Blog

This blog is a part of our series examining the impact of the COVID-19 economy on Chicago households and communities. This third installment discusses data, research, and programs to guide equitable recovery efforts as COVID-19 protections and assistance enacted during the first two years of the pandemic end.

To inform our work on Cook County’s older adult housing needs and economic challenges, IHS tapped into the local knowledge of roughly 20 Chicago-area organizations to create a resource on key older adult demographic and socioeconomic trends. Read more here about the distinct challenges facing older adult renter and owner households in Cook County, as well as key policy challenges and information needs that emerged during our stakeholder engagement process.

For a decade, IHS has provided data and technical assistance to the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) to inform the organization’s programs, initiatives, and outreach in southwest Chicago. Read more here about how IHS data has helped SWOP target and rehabilitate vacant buildings after the Great Recession, distribute aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, and conduct targeted outreach to Southwest Chicago residents.

This blog provides an overview of the current state of 2 to 4 unit housing in Chicago, new pilot programs directed at preserving multi-unit housing in Chicago, and IHS’s work in community partnerships over the years that have provided insight on the 2 to 4 unit housing market.

With support from Urban Institute's National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership, the Institute for Housing Studies partnered with Communities United and Elevated Chicago to engage community members experiencing disproportionate impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more here about how data and community-driven narratives can guide equitable COVID-19 response and recovery efforts in Chicago.

This guest blog, co-authored by a group of Chicago housing organizations, responds to IHS's recent analysis on the importance of and threats to 2 to 4 unit buildings in Chicago. It emphasizes the disproportionate health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic across Chicago’s communities of color; the potential implications for the stability of Chicago’s 2 to 4 unit housing stock; and the urgent need for coordinated actions to address existing needs of families that rely on the affordability that 2 to 4 flats provide.

IHS recently updated our Mapping Stories of Neighborhood Change mapping tool to include neighborhood news stories published in 2020 mapped alongside our updated Mapping Displacement Pressure data. The mapping tool provides users with spatial, housing market, and demographic context and to assess the potential implications of the activities described in each article.

IHS recently expanded its Housing Market Indicators data portal to include additional information on neighborhood demographic and economic characteristics. These data will provide portal users with additional context to understand factors that may affect housing market activity in their communities.

This blog revisits local, state, and federal policy interventions that emerged during the beginning months of the COVID-19 crisis. Short term supports have been critical for those able to access relief, but many of the most critical economic supports have expired and stopgap measures to temporarily extend these programs are not enough to alleviate the current economic hardship faced by many households. Read more about how these policy interventions have evolved since the first stimulus package.

IHS provides data and technical assistance for Communities United (CU)— a community-based organization based in Albany Park which also serves Austin, Belmont-Cragin, Roseland, and West Ridge, on the Northwest, West, and South sides of Chicago— and its housing initiative Renters Organizing Ourselves to Stay (ROOTS). This blog highlights some of this work and how it has been used by Communities United.