Sweet Home Chicago is an affordable housing campaign led by a coalition of nine community organizations and three labor unions. Together we are advocating that a share of Chicago's tax increment financing (TIF) funds be dedicated to affordable housing. The housing would be created for average residents of the city who pay their tax dollars into the TIFs and deserve the benefits. 

 TIF dollars are property tax dollars that the city uses to develop certain neighborhoods. They can be used to build affordable housing, including the rehab of foreclosed houses and multi-unit buildings. By 2008, there was nearly $1.3 billion built up in Chicago's TIF accounts.

 
The Sweet Home proposal:

Each year the city would dedicate 20 percent of TIF funds collected towards affordable housing.  If this were in effect in 2009, $99 million would have gone towards housing.

Developments would qualify to receive funds if 50 percent of the units were affordable to households earning less than $37,000 for a family of four. In addition, citywide, 40 percent of the units created each with the dedicated funds must serve households earning less than $22,600 a year for a family of four.

For housing that is for sale, units would have to be affordable to families of four earning less than $60,300.

Sweet Home Chicago partners:

Sweet Home Chicago is a coalition of 12 partners: Action NOW, Albany Park Neighborhood Council, Bickerdike Redevelopment  Corporation, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Jane Addams Senior Caucus, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Lakeview Action Coalition, Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Organization of the NorthEast, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)-Healthcare Illinois/Indiana, SEIU Local 1, and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 881. 

Chicago City Council sponsors:

The ordinance is sponsored by Alderman Walter Burnett (27th Ward).

Co-sponsors are Alds. Willie Cochran (20th), Vi Daley (43rd), Sharon Denise Dixon (24th), . Pat Dowell (3rd), Robert Fioretti (2nd),  Toni Foulkes (15th), Leslie Hairston (5th), Michelle Harris (8th),  Lona Lane (18th), Roberto Maldonado (26th), Richard Mell (33rd),  Emma Mitts (37th),  Joe Moore (49th), Ricardo Munoz (22nd),  Toni Preckwinkle (4th), Gene Schulter (47th),  Ed Smith (28th), JoAnn Thompson (16th), Scott Waguespeak (32nd),  Joe Moreno (1st),  Deborah Graham (29th), Ariel Reboyras (30th), John Rice (36th), Brendan Reilly (42nd), and Tom Tunney (44th).

Endorsers of the Sweet Home campaign:

As of August 2010, 66 organizations across Chicago:  Access Living, AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Blind Services Association, Blocks Together, Brand New Beginnings, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Casa Esperanza, Case Central - La Posada, Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness, Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women's Network, Coalition to Protect Public Housing, Community Renewal Society, Connections for Abused Women and Their Children, Deborah's Place, Englewood and Southshore MISA Consortium, Erie Neighborhood House, Excellent Way Family Shelter, Family Rescue, Featherfist, Grand Boulevard Federation, The Grassroots Collaborative, Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, Hispanic Housing, Housing Action Illinois, Housing Opportunities for Women, Humboldt Park Social Services, Illinois Housing Council, Illinois Hunger Coalition, Independent Voters of Illinois - Independent Precinct Organization (IVI-IPO), Inner Voice Chicago, Institute of Women Today, Interfaith House, New Vision at Jackson Park Hospital, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Jobs With Justice, Korean American Women in Need, Lakeside CDC, Labor Committee on Immigrant Workers Rights, A Little Bit of Heaven Shelter, Mercy Housing Lakefront, Metropolitan Tenants Organization, National Runaway Switchboard, New New Deal Coalition, Northside Action for Justice, Northwest Neighborhood Federation,  Parents United for Responsible Education, Protestants for the Common Good, Puerto Rican Agenda, Puerto Rican Cultural Center, The Renaissance Collaborative, Inc., REST Shelter, Sarah’s Circle, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, South Austin Coalition Community Council, Southsiders Organizing for Unity and Liberation (SOUL), Southwest Chicago PADS, Spanish Coalition for Housing, St. Leonard's Ministries, StreetWise, Inc., Supportive Housing Providers Association, Target Area Development Corporation, United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 4, Voices for Illinois Children, West Humboldt Park Development Council, and You Can Make It Shelter.

Read more about the Sweet Home Chicago campaign on our Media Page and on our website home page -- check out Upcoming Events and our blog.   

Marguerite Casey Foundation generously awarded a $30,000 strategic mini-grant to support the Sweet Home coalition in fall 2009.