This is an archived press release. Some links may no longer function. For assistance, please contact newsroom@depaul.edu.

May 31, 2007

Real Estate Center At DePaul Joins Urban Land Institute-MacArthur Foundation Project To Save Chicago-Area Affordable Housing

Center Receives $3.5 Million to Create Rental Housing Data Clearinghouse and Interagency Council

With a $3.5 million grant, the Real Estate Center at DePaul University joined a coalition of Chicago-area real estate, finance, philanthropic, non-profit and government organizations May 31 to launch a multi-faceted program to save affordable rental housing for low- and middle-income families in the Chicago region.

The Preservation Compact, a project created by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, seeks to halt the dramatic decrease of affordable rental housing in Cook County by preserving 75,000 existing housing units that might otherwise be lost by 2020. The comprehensive project is on the leading edge of a movement in cities across the nation to stop affordable housing declines that weaken urban workforces and economies.

Preservation Compact encompasses six key initiatives that address factors impacting the loss of affordable rental housing in Cook County and draws on a series of partnerships among local organizations to achieve its goals. As a partner, The Real Estate Center at DePaul is involved in two of the initiatives. One is the creation of a Rental Housing Data Clearinghouse to track the status of affordable rental housing in the region using data from city, county and state agencies and other sources. The database will monitor affordable housing trends among unregulated and government-subsidized rental units in Cook County and issue early warnings about government-supported rental buildings that are at risk of leaving the affordable housing market. The second initiative is the management of an Interagency Council that will work to improve strategy coordination and information flow among governmental agencies dedicated to preserving affordable rental housing that is at-risk. Both initiatives will be housed at DePaul’s College of Commerce on the university’s Loop Campus.

Details of the Preservation Compact initiative were unveiled at a May 31 luncheon hosted by ULI and the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. Underscoring the need for action, the announcement featured the release of a first-ever comprehensive study of current local affordable housing trends and forecasts by the Real Estate Center.

According to the DePaul study:

  • Of the 2 million housing units in Cook County, 835,000 are rental units, but only 353,000 are considered “affordable” (renting for less than $750 per month). The county’s rental housing is concentrated in Chicago, with clusters outside the border of the city. Within the city it is most densely located in the lakefront neighborhoods.

  • Three sweeping changes in the county’s rental market have accelerated a decline in the affordable rental housing stock since 2000: large numbers of renters sought homeownership because of historic low mortgages interest rates; owners of multifamily structures converted their rentals to condos to meet this demand; and rents on the remaining affordable rental units rose as supply fell. Cook County rental buildings are also much older than rentals in the rest of the country, increasing the risk for demolition or conversion.

  • If current trends persist, the county will lose two units of affordable rental housing for every one built by 2020, resulting in a loss of 78,000 units. The net result will be that more than 185,000 households will seek – but will be unable to find – affordable rental housing in Illinois.

    “The Real Estate Center’s research clearly shows that the loss of affordable rental housing is a major economic and societal problem facing our community,” said Susanne Cannon, the Douglas and Cynthia Crocker Endowed Director of the Real Estate Center. “We are proud to become part of the solution to this problem through our Preservation Compact partnership with ULI and the generosity of the MacArthur Foundation.

    “DePaul’s mission calls for the university to put its intellectual might behind improving the Chicago community and I can’t think of a better way for the center to advance our mission than by joining this worthy effort to preserve homes for the region’s hardworking low and middle income people,” she said. “As the premier real estate education and research center in the Midwest, we look forward to applying our expertise toward achieving this goal.”

    The Preservation Compact grant to DePaul continues the fund-raising success of the Real Estate Center, which is in the midst of a $16 million dollar fund-raising campaign. During the last two years, the center has received a $1.5 million gift from DePaul alumnus George L. Ruff, founder and senior principal of New York-based Trinity Hotel Investors LLC; a $2 million donation from Douglas Crocker II, retired CEO of Equity Residential Properties Trust, and his wife, Cynthia; a $3 million gift from an anonymous donor; and a $4 million endowment underwritten by the Michael J. Horne Education & Healthcare Assistance Foundation.

    Click to view photo.

    Caption: Julia Stasch, co-chair of Preservation Compact and vice-president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., DePaul president; and Susanne Cannon, director of the Real Estate Center at DePaul gather at a luncheon to celebrate the launch of Preservation Compact, a multi-organization initiative to save affordable rental housing in the Chicago area.

    For more information about the Preservation Compact announcement and to view the DePaul Real Estate Center study, “The State of Rental Housing in Cook County: Current Conditions and Forecasts,” visit ULI’s Preservation Compact Web site: www.chicago.uli.org