Small but Mighty: Combating the Affordable Housing Crisis Through Small-Scale Historic Rehabilitation

For over a century, Chicago's two- three- and four flat buildings have been the workhorses of its residential housing market. The City is filled with tens of thousands of these frame, brick, or limestone vernacular structures, making them part of the fabric that comprises the "City of Neighborhoods." Historically, they not only provided affordable housing to immigrants and working-class families, but also served as a means to grow generational wealth and achieve upward mobility. Today, however, Chicago is experiencing an affordable housing crisis, with nearly half of all residents paying more than a third of their income on housing. In some of the City's economically distressed neighborhoods, many of these small-scale buildings that traditionally filled the need for affordable housing sit vacant or in desperate need of rehabilitation. At the same time, in more prosperous areas of the City, there has been a surge to convert these small-scale, multifamily buildings into single-family homes, stripping them of their historic function and reducing the affordability of this once reliable housing option. This thesis will attempt to present viable options for ways in which these small-scale vernacular buildings can once again be activated to fill the need for affordable housing. The first chapter considers the various ways that Chicago is currently producing affordable housing. This includes discussion of the federal Historic Tax Credit, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, state level incentives, the City's Affordable Requirements Ordinance, and private funds that are working in this arena. The second chapter is dedicated to looking at case studies from around the country that use different strategies to activate historic buildings for affordable housing. This chapter is divided into three areas of concentration. The first of which is policy and includes a dive into the provisions within three state historic preservation legislations that specifically incentivize the creation of affordable housing. The second area of concentration examines two organizations that utilize preservation revolving funds geared specifically towards use in affordable housing. The final area of concentration deals with land banking, a still-emerging tool that has gained attention within the preservation community in recent years, especially for its use in economically distressed communities. Based on the information presented in the previous chapters, the third, and final, chapter puts forth recommendations for policy, strategies, and tools that can be adapted for use in the creation and preservation of affordable housing in Chicago's small-scale older building stock.