Chicago, Illinois: The City's Troubled Building Initiative Renovates and Preserves Deteriorating Apartments

Chicago, Illinois: The City's Troubled Building Initiative Renovates and Preserves Deteriorating Apartments

HUD User publishes a series of case studies based on federal, state, and local strategies that increase affordable housing opportunities and support community development. The projects and community development efforts featured in these reports have demonstrated innovation through a multitude of partnerships and initiatives.

The city of Chicago launched the Troubled Building Initiative (TBI) in 2004 to stem the loss of multifamily buildings offering "naturally affordable" apartments. A significant number of these apartments, which offer unsubsidized rents that are still affordable to lower income households, were in poor condition or at risk of being abandoned. With 436,700 Chicago households eligible for federal housing assistance and only 104,000 living in subsidized housing, the city's lower income renters depend heavily on market-rate housing. The program has preserved more than 17,000 apartments since its inception. In recognition of TBI's contribution to affordable housing preservation, Chicago won the 2016 Robert C. Larson Workforce Housing Public Policy Award from the Urban Land Institute's Terwilliger Center for Housing.

Visit HUD User's Case Studies page to learn more about affordable homeownership and to view other promising examples of how communities across the nation are raising the bar on community development.

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