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Vacant Property Ordinance

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Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
11:30am
Fri Mar 20, 2015

Chicago 16th Ward Candidate Responds To Residency Questions, Criticism Over Ownership Of 'Unsafe' Vacant Home

South Side aldermanic candidate Stephanie Coleman, who's vying for the Chicago City Council's 16th Ward seat, is taking heat over an "unsafe" vacant home she owns with her father in Englewood. 

Questions are also being raised over whether Coleman is truly a "lifelong 16th Ward resident," as she claims.

Coleman's campaign, however, says critics are "making false claims" against the 27-year-old aldermanic candidate and are "trying to deflect from real neighborhood issues."

Coleman, who bills herself as a "daughter of Englewood," is set to go head-to-head with progressive Ald. Toni Foulkes (15th) in the 16th Ward's aldermanic runoff contest on April 7. The 16th Ward, which covers the Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Gage Park and West Englewood neighborhoods, was previously represented by Ald. JoAnn Thompson, who died suddenly of heart failure on February 9. Foulkes is running in the 16th Ward as a result of the ward remap. The 15th ward was previously a predominantly black ward, but is now majority Latino following the 2012 remapping process.  

PI Original
by Ashlee Rezin
11:22am
Wed Aug 21, 2013
1 comment

Protesters Call On Fannie Mae, Bank Of America To Change Lending, Foreclosure Policies (VIDEO)

Housing

Protesters took to a downtown Bank of America branch and Fannie Mae’s corporate offices in Chicago Tuesday to urge one of the nation’s largest home mortgage servicers and the largest home mortgage investor to change their lending and foreclosure policies. Progress Illinois was there for the action. 

Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
6:45pm
Mon Jul 1, 2013

Vacant Building Registries Lack Key Data, New Report Shows

Local municipalities should ramp up vacant–building data collection to help address a problem that continues to ravage Chicago–area communities due to the foreclosure crisis, according to a new report from the Woodstock Institute.
 
The "Deciphering Blight" report looked at the wide–ranging data that 47 local governments in the Chicago six–county region currently collect through their vacant property registries.
 
According to the report, a majority of the local governments kept thorough data on the parties responsible for vacant buildings. And more than half kept track of a property’s unique identifier like a PIN number.
 
But more than half of the municipalities did not collect data on the nature of the vacancy, and many vacant building registries lacked other key information. 
Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
6:27pm
Mon Oct 29, 2012

City Touts Building Demolitions In Crime Prevention, But Is There A Connection?

Today, the city of Chicago demolished its “200th dangerous building” since July 12, according to the office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The mayor stated in a press release that demolitions are “preventing criminal activity in our neighborhoods.”

Is this true? “We’ve been knocking down houses since the 1930’s and it’s not clear if this has a significant effect on crime rates,” says Bradford Hunt, a sociology professor at Roosevelt University who studies Chicago housing issues.

Also in question: How does the city determine what properties see the wrecking ball?

Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
2:45pm
Thu Aug 16, 2012

Foreclosures Surge In Several South Side Communities

Foreclosure filings increased by exactly one percent in the city of Chicago between the first six months of 2011 and first half of 2012, according to data compiled by the Woodstock Institute. But the jump in foreclosures was more dramatic in a handful of struggling, mostly black neighborhoods on the South Side.

Filings in West Pullman were up 58.7 percent from 155 to 246 in the first half of this year compared to 2011. The number of foreclosures jumped in Englewood 24.1 percent from 141 to 175 and climbed in Calumet Heights 54 percent from 50 to 77.

Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
2:56pm
Fri Aug 10, 2012

Housing Advocates Converge Against FHFA Head DeMarco

Housing advocates in Chicago and across the country have begun to channel their frustration with the sprawling foreclosure crisis toward one man: Ed DeMarco (pictured), acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), which includes several Chicago groups, fired off a letter yesterday to President Barack Obama demanding that he make a recess appointment for a new FHFA director. Meanwhile, the Chicago area foreclosure rate is on the rise.

Quick Hit
by Ashlee Rezin
4:46pm
Fri May 4, 2012

Foreclosures In Chicago Among Nation's Highest As Vacant Properties Plague Neighborhoods

Rockford and the Chicago area are experiencing some of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation, with Chicago's figure being more twice that of the national average at one in 107 housing units, according to data released by Realty Trac last week. 

As foreclosures continue to plague the city and surrounding areas, the vacant properties left in their wake are wreaking havoc on the safety and security of their respective neighborhoods. In April, a dead body was found in a vacant house in Humboldt Park, leaving neighbors wondering why the property wasn’t maintained -- and prompting Action Now to hold a rally in front of the building.

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