In coordination with the Office of Mayor Brandon Johnson, the Department of Housing (DOH) is proud to submit the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) grant application to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The PRO Housing grant opportunity is a national competition to provide approximately $100 million to remove local barriers to the creation and preservation of affordable housing and to address an acute demand for affordable housing for households at or below 100% of the Area Median Income. HUD anticipates awarding 30 local jurisdictions with grants ranging from $1 million to $7 million.  

The City of Chicago, through the PRO-CHI application, seeks funding to address two critical barriers that hinder development of affordable housing in Chicago: inefficiencies within the implementation of the Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO); and the lack of City control of land and limitations of currently available funding sources in amenity-rich areas of Chicago. With financial support from the PRO Housing grant, DOH and its partners will implement two critical activities: (1) improvements to the ARO process that will lead to greater availability and accessibility of affordable units, and (2) innovative financing mechanisms and public ownership to build mixed-income buildings in high opportunity areas without the need for subsidies from limited sources.  

The City would like to hear from you on how we can strengthen our application to HUD to help address this critical housing work. Public comment for the PRO-CHI application is open from September 23 to October 8, 2024 at 4:00 pm, and a public hearing will be hosted in Room 1003-A in City Hall (121 N LaSalle) from 9:00 am to 11:00 am on Wednesday, October 2, 2024. If you would like to attend the public hearing virtually, or need Spanish or ASL interpretation, please register for the meeting on Zoom here.

Please review the PRO-CHI application below, and send us your comment to PRO-CHI@cityofchicago.org. In your comment, please state your name, the organization you represent, and your thoughts on the plan. If you are not making a comment from an organization, please say that you are sending the comment as a resident of Chicago. All comments, including the name and organization (if applicable), must be sent to the Department of Housing and Urban Development per the application guidelines.   

DOWNLOAD THE PRO-CHI APPLICATION DRAFT

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

IMPORTANT DATES

September 23 - October 8: Public comment period for the PRO-CHI application

October 2: Public hearing, hosted in room 1003-A in City Hall (121 N LaSalle) from 9am to 11am