On Tuesday April 2nd, we kicked off the Midwest Climate Resilience Academy with a cohort of 20 affordable housing organizations from across Illinois and Michigan. Affordable housing developers, owners, and operators in this region face challenges including the impacts of heavy rainfall and flooding, extreme temperatures, and severe storms such as tornadoes and hailstorms, which resulted in multiple billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in 2023.
During the kick-off, we discussed the need for climate-resilient affordable housing, challenges faced by the cohort, and strategies to adapt to climate hazards in the region. Nina Idemudia, CEO of Center for Neighborhood Technology, a non-profit that advances urban sustainability and shared prosperity through initiatives in transportation, water, climate, and public policy, delivered a keynote address. Lindy Wordlaw and Kyra Woods from the Chicago Dept of the Environment also spoke with the cohort about the city’s climate goals, outlined in the 2022 Climate Action Plan.
The team at the Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) also hosted a site visit of their Fifth City Commons development, a 43-unit net zero, Passive House development in Chicago’s East Garfield Park.
POAH was selected by the City of Chicago for this development in 2019 as part of the C40 Reinventing Cities competition, an international competition designed to attract highly sustainable development projects to urban sites. Enterprise syndicated $18 million in equity for the sustainable affordable housing development, and we look forward to seeing the project come to fruition!
Cohort members include:
- Chicago Housing Authority
- Chicago Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation
- Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives
- Cody Rouge Community Action Alliance
- Communities First, Inc.
- Develop Detroit, Inc.
- DL3 Realty
- Eastside Community Network/Warren Conner Development Coalition
- Full Circle Communities
- Greater Chatham Initiative
- Jefferson East
- MOT Design & Development
- Osborn Neighborhood Alliance
- Southwest Detroit Business Association
- Sunshine Management
- The Habitat Company
- URGE Development Group
- U Snap Bac
- Veterans Village of Highland Park Inc
- Bickerdike
This event would not have been possible without generous support from our sponsors, StateFarm, JPMorgan Chase, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, and Mackenzie Scott. Thank you!
