Goals

Renters Organizing Ourselves to Stay (ROOTS) is a collaboration between non-profit housing leaders Chicago Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation (CMHDC), Enterprise Community Partners and other community organizations to address the loss of affordable housing. Working with local and federal officials, the alliance was able to gain the cooperation of Fannie Mae, the owner of many foreclosed properties, to make these properties available at a 30 percent discount. Enterprise and CMHDC stepped up with some of the financing (with no government subsidy), and CMHDC did the hard work of buying the buildings and rehabbing them for a price that would make rents affordable to working class tenants.

Results

Canopy was brought on board to help develop renovation plans for three of these properties, in an effort to improve livability, curb appeal and building performance for 2- and 3-flat multi-family workforce housing rentals, and for-sale properties on the northwest side of Chicago. A portion of the properties were preserved as affordable rentals while others were developed as market rate rentals to mitigate the shortage of workforce housing units in Chicago.