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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.

The Preservation Lab is an initiative co-directed by the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University (IHS) and The Preservation Compact that aims to investigate complex and timely affordable housing topics and inform affordable housing policy through applied research and stakeholder engagement.

Through the City Tech Connect Chicago Innovation Program, the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University (IHS) and MAPSCorps teamed up to create data indicators, sustainable processes, and tools to help community organizations access, analyze, and compare neighborhood-level data that can be leveraged to support local policies and issues.

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.

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.