Chicago Lacks More Than 220K Affordable Homes

Chicago’s reputation as a relatively affordable big city is doing little to help its poorest renters.

The Chicago metro area has just 31 affordable rental homes available for every 100 extremely low-income households, according to a new report from Housing Action Illinois and the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that statewide, the figure is only slightly better at 34 homes per 100 households.

The annual analysis, based on the 2024 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample that is produced by the U.S. Census Bureau, measured the availability of housing affordable to renters at different income levels. Its findings focus on extremely low-income renters — those earning no more than 30 percent of the area median income. In Chicago, that threshold is about $35,970 for a family of four and $25,200 for a single person.

Those households — often seniors, people with disabilities or workers in low-wage jobs — are bearing the brunt of the region’s housing shortage, according to the publication.

The report estimates the Chicago area is short 224,445 affordable homes for extremely low-income renters. As a result, roughly 76 percent of those households spend more than half of their income on rent, well above the commonly cited affordability benchmark of 30 percent.

Bob Palmer, policy director at Housing Action Illinois, told the outlet that the new numbers highlight a problem that has persisted for years with little meaningful progress. Palmer said that the latest figures are largely unchanged from last year.

“There hasn’t been the political will to deal with it in a way that fundamentally changes the current problems.”

The shortage reflects pressures on both sides of the city’s housing market. In some neighborhoods, rising demand and gentrification are pushing rents higher, according to the publication. In others — particularly parts of the South and West sides — disinvestment and demolition have reduced the supply of available housing.

Illinois overall faces a similar challenge. The report estimates the state needs nearly 290,000 additional affordable homes for extremely low-income households.

The gap can’t be solved by the private market alone, according to housing advocates. Much of Chicago’s recent apartment development has skewed toward high-end units because construction costs make lower-rent projects difficult to finance without subsidies, according to the report.

Expanding rental assistance programs and building more deeply affordable housing could help close the gap, the report suggests. Without it, advocates warn the shortage will continue to drive evictions, homelessness and population loss.

— Eric Weilbacher