FamilyForward Board Member Jennifer Strimling explains how FamilyForward works with the Northwest Alliance for Housing Affordability (NAHA) to address the affordable-housing crisis in the northwest suburbs.
As you have undoubtedly heard, there is an affordable-housing crisis across our local communities, our state and our country. This is especially true for rental housing. The question is, what can we do about it? For starters, we can come together to work for change in our own communities.
In addition to our work directly with low-income, working families, FamilyForward is involved in a grassroots effort with other local organizations and leaders to advocate for practical action to ease some of the burden for families and individuals across the northwest suburbs. The Northwest Alliance for Housing Affordability (NAHA) is a volunteer coalition that seeks to educate our communities in the northwest suburbs of Chicago on affordable housing and advocate at the local and state levels for measures to promote and protect housing for all.
Jumping in at the ground level
FamilyForward’s former executive director, Erica Chianelli, was a main catalyst behind the formation of NAHA in 2023. From there, individual, geographically based NAHA committees formed, including in Arlington Heights, Mt. Prospect and Palatine. The idea was to build relationships and collaborate with people who are passionate about housing access for low-income families across our area.
Because FamilyForward serves families across multiple townships in the area, our board of directors felt that involvement in NAHA was an important way to demonstrate our interest and take action in advocating for stable housing for all. We believe that working together with other NAHA members including local builders, other nonprofits, faith organizations and legislators, we can do a lot to make a difference for low-income, working families and others who are struggling with the ongoing affordable-housing crisis across the northwest suburbs.
Advocating for affordable housing for low-income veterans and people with disabilities
One of the first projects that the NAHA Arlington Heights Committee supported was the initiative to get the Grace Terrace Development approved by the Arlington Heights Board of Trustees. Grace Terrace was designed to offer low-income housing to veterans and people with disabilities. Initially, there was considerable opposition to the project, as some concerned cited traditional fears such as a possible increase in crime, traffic congestion, and depreciation of their own land value. While it was an uphill battle, enough data came out to show that those outcomes simply are not the usual case with these new developments.
While FamilyForward is focused on families, our board supported this important community-centered effort. NAHA members worked diligently to rally supporters to attend the meetings at the Village Hall, wearing their “YES” stickers to show their desired outcome on the vote. Full Circle (the nonprofit developer) was required to go back and make several changes to the building as well as the parking availability. After about a dozen meetings, the vote to build Grace Terrace finally passed.
Looking back at the challenges, a couple of things became obvious: There is a need for (1) more education on what affordable housing truly means (to combat the old stigmas associated with public housing), and (2) efforts to elect officials who genuinely care about access to stable housing for all income levels. NAHA is currently focused on both of these initiatives.
Helping people who are housing cost-burdened
NAHA is actively working to address the availability of housing for people who are housing cost-burdened. A family is considered housing cost-burdened when they spend more than 30% of their household income on rent and utilities, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. For example, in Arlington Heights, any family earning less than $64,000 per year would be considered housing cost-burdened (based on area median income). This means that numerous occupations that people consider to be essential — teacher’s aides, retirement-home workers, police, retail workers, hospital staff, etc. — have a very difficult time finding a place to live in our community. NAHA hopes to provide input to the 2025 Strategic Plan of the Village of Arlington Heights to find creative ways to ensure stable housing is available to more of the workforce in our community.
In February, NAHA hosted a workshop on housing affordability in Arlington Heights, held at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library. As a member of the NAHA Arlington Heights Committee and a FamilyForward board member, I attended, along with FF Executive Director Beverly Worthington. Over 50 people participated in this public forum. It was a good opportunity to continue to bring attention to this issue and encourage the community to get involved.
FamilyForward is excited to work alongside NAHA to eliminate stereotypes surrounding affordable housing through education and community engagement, and to create a healthier, more stable and inclusive tomorrow for all in our area. If you would like to join this work, please reach out to us at info@family-forward.org.
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