Earlier this year a partnership with Foundation for Homan Square and IFF (a nonprofit lender and experienced real estate consultant) was established to manage facilities and work with the community on continuing redevelopment. Additionally, a newly reinvigorated Community Advisory Council (CAC) and the new Homan Square Leadership Council are in place to help shape the future of Homan Square.
Initially formed when the Community Center was constructed, the CAC advised Homan Square leaders and service providers on community needs and helped to build deeper ties to community residents. The CAC is made up of North Lawndale residents, business owners, and representatives from local aldermanic offices and nonprofits. It has been reactivated with a focus on informing future needs and how the whole of the Community Center Campus can best meet residents’ wishes.
The CAC has already offered advice and set priorities for Homan Square, including a preference for updating current housing stock and creating more rental units within the next two years. In tandem with the housing efforts, the CAC has prioritized development corridors along Harrison and Roosevelt and Homan and Kedzie to further connect the Homan Square campus and the surrounding community. The potential for mixed-use development is being explored in these newly identified development corridors.
These community-based priorities will guide the Foundation and IFF in developing partnerships and seeking resources for housing and mixed-use development that will contribute to the success of the Homan Square Community Center Campus and support community development initiatives that benefit all residents.
The Homan Square Leadership Council (HSLC) is where leaders of the 16 service providers on the Homan Square Campus meet to work together. The group assembles quarterly to discuss what they are learning about emerging and unmet community needs and how they can collaborate their programs and respond. Working together, our service providers can better advance the missions of their own organizations
while creating greater opportunities to partner with and serve community residents.
Cooperation and collaboration mean better outcomes for everyone. Service providers, community residents, and Homan Square management are all working together to build the brightest future for the Homan Square community and surrounding neighborhoods.