The Illinois Housing Development Authority - Housing Principles and Strategies

The Housing Task Force’s vision for the availability of housing for Illinois’ citizens and communities is: Quality housing, affordable to each household, with accessible and appropriate services where needed, that supports individual and family success. Housing is an essential asset and economic engine for neighborhoods, integral to Illinois’ ability to achieve its goals for robust communities for the citizens of Illinois.

Achieving this vision will require the work of many contributors, both within and outside state government. The Housing Plan outlines the housing-related activities 15 Illinois state agencies will undertake to achieve this vision. The agencies will work together to coordinate their housing programs to ensure Illinois citizens receive the maximum possible benefit. While the Housing Plan will guide the activities of the agencies, final approval of all projects remains with the agencies.

The three overriding housing principles—Affordability and Choice, Creation and Preservation, and Leadership—provide the organizing policy and planning framework for the Housing Plan. Together, these principles set the direction for state activities.

The Task Force has identified strategies that are designed to demonstrate both immediate and lasting impact on the people of Illinois, and specifically for the priority populations identified in the executive order. The 24 strategies outlined in the Housing Plan will result in state agencies working in new ways to intentionally target housing assistance to the priority populations, coordinate programs and policies, ensure efficient use of resources, and be accountable for their activities and outcomes. As part of this work, the state agencies commit to marketing the programs in the Housing Plan to all potentially eligible Illinois individuals and families, and referring their consumers to appropriate programs at other state agencies. To ensure coordination, relevant state agencies will meet regularly in the new Housing & Services Committee and Development Coordination Committee. Agency representatives will discuss specific projects, communities, and areas of consumer need to prioritize funding, as well as develop new projects and coordinate programs.

Affordability and Choice

Provide Quality Housing in Coordination with Support Services Needed to Maintain Stability

CHALLENGE: Successful stable housing for some people means housing that has appropriate services available on-site. For seniors and people with disabilities, housing and services need to be available in a continuum of situations, from more restrictive environments such as nursing homes, to less restrictive supportive living facilities with independent apartments, to community care available to people in their homes. For the organizations that work with people who need housing with services, existing housing and services programs are not well coordinated.

STRATEGY: Increase housing capital and service funding coordination, through:

Creation of the Illinois Housing Initiative, a joint funding process for supportive housing developments.
Development of housing with needed services for senior citizens through the Medicaid waiver Supportive Living Facilities (SLF) program.
Convening of a new Housing & Services Committee to review projects, funding, and resources available to facilitate the creation of supportive housing.
Exploration of programs that will create housing with needed services for people with mental illnesses and/or developmental disabilities, including a new Medicaid waiver program to support operations of Supportive Living Facilities.

Assist People to Buy or Rent Affordably

CHALLENGE: For low-income households, the monthly cost for rent or mortgage payments is often more than the generally accepted guideline of 30 percent of monthly household income for housing. Faced with high housing costs, families, individuals and seniors move often, risk homelessness, or have to make choices between food or medicine and housing. Traditionally, the federal government has provided rental assistance through the Section 8 programs and public housing, but ongoing reduction of federal financial support puts more families at risk of losing their homes.

Low and moderate-income working families, who want to buy homes in high job growth or revitalizing areas, or in rural communities, often find that available homes are unaffordable and the home purchase process is complicated and expensive. Where affordable housing is not available near jobs, employers may face recruitment and retention problems. In smaller communities and rural areas, new homebuyers may not have access to quality homeownership education and affordable homeownership programs.

STRATEGY: Identify sources of rental assistance, including existing state resources and new proposals.

STRATEGY: Strengthen state coordination with and among local public housing authorities to preserve all tenant-based voucher programs.

STRATEGY: Continue and expand homeownership programs, including:

Purchase price subsidies, low interest rates, and down payment and closing cost assistance.
Intensive homeownership counseling – before and after purchase.

STRATEGY: Expand current successful employerassisted housing programs for rental and homeownership statewide through enhanced marketing to achieve community and economic development benefits.

Increase Access to Housing

CHALLENGE: Various populations have been historically underserved due to barriers and trends in the existing housing market. Increasing housing options benefits families and communities. People with physical disabilities, including senior citizens, require accessible housing, either newly built and rehabilitated, or modification programs that allow them to remain in their current homes instead of needing to enter institutions. Access to housing also includes assisting people in crisis situations in order to maintain housing and prevent homelessness.

STRATEGY: Promote equal access to housing for Illinois households through fair housing education, outreach, and enforcement.

STRATEGY: Assist seniors and people with disabilities who need physically accessible homes by:

Securing funding for a coordinated home modification and service program for senior citizens and people with disabilities to allow them to access community-based services instead of institutional care.
Creating an accessible housing registry of all state-assisted physically accessible units.

STRATEGY: Continue the Homelessness Prevention Fund to help individuals and families maintain housing stability, while addressing the social service needs of households.

Creation and Preservation

Target and Increase Housing Production

CHALLENGE: Building housing affordable to the targeted priority populations is complex and expensive. There are various financing programs not used to their fullest potential, while other effective programs are significantly oversubscribed or at risk of expiring. In communities outside the Chicago metropolitan area, affordable housing development is slowed by the limited private capital available from financial institutions. Existing financing strategies are not sufficient for all the housing needs in the state. Creative and sound financing strategies have to be utilized to successfully develop housing in all areas of the state.

STRATEGY: Develop production plan targeting capital and other resources for the construction, preservation, and rehabilitation of housing for the priority populations.

