Stay in Place: New Initiative to Preserve Homeownership in Underserved Chicago Communities

As Chicago neighborhoods continue to evolve, long-time residents face challenges to remain in communities they’ve helped shape. Research has shown that for many South and West Side families, homeownership has been the primary vehicle for building financial security and generational wealth. However, in underinvested and rapidly changing areas, that promise is becoming harder to achieve for some. Aging homes and the high cost of repairs often leave families with properties that lose value over time and threaten their stability and legacy. In response, The Chicago Community Trust is piloting a Stay in Place initiative aimed at preserving homeownership and home equity, preventing displacement, and supporting wealth-building opportunities for low and moderate-income Chicagoans.

The Stay in Place initiative is providing grants to nonprofit organizations that provide essential home repair services and affordable housing preservation efforts. It is also supporting research to better understand the processes by which homes, the largest sources of wealth for most families, are transferred from one generation to the next. The pilot is focused on communities that have been traditionally underinvested in and residents at high risk of displacement to learn if doing home repair, rent stabilization, and estate planning in slightly different ways across different communities will have an impact. “By testing this at a hyper-local level – literally block by block – we hope to demonstrate the type of concentrated approach necessary to see change,” said Matt Shomo, the Trust’s program manager for Homeownership & Home Equity.

In June, the Trust awarded $3.4 million in grants to kick off the Stay in Place initiative.

Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation

With the Trust’s grant, the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation at the University of Chicago is conducting a groundbreaking study on intergenerational wealth transmission, with a focus on how homeownership is passed down through generations. The research seeks to answer a critical question: when a homeowner passes away, does the property stay in the family, or is it lost to foreclosure or outside sale?

“We want to empirically measure intergenerational wealth transmission in Chicago and how it varies across neighborhoods. The goal of the analysis is to discover the factors that make intergenerational inheritance more and less successful, with the hope of identifying key barriers and developing potential interventions to help address them,” said Dr. Christopher Berry, faculty director of the Mansueto Institute. The findings could inform future policy and programming to ensure that more families can retain and build upon the wealth embedded in homeownership.

Chicago Bungalow Association

The Chicago Bungalow Association empowers Chicago homeowners — especially in historically disinvested communities — to preserve and adapt their long-standing homes for the future. In Englewood, where over 75 percent of residents are over the age of 60, the UnBlocked Englewood initiative, led by the Chicago Bungalow Association, is transforming how home repairs are delivered. This program clusters services on a single block to test whether concentrated investment can uplift entire neighborhoods.

This initiative will provide repairs to 50 homes, connect residents to estate planning services, and encourage the purchase and beautification of vacant lots. “We’re testing what happens when you invest deeply, not just in homes, but in the people and the block as a whole. It’s about proving that coordinated community reinvestment can stabilize neighborhoods and shift the narrative around aging housing stock,” explained Gillian Wineman, deputy director at the Chicago Bungalow Association.

By conducting pre- and post-repair appraisals, the project will also generate results on how home repairs impact property values on the block, potentially reshaping how the City of Chicago approaches housing stabilization programs.

The Resurrection Project

In Pilsen, where gentrification has rapidly shifted demographics and housing affordability, The Resurrection Project is launching a forgivable loan program to help homeowners make critical repairs without incurring debt. The program offers up to $75,000 in zero-interest loans to owners of two-to-four-unit buildings who maintain rental affordability for five years.

“We’re helping longtime homeowners stay in their homes and preserve affordability for renters by addressing critical repair needs that might otherwise force a sale”, said Kristen Komara, vice president of The Resurrection Project’s Full Circle Homes, “This program is about stabilizing families, preserving the community, and protecting the housing stock that makes Pilsen unique.”

According to the 2022 American Community Survey, Pilsen has experienced a 43 percent increase in median income and a 17 percent decline in its historically Latine population. A 2021 study by the Urban Institute found that long-time homeowners are more likely to live in inadequate housing that requires maintenance. This is particularly true in Pilsen, where 60 percent of homes were built before 1940 and have repair needs. High construction costs make basic home repairs unaffordable for many long-time homeowners, yet keeping them in place is crucial to preventing displacement. Over the past decade, The Resurrection Project’s work has been vital to ensuring that long-time residents are not priced out of their own neighborhoods and that homeowners can stay in their homes.

The Trust’s Stay in Place initiative represents a vital step toward ensuring that long-time South and West Side Chicagoans can remain in their homes, build wealth, and thrive in their communities. By investing in home repair, estate planning, and anti-displacement efforts, the Trust is addressing immediate needs but also laying the groundwork for long-term stability. Through collaboration, learning, and shared commitment, this pilot aims to uplift neighborhoods and preserve wealth through homeownership for generations to come.

“Having equity in your home is having power in your community, and for far too long, residents in underserved Chicago neighborhoods have had neither. This is about more than just housing. It’s about dignity, legacy and equity, Shomo said.”