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Chicago ups ante to help residents avoid eviction, foreclosure
The city will direct $33M in federal stimulus and private funding for struggling renters and homeowners
Chicago will provide a total of $33 million to renters and homeowners struggling to prevent eviction and foreclosure.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot made the announcement, which follows a similar coronavirus-related housing assistance program in early April that only awarded a total of $2 million. The initial round provided $1,000 grants to a total of just 2,000 people out of the roughly 83,000 who applied.
This latest round was funded by government stimulus money and local benefactors, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The renters and homeowners who did not receive the initial assistance funds in the spring will be transferred to the latest round, according to the Sun-Times. The city estimated that 10,000 households will avoid eviction and foreclosure because of the new funds, according to the report.
The mayor called it “truly a special day for our city and our many families that will be hurting just a little bit less.” Cook County’s eviction ban runs through Aug. 22. Illinois’ eviction moratorium runs through July.
The city Housing Department funded the initial $2 million round itself, according to Commissioner Marisa Novara. She said officials didn’t know at the time how long it would take “to put together what we hoped was a stream of government funds that would help us to do more,” the Sun-Times reported.
The city has also created a separate $3.5 million fund that will go to lenders to help cover homeowners’ late payments and future payments. Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago is running that program, which will allot up to $3,300 per household.
A recent study found that Cook County’s housing market, which has been battered by the coronavirus crisis, is one of the most at-risk areas in the country to foreclosure. [Sun-Times] — Alexi Friedman