GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT: LAWYERS’ COMMITTEE FOR BETTER HOUSING

The Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing (LCBH) promotes the availability of and access to safe, decent and affordable housing for lowincome households in Chicago through legal representation, individual and public advocacy, supportive social services and education.

While there have been countless news reports focused on the
millions of homeowners affected by the mortgage foreclosure crisis, renters facing eviction due to foreclosure proceedings have generally been overlooked. In response to a huge upsurge in calls from renters caught up in foreclosure-related problems, LCBH founded the Tenants in Foreclosure Intervention Project (TFIP) in 2008 with support from the MacArthur Foundation, the Chicago Community Trust, and the City of Chicago. TFIP is the only program in the state that focuses exclusively on the plight of tenants facing deteriorating building conditions, displacement, or eviction due to foreclosure. According to Kathleen Clark, Executive Director of LCBH, “Foreclosures will continue for some time and policy and resources need to be directed to assisting rental families, not just homeowners. Tenants need to understand their rights and how to navigate the difficult situations so many find themselves in.”

Based on the number of foreclosure filings in 2009, TFIP estimates that an average of 125 multi-family buildings went into foreclosure each week in Chicago. These properties contained over 20,000 units,
greatly exceeding the 16,000 single-family homes and condominiums combined that had gone into foreclosure the same year. By conservative estimates, at least 3,000 more renters than homeowners in Chicago were at risk of losing their homes. Although 2010 data is still incomplete, it appears that foreclosure filings on multi-unit properties continue apace and that more renters than homeowners are still being affected.

According to a 2010 report from the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University, multi-family foreclosures in Cook County are at least three to four times more concentrated in low and moderateincome areas. In Chicago, the hardest hit communities are South Shore, Austin, Humboldt Park and Englewood. This concentration of foreclosed properties threatens the stability of communities that are already reeling from high unemployment, a shortage of affordable
housing and crippling cuts in social services. As buildings sit vacant, they become targets of vandalism and illegal activity and quickly deteriorate. TFIP works closely with community-based organizations in these neighborhoods and provides training and research to assist with their intervention efforts as well as legal intervention for cases that are beyond their scope of expertise.

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