Greater Chatham Initiative

Housing Development is a key Greater Chatham Initiative goal - both attracting new and retaining existing renters and homeowners. GCI, is a Community Partner for the City of Chicago Micro Market Recovery Program. Greater Chatham Initiative has helped reduce the vacancy rate in our 110-block MMRP area from 8% to 5% by (117 properties reoccupied), helped residents secure $260,000 in housing improvement grants, assisted 4 families in obtaining Wills and Transfer On Death Instruments, and carried out numerous block cleanups. While doing this work Greater Chatham has gained valuable insight on drivers of vacancies and what tools solve the problems.Three years prior to the Pandemic, Greater Chatham Initiative conducted summer home buyer tours, and held the following mentioned tactical activation activities such as Dining on the 5, 75th Street Boardwalk to bring visitors to and acquaint them with the area. Greater Chatham Initiative provided booklets that extolled our excellent public and charter schools. The multi-prong efforts paid off. Greater Chatham is a modest growth area that is not experiencing gentrification despite its substantial median housing sales price increase of 41% for 14-unit properties 2019 to 2020. Chatham is one of the few Black neighborhoods where the population increased 2% from 2010 to 2020, and the homeownership rate increased 1.8%.

Business Developmennt are activities Greater Chatham Initiative has featured. FoodLab Chicago a GCI program that has assisted with operations, stability, and improvement of 36 Greater Chatham, South Shore, and Englewood food businesses. The restaurant owner/operators received $3.2 million in grants and loans in 2020-2022. FoodLab Chicago also completed a market study of 18 restaurants, their plate types, costs, and trends. FoodLab Chicago also developed for select restaurants 6 new, on-trend plates that are culturally appropriate, high quality, nutritionally rich and calorie conscious. Greater Chatham Initiative has helped 49 non-food business owners receive $5.1 million in loans and grants from 2017 and 2019. In 2021 Greater Chatham Initiative formed the new Soul Delivered, which is a L3C Business-to-Business food delivery service that will serve South Side restauranteurs customers. By delivering meals at a much-reduced costs for 18 Black-owned restaurants allows those entrepreneurs to have a sustainable delivery service business model

Workforce Development are activities providing career pathways for residents to keep or maintain living wage/middle-skill jobs. We have held or co-produced six job fairs that led to dozens of pre-Pandemic job placements. Most recently we have fought hard to secure 5 workers for local restaurants.