I encourage all Evanstonians to work together to find and provide better affordable housing options throughout all nine wards in our community. With both need and prices rising, the situation grows more challenging every month. Time to get creative and truly join forces to deal with this problem head-on to ensure that this place we love and take pride in stays the diverse and inclusive place it aspires to be.
The Black population has been declining from 22.5% in 2000 to 16.5% in 2020 (the most recent census data). Families who’ve lived here for years can’t afford to stay. New ones can’t afford to move in. Connections for the Homeless, which has done a heroic effort continuing on its mission to “end homelessness one person at a time” throughout the pandemic, is having a harder and harder time finding housing for clients, especially for families who need larger two-plus-bedroom apartments. We all can take part in the effort to increase affordability by supporting creation of new affordable units and changes to our ordinances that currently make housing more expensive.
It’s not that there aren’t a lot of affordable housing efforts underway – the City of Evanston has, at last count, 10 separate committees/commissions whose discussions impact the problem. There are more than a dozen advocacy groups/nonprofits with a housing focus in Evanston, not to mention others at the county and state level. Kudos to all the people participating in all these meetings and to the many others in the community who are eager to embrace more affordability. But does anyone know what the other is doing, let alone are we working together? Sadly, I’m not too sure.
To reduce duplication of efforts and increase impact, the City of Evanston needs to put an interim housing plan in place that ties everything and everyone together until a new comprehensive plan is developed that can guide our direction. My hope is that with the city’s lead we’ll make better use of everyone’s time and create a united front that tackles the issue of affordable housing head-on.
Kim Perutz
Coordinating the efforts of the various committees, commissions and advocacy groups focused on affordable housing sounds like a sensible way to make strides. Is there an already existing committee or organization that could lead this?