In one of the most significant housing investments in recent city history, Mayor Brandon Johnson has backed words with dollars — channeling $300 million into neighborhoods where the pressure of rising rents and falling populations has been felt most acutely.
The announcement, made April 1 at City Hall alongside the Chicago Department of Housing, signals a deliberate pivot toward community-rooted development on the South and West sides, where decades of disinvestment have left residents caught between a housing market they can no longer afford and a city they have long called home.
The Scale of the Commitment
Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Department of Housing announced an investment of more than $300 million in 15 affordable housing developments across the city as part of the 2025 Qualified Allocation Plan. “Today we take a transformational step forward in our mission to make ‘housing as a human right’ a reality for every Chicagoan,” said Mayor Johnson. “Each unit we build empowers families to plant their roots in our city while increasing the ability for long-time residents to stay in their communities.”
Of the 15 projects, 12 will be new construction, totaling 798 units, while three will focus on preservation, accounting for 425 units. In total, the projects will create or preserve 1,223 housing units, of which 1,164 will be affordable. These include 566 Chicago Housing Authority units, 445 family-sized units with two or more bedrooms, and 130 units designated for households earning 30 percent of the area median income.
The total development costs for the 15 developments are estimated at $711 million, incorporating public and private resources. This includes approximately $16 million in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, which will generate an estimated $100 million in private equity, and an estimated $300 million from city financial assistance. When projects receive city assistance, they enter into agreements that guarantee 30 years of affordability for tenants.
Transit-Oriented and Community-Driven Design
A defining feature of this investment round is its intentional connection to public transit infrastructure. The mayor said 13 of the 15 developments are transit-oriented, meaning they are located within a half-mile walk of a train station or high-frequency bus route. That design principle reflects a broader city strategy of concentrating density and affordability near transit corridors — making it easier for residents to live without a car while staying connected to employment, services, and community.
DOH Commissioner Lissette Castaneda said: “We are thrilled to present these fifteen awardees and commend the development teams for prioritizing affordable housing amidst our current housing crisis. We are looking at more than a thousand units coming to communities that, in a lot of ways, are seeing rising rates of displacement. LIHTC is one of our most powerful tools to ensure that developments reflect the needs of our residents, especially our lower income residents.”
A School Becomes a Home in West Englewood
Among the 15 developments, one carries particular symbolic weight. In West Englewood, the former Bontemps Elementary School at 1241 W. 58th St. will become Bontemps Apartments. The school was one of 50 Chicago Public Schools closed in 2013, and the property was sold by the district last year. The new housing development will be adjacent to the forthcoming Englewood Nature Trail.
The conversion of a shuttered school into affordable housing is a direct response to one of the most politically contentious chapters in recent Chicago history. The 2013 school closings — the largest single-day closure of public schools in U.S. history at the time — gutted neighborhood anchors on the South and West sides. Returning one of those buildings to community use, as housing for families who have remained in the neighborhood, carries meaning that goes beyond square footage.
Mayor Johnson acknowledged the geographic intent of the investments directly: “Through many of these developments, we are able to hold to our commitment to repopulate our city. That’s why many of these developments are on the South and West sides of our city, where we know the need for housing and affordability is greater.”
Senior Housing Gets a Dedicated Allocation
Three of the projects are reserved for seniors: Woodlawn Senior Living in Calumet Heights, Hollywood House Apartments in Edgewater, and Gateway Apartments Preservation in Rogers Park — “guaranteeing that our seniors are cared for,” Johnson said.
The senior-designated developments address one of the city’s more quietly urgent housing challenges. Older Chicagoans living on fixed incomes are disproportionately vulnerable to rent increases and displacement, and affordable senior housing in well-connected neighborhoods has remained a persistent gap in the city’s housing supply.
600 Vacant Lots Released for Purchase
The housing announcement was paired with a second, equally significant move. The city also released more than 600 vacant, city-owned lots for purchase through ChiBlockBuilder — the most offered since the city portal launched in 2022. Thirty parcels of land in West Englewood and South Chicago are available through the city’s Missing Middle Program, which aims to revitalize neighborhoods by creating affordable paths to home ownership.
Five clusters of land along 69th Street in West Englewood and South Baker and Buffalo avenues in South Chicago are available for owner-occupied housing developments containing up to six units. On the West Side, a 2.6-acre site in Austin is available for redevelopment as townhomes and multi-family buildings. The site represents “one of the largest contiguous development sites on the far West Side” and is near the Laramie Green Line station.
The lot release creates a secondary tier of housing opportunity — one aimed at smaller-scale developers, community land trusts, and individual homeowners rather than institutional builders. Together, the two announcements represent a layered strategy: large-scale subsidized rental housing on one hand, and accessible land for ownership on the other.
Cutting the Tape on Process Reform
The developments will also serve as a test case for the city’s reformed planning and approval process. Through Mayor Johnson’s “Cut the Tape” initiative, these projects are expected to move more efficiently through approvals and financing. The city anticipates that closing on these developments could happen within 18 months, helping bring units to market faster.
That timeline matters. Affordable housing in Chicago has historically faced significant delays between announcement and construction, eroding trust and leaving communities waiting years for promised units to materialize. A faster pipeline, if it holds, would represent a meaningful operational shift for the Department of Housing.
The Context: A City Still Short 100,000 Affordable Homes
Chicago is facing a shortage of more than 100,000 affordable homes, according to the Chicago Housing Authority’s own assessment. “In Chicago, we’re short nearly 128,000 homes for families at the lowest income levels. That means tens of thousands of people living on that thin line between stability and uncertainty, where one setback can push a family out of housing altogether,” said Matthew Brewer, Operating Chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority.
Against that backdrop, 1,164 affordable units represents meaningful progress — but only a fraction of the need. What the announcement signals as much as anything is a commitment to a development model that prioritizes permanence, community connection, and anti-displacement rather than market-rate absorption of public subsidy.
For Chicago residents in neighborhoods like West Englewood, Calumet Heights, Rogers Park, and Austin, the test now is whether the city’s housing momentum translates into units people can actually move into — and stay in for decades to come.
