* Lakeside Housing Audit Finds Threats in Rogers Park

This has been run on other blogs before, but I'm running it here today because I've got a story it works with I'll be posting tomorrow.

A recent study conducted by Lakeside Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and creating affordable housing, finds that condominium conversions in the far north side Rogers Park community have significantly reduced the supply of affordable rental housing units and that it is white home buyers who are reaping the benefits while minority renters are being forced to live elsewhere.

According to the summer-long study, more than 3,600 new Rogers Park condominium units have been created, most from converted rental units, since 2003. Since January 2006 alone, at least 42 buildings and 918 rental units have been lost to ongoing conversions. As a result, the area’s rental housing supply has been reduced by as much as 17.4 percent in just the past few years.

The study also finds that conversions are occurring at a faster rate than in previous years and that disparity in home ownership between whites and minorities in Rogers Park appears to have widened.

Despite the increase in home ownership opportunities, whites comprised more than two-thirds of the home owners in Rogers Park in 2000, despite making up only 29 percent of the total population. Between 2000 and 2004, whites originated more than 60 percent of all conventional home mortgages in Rogers Park (as opposed to refinances or multifamily loans). White borrowers accounted for nearly six times more loans than for African American borrowers, more than seven times the number of loans than for Hispanic borrowers, and more than eleven times the number of loans to Asian-American borrower.

“Our study clearly confirms what advocates have long argued: neighborhood redevelopment often comes at the price of racial and economic diversity,” said Brian White, executive director of Lakeside CDC. “We’re particularly concerned that more recent conversions are digging into the larger rental buildings, the majority of which are made up of studio and one-bedroom units, so that each new development replaces a disproportionately larger share of affordable rental units with high-priced condominiums,” he said.

The study also documented evidence that renters were being illegally displaced without proper notification or respect to their rights; that some developments are being completed without permits; and that few building owners are utilizing existing tools for preserving or creating affordable rental or ownership opportunities.

Finally, the study suggests that while efforts have been made to incorporate affordable units into new construction through local set-aside policies, these policies are seldom exercised.

“What Lakeside has done is significant because they created a simple way to collect current neighborhood information and measure what is happening at a neighborhood in the present time,” said Phil Nyden, director of the Loyola University (Chicago) Center for Urban Research and Learning, whose researchers assisted Lakeside in their work. “This is an excellent addition to the government data which is typically not always as up-to-date.”

Lakeside created a method that used data collected by the Cook County Assessor to identify large residential rental buildings. Lakeside then sent trained volunteers to each building to learn its status and condition, the number of units, and whether it was being redeveloped for condominiums. Lakeside’s study accounted for approximately 65 percent of the rental units documented by the 2000 Census.

“There is no way a community that prides itself on its economic, racial and cultural diversity can sustain that diversity if these trends continue,” said Mr. White. “This sort of uncontrolled loss would adversely impact the entire Chicago community, and I don’t think anyone really wants to see that happen.”

Going forward, Lakeside will work with community residents, nonprofit organizations, development firms, public officials, and others to begin crafting a formal housing plan for Rogers Park that can address these issues.

The report’s recommendations incorporate a number of steps for improving the net benefit of housing redevelopment to Rogers Park residents, ranging from affirmative lending efforts directed at underserved groups and education of tenants about their rights, to the increased use of regulatory tools and programs like the Cook County Assessor Class-9 program to assist landlords who wish to improve their buildings without dramatically escalating rents.