The Preservation Compact: A Rental Housing Preservation Strategy for the Country
By Kate Walz, Senior AttorneyWith over nine million renters in this country paying more than half of their income toward housing and the nationwide supply of decent, affordable rental housing only shrinking, the Cook County Preservation Compact might be an idea worth replicating nationally.
Just over a year ago, the Shriver Center joined the Preservation Compact-a rental housing preservation strategy supported by the MacArthur Foundation. The Compact strives to preserve 75,000 units of affordable rental housing in Cook County by 2020. Key to making that goal is to improve collaboration of preservation work among public and private bodies.
As part of the Compact, my Shriver Center colleague Sam Tuttle and I regularly meet with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA), the City of Chicago Department of Housing, the Interagency Council (which coordinates the preservation work of the public agencies) staff, and the Chicago Rehab Network to discuss at-risk federally subsidized properties in Cook County. We share information, analyze research, determine what properties are at risk, and cultivate ideas for how to save them. We now have a list of properties we will target to preserve-be it by improving conditions, identifying preservation purchasers, or helping the owner reduce operating costs and commit to long-term preservation.
This new dynamic does not mean that the Shriver Center is never at odds with public agencies over how or if to preserve certain properties. We are on occasion, but because we can approach HUD, in particular, about an at-risk property and find a bright, receptive person willing to make it work, the Compact’s goal is possible for Cook County and the rest of the country.