STRATEGY: Identify new and maintain existing resources for affordable housing production, including:

Expanding opportunities and incentives for private financial institutions to participate in financing of affordable housing development.
Reviewing permanent reauthorization of the Illinois Affordable Housing Tax Credit used to finance the development of affordable housing.
Ensuring that affordable housing financed with the “tax-exempt volume cap” takes full advantage of the value of this bond resource.
Federal and other funding, including innovative coordination strategies for use of these resources.

STRATEGY: Identify financing and comprehensive redevelopment strategies for affordable housing in rural areas and small communities, targeted communities, and state facilities.

Preserve Existing Housing including Subsidized Housing

CHALLENGE: Ensuring that an existing affordable home remains affordable and in good condition is much less expensive than creating a new affordable home. In the next few years, thousands of affordable housing units will have affordability commitments or subsidies expire. Older housing stock throughout the state also needs to be rehabilitated to address health and safety problems such as lead paint.

Low and moderate-income homeowners need support through temporary financial crises, education to avoid predatory loans, and assistance with home repairs.

STRATEGY: Preserve existing affordable housing through education and financing programs, and development of initiatives in support of new state legislative efforts to preserve existing affordable rental housing.

STRATEGY: Design programs to support long-term homeownership, including:

Predatory lending prevention through outreach, education, and enforcement
Innovative financing tools that help homeowners survive temporary financial crisis.
Home repair programs to upgrade Illinois housing.

STRATEGY: Reduce lead paint in existing homes through coordination of housing rehabilitation and lead paint remediation programs.

Increase Affordability through Reduced Operating Costs

CHALLENGE: The cost to operate affordable housing is directly related to the rent owners must charge to tenants. Property taxes, insurance, and utilities are the largest components of most affordable housing operating budgets. Increased costs in these areas put tremendous pressure on owners to raise rents in order to maintain quality property management and condition.

STRATEGY: Address the impact of property taxes on affordable housing through education and exploration of models for affordable housing property tax relief.

STRATEGY: Explore creation of a property insurance pool for rental housing developments.

STRATEGY: Reduce cost of utilities through the use of energy efficient systems and components in construction and rehabilitation.

Leadership

Target and Report on the Use of Resources

CHALLENGE: Effective coordination of housing resources to maximize benefits for Illinois citizens requires ongoing commitment and accountability from all areas of state government. The executive order requiring the development of the Comprehensive Housing Plan expires in 2008. Illinois has no permanent planning and reporting requirement for performance reporting for affordable housing financing and services programs.

STRATEGY: Enact an Illinois Comprehensive Housing Planning requirement modeled on Executive Order 2003-18 for all state housing resources to ensure effective use of state resources.

STRATEGY: Develop a technology-based uniform performance tracking system for affordable housing resources, including services.

Plan and Build Capacity to Promote Affordable Housing

CHALLENGE: There are substantial variations in knowledge about the most effective means to access existing affordable housing programs and the processes to develop housing, including the requirements for physically accessible housing. There is a growing recognition of the need for community planning for affordable housing across the state. State development decisions for housing, transportation, and economic development, if better coordinated, can increase opportunities for maximizing the potential benefits of the investments.

STRATEGY: Implement an affordable housing capacity building program for local officials, for-profit and nonprofit developers, and community organizations with a focus on:

Financing and operating tools for affordable
13 housing development.
Housing accessibility requirements.

STRATEGY: Increase planning coordination for transportation, economic development, and housing to attract and retain businesses and maximize investment of state resources, through exploration of incentives and state prioritization of funding resources.

STRATEGY: Support local efforts to coordinate planning to increase the availability of affordable housing, including planning for the Affordable Housing Planning and Appeals Act.

Advocate and Promote Affordable Housing

CHALLENGE: The federal government is the largest source of funding for affordable housing. Ongoing funding reductions and program restrictions at the federal level limit the state’s ability to implement comprehensive housing programs. Affordable housing development around the state would benefit from a system that recognizes excellent affordable housing developments and programs, as well as the significant impact affordable housing has on revitalization and economic prosperity in Illinois communities.

STRATEGY: Develop a statewide Community Housing Awards Program that recognizes outstanding work on housing issues, including awards for innovative housing developments, community planning, Live Near Work programs, and fair housing activities.

STRATEGY: Develop and distribute an Illinois Federal Housing Agenda to ensure preservation and expansion of federal resources for housing, and to advocate for regulatory reform that supports preservation and creation of affordable housing.

Additional Issues

Over the past 12 months, the Housing Task Force captured a wide range of needs and a vision for the people and communities of Illinois. This important and far-reaching effort identified a number of proposals for legislation and programs that address the needs of the priority populations. A consensus among affected parties on how to address these issues has not yet been reached. Although the Housing Task Force will remain engaged in the dialogue on these issues, this Housing Plan does not contain specific strategies to address these proposals. The issues are:

Conclusion

As required by the executive order, all state agencies will report on their activities under the Housing Plan to meet the housing needs of Illinois families and individuals. On April 1 of each year, the report on housing activities completed in the previous year is due to the governor and General Assembly.

The executive order and this Housing Plan has raised awareness of the value and impact of affordable housing for communities to achieve comprehensive and coordinated policies and programs. As a result, Illinois citizens will have better access to resources and assistance for their housing needs.

See THIS PDF for the 2005 Illinois Comprehensive Housing Plan - Building for Success

See THIS PDF for a news release about the completion of the 2005 Illinois Comprehensive Housing Plan - Building for Success