Progress Illinois

State lawmakers have done little this year to address the foreclosure crisis, but a group of Chicago-area housing advocates took a trip to Springfield this week to push a more proactive housing agenda.

Ald. Ray Suarez (31st Ward) and State Sen. Iris Martinez (D-Chicago) called a joint meeting in Chicago on Monday to pressure the banks to do a better job maintaining foreclosed properties and to speed up the unduly slow modification process to keep more people in their homes.

On Wednesday, Chicago Ald. Walter Burnett (27th Ward) and a handful of co-sponsors will introduce an ordinance that would require the city to set aside 20 percent of all new tax increment financing (TIF) revenue to jumpstart affordable housing projects. We look at how such an investment would buoy the city's housing market and create jobs.