Rental Housing Alliance Hosts Cooperative Housing Breakfast

Cooperative housing inhabits a unique position in the affordable housing landscape.  To help clarify rules and obligations pertaining to subsidized cooperative housing, The Preservation Compact's Rental Housing Alliance hosted a breakfast in collaboration with the Interagency Council on Saturday, August 23rd, at the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University in downtown Chicago.  The purpose of the breakfast was to discuss the challenges in managing co-ops and maintaining affordability.

The broad discussion agenda for the morning included topics such as: the impact of opting out of and conversion to voucher-based Section 8; renewal strategies to maintain affordability in instances where owners opt out; and regulations pertaining to cooperative decision-making and budget-planning.  The enthusiastic participants also had a chance to share ideas about specific problems, including the need for bundling services to save costs and the challenge of educating potential residents about the differences between cooperatives and other forms of housing.

Participants expressed an interest in board member and resident training to help understand how cooperatives function and to learn about renewal options that would keep units affordable.  The combined leadership of the Chicago Rehab Network, the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, and the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University made this event possible, and the participation of co-op members made it a success.  More preservation-focused trainings are being planned for this fall.

Metropolitan Planning Council Highlights The Preservation Compact

Interagency Council Director Stacie Young of the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University participated in MPC's Back to the Drawing Board Event on September 10, where she discussed the work of The Preservation Compact and the Interagency Council.  The panel also featured Lynn Ross of the National Housing Conference and Center for Housing Policies and other local leaders.

The panelists touched on a wide range of issues, emphasizing the current challenges to development, the weak housing market, federal housing policy, and the need for local and regional initiatives to provide national models.  Immediately following the panel, a focus group was convened to obtain feedback from developers on a proposed Suburban Cook County Multifamily Preservation Initiative.  This initiative is intended to provide a “one stop shop” for financial assistance to encourage the rehabilitation and preservation of quality rental housing throughout Cook County.

Stay tuned to The Preservation Compact e-newsletter for more information about the suburban initiative, which is expected to launch in the Spring of 2009.  This initiative would represent a collaboration between Cook County, The Preservation Compact, MPC, and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus.