Governor Quinn Announces 5,000 Affordable Rental Homes Financed in 2013

CHICAGO - Governor Quinn today announced that the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) provided more than $471 million in financing this year to make 5,000 quality affordable rental homes available to working families, seniors and people with disabilities. Since Governor Quinn took office, IHDA has provided $2.2 billion in financing to build or preserve more than 19,600 affordable apartments in 131 communities across the state, generating an estimated 20,280 jobs. Today's announcement is part of the Governor's agenda to ensure quality affordable housing for people in-need across Illinois.

"Affordable housing is important to the fabric of our communities," Governor Quinn said. "That is why are working tirelessly to increase affordable housing options for working families, seniors and people with disabilities throughout Illinois, which also creates thousands of jobs and drives our economy forward."

Creating and preserving affordable rental housing works as an economic engine to generate construction and post-construction jobs and spur local economic activity. Affordable housing financed through the state in 2013 is estimated to create 3,200 construction and post-construction jobs.

Just in time for the holidays, Rhonda Pruitt and her twin 3-year-old sons recently moved into a three-bedroom townhome in the new construction 20-unit Greenleaf Manor development in Glenview. A clergy member at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wilmette, Pruitt and her family were staying with family members but wanted to find a permanent stable and secure home of their own.

"For much of my boys' lives, they have lived somewhere else," Pruitt said. "Now, when they say to me, ‘Can we go home now?' - I'm able to say, ‘Yes, we're going home.'"

As the state's housing finance agency, IHDA provided federal Housing Credits that generated private equity totaling nearly 90 percent of the cost to develop Greenleaf Manor. Developed by Chicago-based Daveri Development Group, Greenleaf Manor features two-, three- and four-bedroom townhome apartments for families earning no more than 60 percent of the area median income, or $39,780 in the Chicago area for a three-person household.

The need for affordable housing is nationwide. In 1960, about one in four renters were cost burdened, or paid more than 30 percent of their income for housing. Today, one in two are cost burdened, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

"Renters represent nearly one-third of households in Illinois, and approximately 425,000 are extremely low-income," IHDA Executive Director Mary R. Kenney said. "Governor Quinn's administration is focused on working together with our federal, local and private partners to create and sustain affordable housing statewide to meet the needs of Illinois residents."

To qualify for the affordable units financed through the state, residents must earn at or below 60 percent of the area median income (AMI), or $36,300 in the Springfield area, $36,000 in Peoria area or $37,380 in Metro East for a three-person household.

A list of developments offering affordable rents is available at www.ihda.org or www.ilhousingsearch.org.