By Lindsey Holden
Staff writerPosted Sep. 22, 2015 at 10:24 AM
Updated Sep 22, 2015 at 11:11 PMROCKFORD — Debate over the best location for affordable housing rages on, but area leaders hope spreading units around the Rockford region will change the course of the conflict.Four area housing authorities — Winnebago and Boone counties, Rockford and Freeport — have applied to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD, for help in creating a Regional Housing Initiative, or RHI. This intergovernmental group would allow each of the four housing authorities to pool together vouchers they each get from HUD, which are used to subsidize rent in specific privately owned developments. The housing authorities could then collaboratively decide the best locations for development.This regional approach would allow officials to expand "opportunity areas" — neighborhoods with specific racial, economic and employment makeups where those who award state funding require developments to be located — and strategically build new housing near employers and schools. A local RHI would also help cities
RHI emphasizes the need to locate developments so residents have "labor-market engagement and job-market access," which Gala said has improved the prospects for educational and job attainment. Residents who previously wouldn't have been able to find homes in more affluent areas can now broaden their housing horizons.RHI has worked well for developers, too. Larry Pusateri, a principal with Daveri Development Group, a Chicago-based company that built suburban RHI projects, said the collective has a "smooth system" worked out, so acquiring funding and beginning work on complexes is easier. Daveri completed 20 units of affordable housing in Glenview and 39 units of affordable housing for disabled individuals, both in 2013.
Read more by clicking on the following: Rockford-area leaders look to Chicago for regional housing strategies - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL
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