Factory-built homes opened in Humboldt Park, part of Cook County’s effort to make a dent in its housing shortage.
County officials debuted the first two homes in a $12 million modular housing initiative, part of a broader push to add affordable for-sale units across the region as the housing shortage deepens, Crain’s reported.
The three-bedroom homes on Homan Avenue are the first of 120 modular units planned across the county. The houses were built 3.5 miles away at a factory in North Lawndale, run by startup builder Inherent L3C, and delivered in two parts, the first and second floors, by truck.
Each home is priced at $395,000, with buyers eligible for a $25,000 down payment assistance program and other incentives.
To qualify, households must earn no more than 120 percent of the area’s median income, about $144,000 for a family of four. Two buyers are already lined up, with closings expected in the next few weeks.
Cook County allocated roughly $100,000 per unit under the plan, which will fund construction of 12 homes in Humboldt Park, followed by additional builds in Chicago Heights and Proviso Township later this year.
“If we’re going to meet the housing crisis in this country, we’re going to have to invest a lot more in modular housing,” County Board president Toni Preckwinkle told the outlet, citing faster build times and cost efficiencies. The factory-built model avoids weather delays and delivers homes about $40,000 to $50,000 cheaper than traditional construction, she said.
Tim Swanson, who launched Inherent in 2022, said the firm has delivered about 30 homes in neighborhoods including Woodlawn and North Lawndale. The modular model also opens a possibility for another of Chicago’s problems: underused land.
The Homan Avenue lots were vacant for years before the Cook County Land Bank transferred them to an Inherent L3C affiliate last fall. There were 40,000 vacant lots throughout Chicagoland as of April, mainly on the South and West sides, according to DePaul University’s Institute for Housing Studies.
The Humboldt Park homes are energy-efficient and designed to be accessible, with features like front entrances that can be easily adapted for ramps. Preckwinkle called the project a dual investment in affordable homeownership and the modular construction sector.
The program signals progress, but the scale of the challenge is vast. Illinois faces an estimated deficit of 142,000 housing units, with another 230,000 needed by 2030 to meet demand.
— Judah Duke