CHICAGO (CBS) – As thousands of people wait for the opportunity to own their own homes, the Chicago Housing Authority is looking to renovate long-vacant properties as a cheaper alternative to building new homes.
Some have been stuck on a social housing waiting list for years for a place they can call their own. The Chicago Housing Authority is working on one solution to the problem.
Like every mother, Shavon Nowell has a few shadows that follow her.
“Can you please sit here?” she told her daughter.
Nowell laughed when those shadows wouldn’t leave her alone during an interview. CBS 2 stopped by before school to hear about the glimmer of hope she said saved her and her daughters.
“If we weren’t called here, I was afraid we were going to be homeless,” Nowell said.
She worried they would become homeless because Nowell’s rent in the suburbs had become too high. In addition, the Chicago Housing Authority property she had her sights on was unavailable.
“I had been on a waiting list for 25 years,” she says. “And I knew I would never have that, and if I did, my kids would all be grown.”
A relieved Nowell found a newly renovated CHA apartment in Little Village within five months of changing her location preferences.
“So that was a blessing,” she said.
It was also the result of a new initiative from the Chicago Housing Authority called “Restore Home.” To date, the CHA has completed renovations of five apartment buildings and three single-family homes, according to CEO Tracey Scott.
Scott added that existing CHA money, about $50 million, will be used to renovate vacant agencies. Some buildings were empty for several months or years. For others, it’s been decades.
“They just sat there,” Scott said.
So why did it take so long to maintain those properties?
“I really can’t talk about the past,” Scott said. “All I can say is: we’re here now.”
The agency’s goal was to get more than 200 homes back online by mid-2025. Some jobs are small, and others not so much.
For one example, Scott showed CBS 2, “The outside looks great, but the inside was pretty much a gut job.” Still, renovating the building makes more financial sense than building it from the ground up.
“Relatively speaking, it’s cheaper and a little easier to say, ‘Let’s start with existing properties,’” she said.
All the commotion in the East Garfield Park neighborhood attracted positive attention.
“I’ve been staring at the vacant building for about 10 years,” said Katherine Robinson, a local resident. “It’s exciting. It’s exciting. We need new life in the neighborhood.”
The tenants should move into the three apartments by the end of the summer.
As for people who qualify for public housing, CHA has 130,000 applicants in its system, hoping to be placed in public housing. Scott acknowledged that a few hundred new housing options won’t solve the problem, but “every step counts,” she said. This is especially true since every step can be a family.
Nowell’s building was one of the first completed “Restore Home” projects.
“The environment is good,” she said. “It’s nice and clean and they’re happy.”
The CHA said the “Restore Home” plan is intended to improve any vacant property. The places that would be too expensive to renovate could be sold.
Lauren’s victory
