How Chicago plans to help its most rent-burdened residents

Axios

11-03-2025

Heavy rent burdens disproportionately affect Black and Latino residents on the South and West sides, according to census data released last fall.
Why it matters: Rent-burdened people — meaning those who spend more than 30% of their income on housing — have a harder time affording other essentials and saving for their own homes, which further widens the racial wealth and homeownership gap.
Axios is examining the issue as part of its yearlong Equity Matters series about metrics on several factors across racial lines, income levels and geography.
State of play: Chicago Housing Commissioner Lissette Castañeda tells Axios that the city needs at least 119,000 additional affordable housing units.
Zoom in: Some of the city's most rent-burdened neighborhoods, according to the 2023 data, include South Shore, Englewood and Garfield Park, where the percentage of rent-burdened households exceeds 67%.
Some of the least rent-burdened neighborhoods include Lincoln Park, North Center, West Town and Logan Square, with percentages of 35% or less.
You can find an interactive map with figures for every neighborhood here.
Zoom out: While 45% of Chicagoans carry heavy rent burdens, our percentages trail the national average of 50% and all races do better than their national peers.
In the fourth quarter of 2024, the national average rent remained about 20% higher than pre-pandemic levels despite declines in early 2024, Moody's data shows.
Rent for the average Chicago one-bedroom costs $1,893 today, a 2.2% increase over last year, according to Apartments.com.
That would require a salary of about $76,000 to be considered affordable.
The trends: Chicago housing has become less affordable across more neighborhoods and income brackets over the last century, especially in the last few decades, according to a WBEZ analysis.
Potential solutions: Castañeda says her department is "funding new multi-family developments, supporting inclusionary housing through the Affordable Requirements Ordinance Chicago and investing in permanent supportive housing."
The intrigue: City officials are also proposing a program called Green Social Housing (GSH) to finance and build sustainable affordable units, based on a model that's succeeded in the Washington, D.C. area.
How it works: The program would require the City Council to pass an ordinance to create an independent nonprofit called a Residential Investment Corporation (RIC) to serve as the GSH developer.
The RIC would use $135 million in city bonds approved last year to finance construction of GSH buildings at lower interest rates than private equity would charge, thus reducing construction fees and eventual rental costs.
The nonprofit would partner with private developers to build the properties but retain majority ownership during construction and after tenants fill the building.
This would ensure that a third of the units remain "permanently affordable," meaning always priced for low-income renters, while the rest would be priced at market rates.
Once the buildings are filled, the RIC would refinance the project and repay the loan to the GSH revolving fund, allowing the money to be reinvested in the next GSH building project.
The green part: Castañeda tells Axios the buildings would meet strict environmental standards and could incorporate things like electric heat pumps, solar panels and "passive" building technology that reduces heating and cooling costs.
This, officials note, would require a green investment up front for lower utility costs later.
What's next: A joint City Council committee on housing and finance is expected to vote on establishing the RIC this spring.
If the proposal makes it through a full council vote, Castañeda says, groundbreaking on the first GSH building could start as soon as 2026, possibly on the site of projects that have stalled in Fulton Market or other fast-developing areas.