The Cook County Rental Alliance held its first meeting March 8 at First Baptist Congregation Church, on the west side. The alliance, co-convened by the Chicago Rehab Network and the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, serves as a forum where affordable housing advocates can share knowledge and enhance their capacity to preserve federally-subsidized rental units.

The group also convenes forums and workshops to assemble stakeholders, assess strategies to save priority properties; share lessons on best practices; coordinate with public agencies, officials, and preservation-friendly owners and developers; collect, analyze and distribute data and information; and develop and advocate for preservation-friendly policies and regulations at all levels of government. For more information, contact Gene Moreno at 312-663-3936, or e-mail gene@chicagorehab.org. Updates on the alliance will also be available at www.chicagorehab.org soon.

Please renew your organization's membership today Invoices have been mailed to groups. Please check with your organization's financial manager to make sure that your group's dues are up to date. If you have other questions, contact Hervenia Mitchell, at the Chicago Rehab Network, 312-663- 3936, or email hervenia@chicagorehab.org.

Just before before important municipal elections, the Chicago Rehab Network Feb. 20 released its 2007 Housing Platform, which includes recommendations for preserving affordable housing in the city. The plan outlines areas where city leadership through funding, policy changes and public commitments can keep Chicago a place where everyone can find a home.

The Housing Platform also calls for a moratorium on condo conversion, $40 million a year dedicated to affordable rental development, elimination of regulatory barriers on government-assisted housing development, and action to preserve troubled properties or properties with expiring federal Section 8 contracts. More than 8,000 units of federally-assisted housing are at risk of expiring by the end of 2009. The loss of these units would be a devastating blow in a city where 71,000 units of rental-occupied housing has already been lost in recent years. In addition, the Chicago Rehab Network calls for greater coordination and transparency between city departments responsible for housing – including the departments of planning, zoning, building and construction permits. An updated information system is also needed to track city housing policies and their impact on residents.

The Chicago Rehab Network’s annual Community Development and Empowerment Series, a four-month certificate program, is off to an exciting start. The program has experienced community development practitioners take participants through the nuts and bolts of affordable housing development and management. With demand for the training series greater than ever this year, participants gathered with enthusiasm March 8-9 for the first workshop on Community Building, led by veteran instructor Richard Townsell. Townsell, now with Fannie Mae, talked with participants about the community assets planning model, and led a guided tour of the impressive work of Lawndale Christian Development Corporation. The tour included affordable single family homes and multifamily rental developments, a community technology center, a medical facility with pharmacy and fitness center, and a fully-equipped educational center/daycare. Townsell is also the former executive director of LCDC.

This year’s trainees represented a wide range of experience with community development – with participants coming from an array of areas, including the Chicago Housing Authority, the Village of Maywood, experienced non-profit housing developers, and new housing organizations. While the Chicago Rehab Network celebrated the 10th anniversary of community development trainings last year, increasing demand for the well-established Empowerment Series reflects a renewed upsurge of organizational and individual interest in the field of affordable housing.

Our thanks to Bickerdike Redevelopment Agency for hosting this training. Click here to learn more about the good work done by Bickerdike!

For more information on the Empowerment Series, please contact Lindsay@Chicagorehab.org. Learn more about the Lawndale Christian Development Corp.

CRN recently wrapped up the second of two training workshops for "Participating Jurisdictions," local government agencies that administer federal Community Development Block Grants and HOME grants. Trainees from across Illinois convened in Chicago May 12-13 for a training on Lead Safe Housing Regulations, co-taught by ICF International consultants Kevin Roddy and Eugene Goldfarb. The workshop, a sequel to the January training on Construction Management, allowed participants to learn the ins and outs of administering lead safety regulations and bring local problems to trained experts.

The 25 training participants hailed from the Chicago metro area, including the Villages of Oak Park and Schaumburg, and further with trainees from East St. Louis, Rockford, Decatur and Pekin, Ill. The Chicago Rehab Network is an official HUD-certified technical assistance provider for PJs and community housing development organizations (CHDOs) in the state.

The 13th Annual Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards honors architects and developers playing innovative and leading roles in Chicago, and is hosted by LISC/Chicago. We congratulate Angela Hurlock and Claretian Associates on winning the CNDA Chicago Community Trust Outstanding Community Initiative of the Year award.

Claretian Associates was chosen for developing the 53-unit Villa Guadalupe Senior Apartments in the early 1990s, to answer to the need for affordable housing and a make strong statement of faith in the future of Southeast Chicago, which had suffered great disinvestment in the wake of the departure of "big steel." The housing development activities in a targeted 12-block area created a total of 126 affordable homes and apartments, Claretian Associates has simultaneously worked with other community partners to undertake housing development projects and services that have enriched lives in the entire Southeast Chicago area. In the process, they transformed a geographic area into a community, said CNDA organizers.

Congratulations also to Andy Geer and Heartland Housing, which was presented with a CNDA for its role in the "Outstanding For-Profit Neighborhood Real Estate Project" award. The award recognized the Roosevelt Square Phase I project as a new mixed- income housing development, of 415 homes, that has sparked rebirth of the area around Racine Road and Taylor St., in the "footprint of the former ABLA public housing complex." When completed, Roosevelt Square will consist of 2,441 new homes, with one- third going to Chicago Housing Authority household, one-third affordable and one-third market rate for sale homes. The different housing types will also be distributed throughout the for-sale buildings.

The CNDAs are the "the only awards program focused on neighborhood-based development," organizers said. The awards ceremony was held Feb. 20 at the Hyatt Regency, where more than 1,300 people, including the leaders of Chicago's non-profit, corporate and philanthropic sectors, joined Mayor Richard M. Daley and event Chair Perry Pero, retired CFO of Northern Trust, in honoring this year's winners "whose work has helped to infuse new investment and life into Chicago's neighborhoods," event organizers added.

Housing Action Illinois conference Housing Action Illinois will host its 20th anniversary convention and gala April 17-18, at the Abraham Lincoln Hotel and Conference Center in Springfield, IL. For more information click here.

CRN leads south side training session Gene Moreno, policy director for the Chicago Rehab Network, recently conducted a training for the New Communities Program in Washington Park.