Cities and states across the country are implementing zoning reform as a creative solution to address our housing crisis. Here are some graphics to illustrate what upzoning might look like in your neighborhood.

Visit Better Housing Together to learn more.

Visit Sightline Institute to learn more.

A Joining Forces team met on February 22, 2025, to review and discuss the Comprehensive Plan in preparation for the Land Use Commission meeting to be held on Wednesday, February 26. We reviewed just the chapters with explicit content related to housing and have summarized our observations and recommendations below.  ​

Read more to find answers to questions like: What is affordable housing? Why is it difficult to build housing in Evanston? Why is “density” important for affordable housing? How do Evanston’s zoning processes prohibit the development of affordable housing? And more.

Joining Forces has been studying the City of Evanston's zoning code for several  years. Our report is now done and is serving as the driver of our Equitable Zoning Reform Campaign in Evanston.​

by Nathaniel Hagemaster

For a variety of reasons, I am not a car owner. This has put a variety of obstacles in my way, particularly when I lived in rural Texas and in Fort Wayne, Indiana. When I moved to Chicago and got a job at Connections for the Homeless and started learning about zoning, I came to realize how many of these obstacles weren’t created by my car-lessness but, instead, by a societal expectation that everyone drives and by the zoning that reinforces that expectation.​

In August of 2020, Joining Forces for Affordable Housing reviewed Evanston’s Zoning Code and concluded that “both Evanston and the surrounding communities should overhaul their municipal codes to accomplish the following: 

• Eliminate elements in the Code that make it more difficult and more expensive to create and sustain affordable housing 
• Eliminate elements in the Code that perpetuate segregation, lack of housing choice, and economic, health, and political inequity based on race” 

Since then, Joining Forces has led the effort to review Evanston’s Zoning Code and is now ready to embark on a unique community input process to determine how it has impacted different people in different ways. 

Connections for the Homeless is pleased to provide this opportunity for funding for Evanston-focused community organizations.

We are inviting Black-led and Latino/Hispanic-led organizations, as well as organizations that focus on equity issues (racial, disability, and other), to apply for grants to help in reaching out to and gathering input from the community by making use of their networks.