for CHT and all boards. Most seem to favor zoom.

Closing for 3617 W Cortland property April 29. Local family, mom dad and three kids.

April is National Fair Housing Month, the month that the Fair Housing Act was passed.

Next meeting is June 2. Meetings are scheduled for the first Thursdays of even months. The auditor will present.

This meeting’s participants were Jennie Fronczak, Calvin Holmes, Joy Aruguete, Lisa Herrera, Marisa Novara, Nyasha Nyamapfene, Benjamin Helphand, Ciere Boatright, Destiny Edmonds, Lissette Castañeda, Terri Haymaker, and William Towns.

Meeting adjourned at 10:28am. This concludes the Chicago Housing Trust Board meeting. For more meeting coverage, check out http://documenters.org.