Housing Initiative Closes on NSP Property Acquisition
The Housing Initiative Clinic closed this week on a property acquisition under the City of Chicago's Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Clinic students Ashley Graffeo '14 and William Panfel '14, along with Clinical Professor Jeff Leslie, worked on the transaction over the summer on behalf of long-time clinic client, Claretian Associates Inc. The property acquired is adjacent to an existing Claretian Associates' rental building, and down the street from a multi-family building that the Housing Initiative helped redevelop earlier this year. The new acquisition will provided much-needed green space for neighborhood residents as well as future affordable housing units.
Here is a description that explains how the Neighborhood Stabilization Program fits in with the broader array of housing programs that the Housing Initiative and its clients engage in:
The federally-funded Neighborhood Stabilization Program is combating a challenging housing market that affects neighborhoods across large sections of Chicago. Its primary focus is on areas of the South, West and North sides that can serve as catalysts for revitalization of larger areas around them. If the recession and credit crisis are prolonged, as many experts fear, the program will at the least help neighborhoods minimize the damage, bring up the bottom of their downward curve, and begin recovery sooner than if no intervention had taken place.
By creating high-quality, energy efficient housing and arranging for tiered subsidies based on income levels and neighborhoods, the program will re-ignite local markets, lock in affordability for buyers and renters, and support local economic development and job growth. This will restore local confidence, protect recent and planned investments and ultimately turn around local markets.
In working with developers under the NSP program, the Housing Initiative Clinic contributes to the ongoing efforts to protect vulnerable neighborhoods by returning vacant and foreclosed properties to productive use.