ONE Northside calls on the CTA to prioritize affordable housing in sale of lots in 46th & 48th wards

This week, ONE Northside and allied organizations from across the North Side sent the following letter to Jeff Wilson, CTA Government and Community Relations Director; Lissette Castañeda, Chicago Department of Housing Commissioner; and Katharyn Hurd, Supervising Planner, Chicago Department of Planning and Development.

October 15, 2025
Dear Mr. Wilson, Commissioner Castaneda, and Ms. Hurd,

We are reaching out today regarding the CTA and city-owned parcels in the 46th and 48th
wards that will soon be available for development upon completion of the Red and Purple
Modernization Project. The development of these publicly-owned parcels represent an
unprecedented opportunity to secure affordable housing in the highly competitive northside real
estate market.

The signatories of this letter represent community organizations, affordable developers, local
political leadership, and service providers all looking to the City, its departments, and sister
agencies to implement an RFP process that allows developers who are best positioned to build
and manage desperately needed affordable housing to make competitive bids on these parcels.

At this time, the undersigned formally request that CTA consider the following in regards
to the RFP and sale process for all lots, and LBMM-01, in particular, which is scheduled
to be released in October 2025:

1. Slow and amend the RFP process and scoring criteria to ensure the final proposals
   will be well-received, supported by the community, and maximize the amount of
   affordable housing that is built.
2. Allow for aggregation of parcels in these two wards to enhance the feasibility and
   opportunities for scale necessary to achieve goals in affordable housing and economic
   development, institutional and community services. (If aggregation is not possible, the
   RFP release dates need to be aligned so developers can bid on all of them together.)
   

Regarding the amendments to the RFP process, we offer the following as examples that should
be considered to help prioritize needed affordable development and allow affordable developers
the opportunity to make competitive bids on all the lots coming up for sale:

• Proposed Owners should fully disclose and have a reputable development team as affordable housing and/or mixed-use development sponsors, and collaborate with a community partner and potential co-owner who will play a significant role in planning, evaluation and support of ownership decisions;
• Proposed projects should prioritize housing for people below 50% AMI (ideally including units below 30% AMI as well), identify a resident services provider, and ideally, give preference to local service provider(s);
• Prioritize developers who present a plan to exceed the requirements in the ARO either through internal subsidies or through commitment to partner with a subsidy source that will increase the number of units or the proportion of those units that are available to people at 30% AMI or lower, such as CHA’s Project Based Vouchers
• Green Social Housing projects, if proposed, should receive preferential scoring, particularly if they primarily serve low-income people
• For portions of planned developments that are “affordable,” preferences should be made for projects that assure permanent affordability, via owner participation in a community land trust, utilization of Ground Leases or Affordability Covenants (with unsubordinated use restrictions).

On behalf of all undersigned organizations and neighbors of the 46th and 48th wards, we look
forward to seeing the CTA and City of Chicago prioritize desperately needed affordable, sustainable, and equitable housing development on the far northside.

If you have questions or want to discuss the details of this proposal, we will be happy to meet
with you. Please contact us to set up a meeting.

Sincerely,

ONE Northside
Hannah Gelder

Northside Action for Justice
Marc Kaplan

Uptown People’s Law Center
Jim Garfield

Voice of the People
Michael Rohrbeck

LBBA Architects
Peter Landon

Blue Eddy Community Advisors
Andrew Geer

The Resurrection Project
Guacolda Reyes

Full Circle Communities, inc.
Joshua Wilmoth

Elevated Chicago
Juan Sebastian Arias

The Community Builders
Will Woodley

Mercy Housing Lakefront
Mark Angelini

Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation
Joy Aruguete

Interfaith Housing Development Corporation of Chicago
Perry Vietti

Holsten Real Estate Development Corp.
Peter M. Holsten