The Shared Equity Investment Program (SEIP) supports shared equity models of community land trust (CLT) and limited equity and affordable housing cooperative (Cooperatives) development by providing up to $100,000 for each affordable unit in a building being acquired and associated carrying costs of CLT and Cooperative developments.
The goals of SEIP include one or more of the following intended outcomes:
- Creation of permanent affordable housing units
- Community wealth building through community-controlled homeownership
- Neighborhood stabilization and protection against displacement by moderating market-price increases
- Development of a sustainable support pathway for Cooperatives and CLTs (and their residents) to access current and future government funding
SEIP will expand opportunities for Cooperatives and CLTs to access funding for acquisition and acquisition-related activities through the City of Chicago (City) to promote additional pathways to affordable homeownership.
The City provided SEIP grant funds to the Chicago Community Loan Fund (CCLF) for CCLF to provide acquisition grants to eligible Cooperatives and CLTs at the time of their acquisition closings. Each such subgrant may include a project delivery fee of 15% per subgrant, not to exceed $300,000 of the total grant amount to CCLF of $2 million.
Acquisition Grants are eligible for the following uses
- Property Acquisition
- Holding costs, such as taxes, insurance
- Legal costs
- Other associated costs of acquisition as approved by CCLF and DOH
Ineligible uses
- Construction
- Rehabilitation
- Relocation costs
Eligible applicants include, but are not limited to, the following
- Cooperatives
- CLTs
- Nonprofits with similar shared ownership affordable deed-restricted housing
Eligible projects include, but are not limited to, the following
- Projects that will be developed as permanently affordable housing
- Projects that will convert to limited equity cooperatives or community land trust properties
- Projects that are either occupied or vacant
- Projects that are currently code compliant, or projects that obtain a Certificate of Occupancy from the City’s Department of Buildings prior to occupancy
Affordability guidelines include the following
- 51% of the total units must be priced at a sale price that is affordable to household buyers whose household incomes, adjusted for family size, do not exceed 80% of the Chicago Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area median income as determined and published by the United Sates Department of Housing and Urban Development (“AMI”) or below, as such sale price is determined by the City in its sole discretion, and sold to households whose income, adjusted for family size, do not exceed 120% AMI
- Affordable pricing of units will be provided annually by DOH
