Housing loss, rising rents, evictions: How Chicago's homelessness problem evolved

For weeks, Chicagoans have been inundated with the pros and cons of the Bring Chicago Home referendum. After a contentious legal battle, it appears votes for — and against — the controversial ballot question will be counted in this month’s primary election.

There’s considerable debate about whether increasing the real estate transfer tax on properties sold for $1 million or more is a proper way to raise revenue to address the long-standing problem of homelessness. There are also a lot of questions about exactly what to do with that money.

Regardless of how we vote March 19, no one can deny that homelessness — whether visible, as in those living on the streets, or invisible, as in the thousands living doubled up with relatives or friends — is a problem.

It’s time we start grappling with how we got here in the first place.

It’s about housing, plain and simple. There’s just not enough of it.

As a city, we aren’t building it. We aren’t maintaining it. We often harpoon those who support building it. And we’re tearing down what we already have.

As for public housing, you could argue that we’ve torn down more than what we’ve transformed. Some public housing residents have now been waiting decades — that’s plural — for the replacement housing they were promised as part of the Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation. And the CHA has engaged in some fuzzy math in its claims to have revitalized the developments it demolished.

Higher rents, more evictions

We also haven’t adequately replaced the housing that has been demolished in affordable neighborhoods across the South and West sides. One impact of the decline in population in those neighborhoods is that there just aren’t as many places to live as there were decades ago.

An analysis of new construction and demolition permits for residential properties shows a net loss of more than 4,600 residential buildings across nearly 30 communities on the South and West sides, dating to 2006. In West Englewood, for instance, about 900 more residential properties have been torn down than built during that time. In Englewood, there was a net loss of more than 800 residential properties. The net loss was more than 400 in Roseland and more than 300 in West Pullman, the analysis showed.

And in historically affordable communities where there has been positive growth in residential properties, like Woodlawn, many of the new units aren’t terribly affordable.

Meanwhile, rent, utilities and evictions are also on the rise, putting families at risk of becoming homeless.

In 2022, about 600,000 Chicagoans were living in households spending more than 30% of income for rent and utilities. That’s a spending level experts say is too high, preventing households from also covering other basic necessities — like food, clothing, health care and transportation — or saving enough for unexpected expenses.

An increasing percentage of Chicago renters are cost-burdened: 47% in 2022, up from less than 42% in 2020.

The situation is worse among households earning less than $35,000 a year: About 88% of Chicagoans in those households were cost-burdened in 2022. Two-thirds spent more than 50% of their income for rent and utilities.

These households are, not surprisingly, at risk of falling into debt and being evicted when emergencies happen.

And that’s exactly what’s happened in recent years. Evictions in Cook County have returned to pre-pandemic levels. About 29,000 eviction filings were made in Cook County in 2022, just 300 shy of the number from 2019.

Meanwhile, rents are rapidly increasing. A WBEZ analysis of Zillow rental data showed the average rent in Cook County rose by 25% from January 2021 to March 2023 — four times more than the 6% increase during an equivalent length of time before the pandemic.

An inadequate supply of housing, rising rents and more evictions all contribute to the homelessness crisis.

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless routinely reminds us of the tens of thousands of people who simply can’t afford what it costs in Chicago to put a roof over their heads — so they double up with others. It’s not about drug abuse, mental illness or similar issues that make some people less sympathetic to needs of unhoused people.

We can’t continue to sit on our hands and pretend that homelessness will just go away.

Large cities like Chicago will always be home to residents across a wide economic spectrum — and everyone, no matter where they fall on that spectrum, needs decent housing. We must put as much effort into creating affordable, more modest housing as in building luxury homes and condos.

It’s great to make a lot of money selling posh real estate to the wealthy. It’s just as valuable to provide real opportunities for everyone, no matter their income, to afford a place they can call home.

Alden Loury is data projects editor for WBEZ and writes a monthly column for the Sun-Times.

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