City of Chicago 37th Ward Alderman Emma Mitts provided an informative presentation on the “State of Housing – The Westside of Chicago,” at the West Cook Homeownership Center’s “Welcome Home” A Real Estate & Community Resource Expo on Sept. 29th at Bethel New Life. The Alderman expressed her excitement about the MMRP (Micro Market Recovery Program), which provides Purchase Assistant Grants up to $15,000 for the down payment/closing costs for purchasing a home in one of Chicago’s MMRP areas.
State of Illinois 8th District Representative La Shawn K. Ford gave a presentation on the steps to take to acquire distressed properties. He emphasized the need to empower people to purchase abandoned and vacant properties in their neighborhoods. He sat in on a panel discussion focused on the many options available for rehabilitating or buying a home. With him on the panel were Marseil Jackson, Garfield Park Resident and Entrepreneur owner of Rental Harvest; Kevin Jackson, Executive Director of the Chicago Rehab Network; and Wendell Harris, Director of Lending Operations, Chicago Community Loan Fund.
In addition to the panel discussion, Expo attendees could visit the tables of various vendors and sponsors of the Expo. Participating vendors included US Bank, Fifth Third Bank, PNC Bank, Wintrust Bank, First Midwest Bank, Huntington Bank, Associated Bank, Wells Fargo, Old Second National Bank, Guaranteed Rate, Empowerment Consulting, City of Chicago, Energy Resources Center, Garfield Park Community Council, Austin Coming Together, the Sokol Group, American Realty Network, Team Real Estate Services and Re/Max “10”.
Bus tours of the Austin and Garfield Park neighborhoods were also a part of the Expo. The tours were hosted by Austin Coming Together and the Garfield Park Community Council. People on the bus tour were able to inspect one of the houses for sale in the Austin neighborhood.