West suburbs to receive more than $3M from Cook County to rehab, redevelop foreclosed homes and multi-family buildings

Collaboration of 6 municipalities is working together to target funding, leverage additional state, federal resources for coordinated, sustainable development

(Chicago) … The Cook County Board of Commissioners announced on November 4 that a group of 6 communities in the west suburbs of Chicago, including some hardest hit by foreclosures, will receive $3,067,089 to use for foreclosure recovery.

The funding is a portion of the $28,156,321 the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded to Cook County through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), created by HUD to assist communities that have been or are likely to be affected by foreclosed and abandoned properties.

To put the funding to its best use, a group of 6 municipalities formed the West Cook County Housing Collaborative to coordinate redevelopment efforts in their communities. The $3,016,400 will help redevelop foreclosed homes and rental buildings in Bellwood, Berwyn, Broadview, Forest Park, Maywood and Oak Park.

“West suburban leaders are ready to use this funding to purchase foreclosed homes and rehabilitate and sell them to families who are interested in purchasing a home in our communities,” said Mayor Henderson Yarbrough, Sr., of Maywood.

Oak Park Village President David Pope commented that, “Forming the West Cook County Housing Collaborative was a key to our success in securing NSP funding from Cook County. Instead of each community applying on its own, we worked together to submit one, coordinated application for all six of our communities.”

The West Cook County Housing Collaborative has earned the support of a wide range of nonprofit organizations, foundations, and companies across the region. The collaborative received financial assistance from The Chicago Community Trust and Grand Victoria Foundation to hire and support the IFF, a non-profit financial institution and real estate consultant, as its housing coordinator. The IFF will help the West Cook County Housing Collaborative carry out its foreclosure recovery activities and serve as a single point of contact for residents, partners, funders, employers and other stakeholders.

With the financial assistance of the Grand Victoria Foundation, the Metropolitan Planning Council and Metropolitan Mayors Caucus are helping support and coordinate the entire collaborative process. The Oak Park Regional Housing Center will work with the Collaborative to identify and prepare qualified homebuyers and tenants to purchase a single family home or rent a rehabilitated unit.

Resources: To learn more about the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, visit http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/communitydevelopment/programs/neighborhoodspg/.

If you are interested in buying a home or renting an apartment in Bellwood, Berwyn, Broadview, Forest Park, Maywood or Oak Park contact Priscilla at the Oak Park Regional Housing Center at (708) 848-7150.

Contact Liz Reyes, Senior Project Manager, IFF, Housing Coordinator for the West Cook County Housing Collaborative, at 312-521-7381 or lreyes@iff.org

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published by Suburban Journals of  Chicago Inc.