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On May 21st, Voice of the People and its partner, the National Housing Partnership Foundation, met with Sarah’s Circle, a housing and social service provider about a possible collaboration at the San Miguel Apartments development. In such an endeavor, in a building slated for participation in the Trust, Sarah’s Circle might assume responsibility for a certain number of apartments, where they’d be responsible for the rents, and house formerly homeless or at risk women, who would receive social services support as a requirement for their subsidized housing.

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During May, Voice advanced planning for the Summer Social Cost Appeals Training Session, hosted by Sen. Mike Simmons, facilitated by Commission Samantha Steele of the Cook County Board of Review, and including legal and accounting training by Craig Donnewald, Esq. of Finkel, Martwick & Colson and Pedro Morales, Jr of Voice of the People in Uptown, Inc. Participants, who will be affordable housing owners from lakefront communities, and citywide, will learn better how to provide evidence supporting social costs of creating/sustaining affordable housing. This includes documentation related to community land trust affiliation, resident services/trust training, and various pre-development, development and management services that, when provided in-kind or at below market rate, can be documented to demonstrate lower values and increase tax relief – a major benefit of the Dovie Trust and technical assistance capacity we are trying to develop.

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The Finance Manager and Executive Planning Assistant attended the “State of Uptown” Forum hosted by the Chamber of Commerce, providing an opportunity to hear from others and share Voice of the People programs and projects, including start-up of the Dovie Thurman Affordable Housing Trust. Voice’s Resident Opportunity Services Manager, Anna Miller, attended the Peer-to-Peer ALL CHICAGO Networking event, sharing and presenting about Voice programming and Trust. A barrier in Education, Outreach and Marketing, or opportunity to expedite, lies in development of Trust literature to complement the online resources and YouTube video, something we had wished to have in place with new, funded staffing. However, advancing the cause for the promotion of community land trusts in Chicago is the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Urban & Economic Developments, who is producing a video highlighting the efforts of groups around the City, including Voice’s role in the start-up of the Dovie Thurman Affordable Housing Trust. In addition to providing other supporting information, the Executive Director met with the video production team at Voice offices on May 23rd for an extended interview. It is anticipated as this video is completed, circulated and made permanently available on the Community Wealth Building Hub and Dashboard, that this will lead to increased inquiries and resources for the Dovie Trust.

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There is no cash flow to significantly advance Dovie Thurman Affordable Housing Trust project, especially related to external costs of HR Recruitment consulting for a part time or full time managing director, and for the person’s planned hiring/onboarding. This results in serious constraints to internal capacity of the fiscal agent and the Dovie Thurman Affordable Housing Trust. Hiring is not prudent in the absence of CWB “Implementation Phase” funding, and in the absence of alternative community land trust organizational support. Administrative focus has shifted to bridging receivable with City of Chicago grant programs or considering alternative pursuits for start-up funding support. Plans have been developed during the month to extend and amend Community Wealth Building Phase II Workplan and budget to draw all funds, even if the Managing Director of the Trust cannot be recruited and hired during the grant period, as originally anticipated.

The Sweet Home Uptown fundraising event in April was a major promotion, in advance and following, for the Dovie Thurman Affordable Housing Trust, with emphasis in May to promoting access to youtube video meant to be a lead promotional piece in presentations going forward. What also deserves significant attention in this report is to articulate the opportunity provided by the acquisition, pre-development services and development process for the Heartland Alliance property, the 71-unit San Miguel Apartments Development. Briefly referenced in this and prior reports, Voice initiated efforts in the summer of 2023 to submit and win approval of a Letter of Intent to purchase the property. This was very significant in that we needed to cultivate a variety of allies, resource/subsidy providers, relations with government agencies and lenders, and simultaneously recruit/enlist, screen and select a capital/development partner that we could work with in the acquisition. The way this search process evolved, inclusion of the project in the Dovie Thurman Affordable Housing Trust was a fundamental part of our presentation, and in our new partnership with the National Housing Partnership Foundation, we have a collaborator who shares this as a goal. Therefore, research, meetings, activities, services and advocacy related to preserving Heartland Alliance properties (including Leland Hotel development in the same community of Uptown), as well as affordable housing preservation funding generally, are being noted here in CWEB reporting. It is our hope and expectation that after we finalize efforts to include the first three properties in the trust, the San Miguel Apartments could among the next wave of potential properties for inclusion, along with other developments with non-profit sponsors who have contacted us already.