“Either we pony up and invest in this housing stock so that we can keep it, or we lose it, and then the issue is not how many new units can we add each year, it’s how many neighborhoods do we lose. Who gets to own a home in this country, that American Dream? Is it only people who make over $200,000 or $300,000 a year? We have this moment in time to preserve something that is incredibly important to this nation,” said consultant Karen Black at a national symposium on home repair on March at the Federal Home Loan Bank of St. Louis.
Investing in our housing stock is really about investing in our people. That’s where Fix Our Homes Illinois comes in.
Two years since Fix Our Homes Illinois coalesced, we’ve become a force for low-income senior homeowners, marching towards the day when we have a statewide coordinated clearinghouse that makes it easy for older people to get the repairs they need to make their homes safe.
The coalition held its first gathering of 2025 on April 10th over Zoom. Thirty-two people participated with enthusiasm, mostly staff of nonprofit or government agencies that serve or advocate for older people. Some, like Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly (H.O.M.E.), Rebuilding Together in Metro Chicago, and Chicagoland Habitat for Humanity, provide direct home repair services.
Our goal for the gathering was to update Fix Our Homes Illinois supporters on the campaign’s activities and to excite their interest in joining any of our three working committees:
- Data Committee: Co-led by Sarah Brachle Wagner of Chicagoland Habitat for Humanity and Geoff Smith of the DePaul Institute for Housing Studies, this committee is pulling together information critical to creating a meaningful home repair infrastructure such as where and how many seniors have the greatest unmet or undersupported needs, scope of repairs, and costs.
- Policy Committee: Co-led by Gail Schechter of H.O.M.E. and Kimberly Chase Harding of Chicagoland Habitat, this committee is working on elements of a new bill.
- Outreach Committee: Co-led by Rev. Robin Hood of Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere (M.O.VE.) and Gail Schechter of H.O.M.E., this committee is working on organizing and educating older people throughout the state.
Please contact any of these committee chairs or Foluke Akanni of Housing Action Illinois to join a committee!
For a new initiative, we got good traction in the legislature last year with HB 5506, the Senior Home Preservation Program Act, sponsored by State Rep. Kevin Olickal, which had a hearing in the Human Services Committee last year and got unanimous bipartisan support. The reason it did not move forward is that it needed some fleshing out, which is what the campaign is doing this year so we can introduce a strong bill in 2026. Fix Our Homes Illinois is inspired by Pennsylvania’s Whole-Home Repairs Act and in a new bill, we would also like to include a workforce training component for home repair professionals. (In fact, there’s now a bipartisan Federal Whole-Home Repairs Act of 2025 that has been introduced in the U.S. Senate).
Geoff Smith of the DePaul Institute for Housing Studies also presented a preliminary study for Fix Our Homes Illinois, Assessing Home Improvement Needs for Illinois’ Older Homeowners, suggesting that over 100,000 older people living in and owning one-to-four unit residents in Illinois could benefit from a Senior Home Preservation Program. The chart below is just the five largest metropolitan areas in Illinois alone.
The new data also shows that a majority of older homeowners in Illinois (53%) subsist on incomes below 80% of the area median, with disproportionately higher percentages for Black and Latino homeowners. Moreover, twice as many older low-income homeowners are living for at least ten years in pre-World War II-built homes compared to all age groups (over 10% versus 5%).
We had a lively discussion at this and our subsequent Steering Committee meeting about the scope of repairs and modifications for people with disabilities for which we are seeking support under a Senior Home Preservation Program infrastructure. We decided that a full scope is essential — interior and exterior, such as roofs — to make a home habitable. We are going to look at creating “tiers” of repairs as well.
We also agreed that regardless of a bill, coordination is essential. There are multiple, often duplicative home repair programs in different state agencies. Meanwhile, some parts of the state are struggling with the basics, like securing contractors who will even do the work. We are reaching out to state agencies to see if we can convene simply around coordination, if not consolidating their programs.
Next Step? Move forward!
- Please join Fix Our Homes Illinois!
- Encourage your colleagues or older people you work with to join our committees — contact info above!
- Invite us to speak to your coalitions!
A big shout out to Ali Medina and Illinois Aging Together and Pat McGhee of the Chicago Neighborhood Recovery Program for hosting a presentation for their members about Fix Our Homes Illinois!
Onward!
Gail Schechter, for the Steering Committee of Fix Our Homes Illinois, which also incudes:
Sarah Wagner, Chicagoland Habitat for Humanity
Kimberly Chase Harding, Chicagoland Habitat for Humanity
Bernice Frazier, Commuity Advisory Council, H.O.M.E.
Geoff Smith, DePaul Institute for Housing Studies
Foluke Akanni, Housing Action Illinois
Rev. Robin Hood, Illinois Anti-Foreclosure Coalition
Princess Shaw, Light Up Lawndale
Danielle Stanley, NHS Chicago
Sarah Brune, NHS Chicago
Paula Bush, North West Housing Partnership
Michelle Dyder, Project Now
Kris Downey, Project Now
Sonseriya Williams, Teamwork Englewood
Robin Bartram, University of Chicago