Restoring safe, dignified housing for seniors in Chicago.
Our Mission
Fix Our Homes Illinois is dedicated to ensuring seniors, especially in low-income and underserved communities, have access to the resources and support needed to maintain safe and dignified homes, through meeting with policymakers and community members, compiling a list of public and private home repair resources currently available, promoting these resources, and creating policy solutions to address homeowners’ repair needs.
Our Objectives
Raise Awareness
Raising awareness among policymakers, the media, and other key audiences about the significant and growing repair needs of older homeowners.
Advocate
Advocate or state and city policies that would increase home repair resources for low-income older homeowners.
Educate
Educate older homeowners about services available to them.
Fix Our Homes Illinois
Fix Our Homes Illinois is a coalition launched by Housing Opportunities & Maintenance for the Elderly in April 2023, working in collaboration with community groups to address the housing needs of older adults in Chicago and Cook County. This effort is rooted in a research study conducted by the DePaul Institute for Housing Studies, with H.O.M.E. actively participating as a member of the study’s community advisory board.
The coalition’s work focuses on critical housing challenges facing older adults, particularly in historically underserved communities, where economic disparities and systemic barriers often prevent seniors from maintaining safe and affordable housing. Through the lens of local data and community engagement, Fix Our Homes Illinois aims to bridge the gap between policy advocacy and real-life housing solutions for low-income older adults.
Read the StudyThe Catalyst
Editorials that appeared in the Chicago Tribune and Crain’s Chicago Business by Professor Robin Bartram, then of Tulane and now at the University of Chicago, declaring to the political world and to the public what all of us already knew: that the way we were allowing our seniors to live, particularly Black seniors in our institutionally neglected neighborhoods amidst danger and disrepair, was both a moral and existential crisis.
“The inability to repair and update one’s home is an intractable, deadly epidemic.”
— Professor Robin Bartram, University of Chicago
Who We Are
Fix Our Homes Illinois is a coalition of organizations committed to securing more public funding and personnel for home repairs for low-income homeowners. The coalition is convened by Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly (H.O.M.E.) in Chicago and includes organizations including:
- AARP Illinois
- Access Living
- AgeGuide
- AgeOptions,
- BCMW Community Services,
- Center for Health and Social Care Integration at Rush University Medical Center
- Chicago Bungalow Association
- Community Partners for Affordable Housing
- DePaul Institute for Housing Studies
- Faith 1 Network
- Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University
- Folded Map Project
- Health & Medicine Policy Research Group
- Housing Action Illinois
- Illinois Aging Together
- Illinois Anti-Foreclosure Coalition
- Light Up Lawndale
- Morning Star Baptist Church
- Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere (MOVE)
- Southland Development
- Southwest Organizing Project
- Teamwork Englewood
- The Woodstock Institute.
We work tirelessly to ensure seniors live in secure, well-maintained homes, free from hazards and disrepair.
SAFE HOUSING
COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
Through collaboration with local organizations, we provide support and services to vulnerable seniors in need.
We advocate for housing policies that prioritize the well-being and dignity of older adults in Chicago.
