Blog

How have policymakers responded to help communities weather the economic crisis resulting from COVID-19? This blog is part of our recent series examining the impact of the pandemic in Chicago neighborhoods and highlights local, state, and federal policy interventions that aim to provide housing and financial stability during a time of economic uncertainty. As the duration of large-scale unemployment and long-term impacts of the pandemic remain unclear, these policy approaches are evolving and fast-moving to respond to changing needs.

A recent IHS blog provided a preliminary analysis of the rental housing market implications of a COVID-19-related economic downturn. This brief follow-up blog takes a closer look at homeownership and provides an initial analysis of how a COVID-19 related economic downturn could impact homeowners in Cook County.

To support Chicago-area housing and community development practitioners as they think through the need for housing and place-based interventions, the Institute for Housing Studies (IHS) has created a new analysis to highlight the potential economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on households with workers in occupations more vulnerable to mass layoffs.

As part of our new series that highlights examples of IHS technical assistance projects, this blog shares about a partnership between IHS and Greater Chatham Initiative.

We are starting a new blog series that highlights examples of IHS technical assistance projects. In this blog we describe a recent partnership IHS worked on in East Garfield Park.

IHS has mapped stories in the Chicago media highlighting neighborhood real estate investments, announcing new development projects, or describing the ways the neighborhood residents are responding to changes in their communities.

IHS congratulates The Preservation Compact and the Interagency Council on 10 years of vital work to preserve existing affordable housing in Cook County. During a time when affordable units are being lost at a rapid rate, they have been innovative and collaborative in their dedication to protecting and maintaining affordability.

The Preservation Compact’s 2019 policy response to the State of Rental Housing in Cook County

This blog highlights how Chicago’s designated Opportunity Zones align with displacement pressure in the city’s neighborhoods and discusses what this means for the implementation of Opportunity Zone investments.

Since 2010, the number of children in Chicago declined by 40,000. Chicago ranks near the top of cities in the nation for child population declines, right behind Cleveland and Detroit.