How we do it

• Troubled multifamily buildings are referred to CII from a variety of sources, including community groups, elected officials, the Chicago Police Department, and the Chicago Department of Buildings, Housing, Planning and Development, and Law.
• Through the TBI program, CII:
  • Evaluates the potential for rehabilitation of distressed properties
  • Encourages owners of troubled buildings to correct their code violations
  • Acts as a court-appointed receiver when owners fail to make repairs. Receivership includes making court ordered repairs, placing priority liens on the property to cover the associated expenditures, and occasionally managing the property.
  • Pursues collection of funds spent for repairs to correct code violations.
  • If repair expenditures are not repaid by the owner, CII pursues foreclosure and transfers the property to a responsible owner.
• If you have a troubled building on your block, contact the City of Chicago’s 311 non-emergency line or contact the Director of CII at jonah.hess@cicchicago.com.

TBI Impact

TBI is an extremely efficient program. In fact, from 2015-2018 CII spent an average of just $1,700 per unit to recover and preserve affordable rental housing.

Preserving Subsidized Affordable Housing in Washington Park

• 24 units
• Tools used: TBI receivership, coordination with public agencies, CIC financing

A nonprofit organization originally rehabbed this 24-unit building to provide housing for low income families, whose rents were made affordable through project based rental assistance. When the building entered TBI in 2014, its interior conditions were so deteriorated that the Chicago Housing Authority CHA), which provided most of the rental assistance on the building, was beginning to relocate its tenants due to health and safety concerns. Upon its receivership assignment, CII immediately addressed dangerous conditions by renovating selected units. At the same time, CII purchased the first mortgage and obtained an assignment of all subordinate debt.  This combination of TBI liens and public and private debt guaranteed that CII would control the ultimate disposition of the property. CII foreclosed on the property and worked with public agencies to select a new, responsible owner, who used CIC financing to purchase and complete rehab of the building in 2017. The property is now fully rehabbed and occupied with a project based rental assistance contract in place, preserving long-term affordable rental housing.

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Acquisition Funding 

TBI funds are available to multifamily developers interested in purchasing seriously distressed buildings for rehab. The funds are designed to help bridge a project gap and make an otherwise unfeasible project work.

How It Works