What We Won in 2021!

As 2021 comes to a close, we're so grateful for everyone who joined us in our mission to ensure an affordable, accessible home for every member of our community. We worked with our allies in the Lift the Ban Coalition to fight the real estate lobby and made progress, getting a bill to lift the state's ban on rent control out of committee for the first time. We joined coalition groups with the Jefferson Park Working Group on Homelessness to support our houseless neighbors on the far Northwest Side. And in exciting news, we're currently getting ready to welcome new neighbors to the affordable development at 5150 N. Northwest Highway--the original organizing project behind the formation of this group. All of this work remains ongoing.

But this year also saw other important victories with tangible results. NfAH joined with allies across the region to successfully advocate for passage of the Cook County Residential Tenant Landlord Ordinance (RTLO), which provides important protections to renters in suburban Cook County. And with ongoing news that demand for affordable housing continued to outstrip supply on the Northwest Side, we joined our neighbors in successfully advocating for more new affordable housing in our backyard--at 8535 W. Higgins in the 41st Ward and 6001 W. Lawrence in the 38th Ward. In both cases, NfAH helped mobilize our neighbors to overcome the exclusionary objections of local alders who opposed new affordable housing, and we're grateful to everyone who sent an email, made a call, or showed up for to support these developments at a public meeting. The result will be more than 100 new affordable units being built in one of the city's opportunity areas and a major victory in the fight against the "grip of segregation" in our city.