In partnership with the city, two local nonprofits are transforming a once-blighted 5th Ward home into an affordable housing unit amid increasing uncertainty about the future of federal fair housing enforcement.

The city purchased the property in 2023 after it was damaged by a fire and sat vacant for several years, said Rob Anthony, the president of Community Partners for Affordable Housing. Evanston then donated the home to CPAH, which enforces the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance.

“We’re trying to make sure that people aren’t being pushed out of the community, particularly in the 5th Ward,” Anthony said. “We’re bringing a gutted house back to usable life but also making sure that it’s going to stay there as an asset for the 5th Ward in perpetuity.”

The house, which sits near Evanston Township High School, will be sold to an income-eligible buyer while CPAH will retain ownership of the property’s land through a community land trust. By “taking the land value out of the equation,” Anthony explained, community land trusts ensure renovated homes in Evanston remain affordable.

Whenever the home’s new owner decides to sell the property, a “resale formula” will allow them to build equity but cap profits to maintain affordability, Anthony added.

Anthony said CPAH will leverage state tax credits and the profits from the home’s sale to build more affordable housing units. He highlighted a growing demand for affordable housing in Evanston, noting that many previously renovated units will soon lose their affordable housing designation and revert to market value.

“Transforming vacant properties and preserving affordable housing is a win-win for the entire community,” Ald. Bobby Burns (5th) said in an April 30 CPAH news release announcing the project. “Strategic partnerships like this show what’s possible when we come together with a shared commitment to serving the community.”

Open Communities, a fair housing enforcement organization, donated $185,000 to the project. Executive Director Cheryl Lawrence said she hopes the community land trust model will be replicated elsewhere.

After the 2008 financial crisis, Open Communities launched an investigation into foreclosures in Evanston. Lawrence said the findings prompted the organization to join a class action lawsuit against Fannie Mae, formerly known as the Federal National Mortgage Association. 

“The banks were providing good maintenance and keeping up houses in predominantly white areas,” Lawrence said. “But in areas of color or majority-minority neighborhoods, there was not the same level of maintenance, or there was complete disinvestment.”

Lawrence said the federal government funds Open Communities and similar organizations to uphold the Fair Housing Act by ensuring “all transactions in real estate are free of discrimination” on the basis of race, sex and other protected characteristics.

But in February, 66 housing rights nonprofits across the country received a letter from the Department of Housing and Urban Development rescinding their grant money. Among them was Open Communities, which Lawrence said would have otherwise received about $550,000 in federal funds by this point in the fiscal year.

“We have applications sitting at HUD that are not getting processed, even though Congress has appropriated the funding already for this round of applications,” Lawrence said. 

This month, President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget unveiled his proposed budget for next fiscal year, which eliminates federal funding for HUD’s Fair Housing Initiative Program entirely.

Lawrence said this move sent organizations like Open Communities “reeling” and searching for alternative funding sources. Meanwhile, Anthony said financing new developments has always been challenging. 

“You have to piece together the funding to make it work,” Anthony said. “We always try to stretch every single dollar because we want to create as many units as possible with the limited resources that we have.”

The Chicago area, where residential segregation is a persistent challenge, seems uniquely vulnerable to potential cuts, Lawrence said.

Although the outcome of congressional budget negotiations remains uncertain, Lawrence called Trump’s proposal “a significant setback” and said it would essentially repeal the “cornerstone” of fair housing rights.

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