“Three Year Impact Assessment —Apartment Building Foreclosures and the Depletion of Rental Housing in Chicago”
The Tenants in Foreclosure Intervention Project releases 2011 Report
Mark Swartz, Legal Director
(312) 784-3520
CHICAGO—Apartment building foreclosures continue to be filed at alarmingly high rates in Chicago, threatening to reduce the number of available housing units. This has serious implications as Chicago is already facing a rental housing shortage and an affordability crisis. LCBH reports that from 2009 to 2011, more than 50,000 rental units went into foreclosure in Chicago, which comprises nine percent of Chicago’s entire rental housing stock. The collective impact of unrelenting foreclosures over the last three years has not only impaired the rental housing market, but has had devastating effects on individual households, Community Areas, and the City as a whole. The loss of housing units strains an already overburdened and increasingly unaffordable rental housing market, potentially resulting in higher rates of homelessness, and families having to “double-up” or lease unsuitable units. Many neighborhoods are experiencing severe blight, and the City is incurring catastrophic expenditures to deal with empty buildings.
In the report and accompanying fact sheet, LCBH identified four issues within the foreclosure crisis that impact renters, Community Areas, and the City.
1. Lack of information regarding tenants’ rights during foreclosure leaving tenants susceptible to housing instability
2. Community-wide impact of Foreclosures on Apartment Buildings causing community destabilization
3. Vacant Buildings are a City-wide Problem and siphon substantial municipal funds
4. Banks Refuse to Keep Renters in their Homes exacerbating Chicago’s rental housing shortage
