Chicago has not reached the other side of the foreclosure crisis, a new report from the Woodstock Institute has revealed. But with new ordinances like the Cook County Land Bank Authority, the Windy City may be headed in the right direction.
Last
year, Chicago’s six county region saw the highest year-over-year growth
in completed foreclosure auctions since the beginning of the foreclosure
crisis in 2008, according to the Woodstock Institute report.
Foreclosure auctions, which indicate the foreclosure process is
finished, grew by 73.8 percent, from 20,281 auctions in 2011 to 35,244
auctions in 2012.
In an effort to reverse the problems that have cropped up in a number of communities over recent years as a result of the rise
in vacant and abandoned properties, the Cook County Board voted last
week to create a countywide land bank, a move Board Commissioner Bridget Gainer is hopeful will act as a first step towards economic revitalization for some of the area’s most blighted neighborhoods.
Last week, the Cook County Board
voted unanimously in favor of forming the Cook County Land Bank
Authority, which will be tasked with acquiring vacant and abandoned properties
with the goal of making them taxable entities once they’re redeveloped.
Once
up and running, the Authority will be geograpically the largest land bank in the
country. Gainer said much of its focus, in the beginning, will be on helping communities that have been hardest hit by
the foreclosure crisis.
“One of the things that I worried about
when we traveled all over the county talking to people in these
communities was that some of these communities are going to hit a point
of no return with the percentage of vacancies,” Gainer said. “We’ve got
to jump in and stop that from happening.”
Proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel last March and approved by the Chicago City Council in April, the Infrastructure Trust outlined a way to finance infrastructure projects in the city during a time of prolonged federal and state budget crises and near absolute political aversion to tax increases. Its polarizing central concept of private companies investing in public infrastructure and then receiving some undefined return on their investment was alternately seen as a revolutionary way to improve Chicago and a nefarious step towards private investors opaquely dictating public policy. We take a look at what has come of the controversial Trust thus far.
A San Francisco-based firm spent the morning trying to sell the Chicago
City Council on the idea that they can use eminent domain to seize
properties in danger of falling into foreclosure. The firm argued that the use of eminent domain, which occurs when government acquires private property in the name of the greater good, could lead to the public benefit of fewer foreclosures. Representatives from Mortgage Resolution Partners LLC had the ear of Ald. Ed Burke (14th), chairman of the City Council Finance Committee, and the backing of Ald. Ray Suarez (31st), head of the Housing and Real Estate Committee.
But the effort was perhaps futile as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel indicated at a press conference today that he opposes the plan.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Emanuel said that he did not think eminent domain was the “right instrument” to combat foreclosures. Read more »
The Cook County Board passed a resolution today setting up a committee that has 60 days to devise a model for a county
land bank, an ambitious proposal that board President Toni Preckwinkle called a “critical tool to help combat the foreclosure crisis and eradicate blight in our communities.”
As we have reported, a land bank is a quasi-governmental organization intended to seize
and manage properties until they can be put into productive use. Read more »
Chicago has not reached the other side of the foreclosure crisis, a new 
In an effort to reverse the problems that have cropped up in a number of communities over recent years as a result of the rise
in vacant and abandoned properties, the Cook County Board voted last
week to create a countywide land bank, a move 
A San Francisco-based firm spent the morning trying to sell the Chicago
City Council on the idea that they can use eminent domain to seize
properties in danger of falling into foreclosure. The firm argued that the use of eminent domain, which occurs when government acquires private property in the name of the greater good, could lead to the public benefit of fewer foreclosures. Representatives from 
The Cook County Board passed a resolution today setting up a committee that has 60 days to devise a model for a county
land bank, an ambitious proposal that board President Toni Preckwinkle 