Joining Forces’ 2023 Goals

Here are the goals that Joining Forces for Affordable Housing will be focusing on in 2023:

Anchor Institutions Project  
Our goal is to increase the tangible resources that Evanston’s “anchor institutions” contribute towards increasing the supply of affordable housing. We will do this by creating an alliance of anchor institutions that collaborate to create a significant fund specifically for use in creating housing and/or providing housing subsidies. 
 

1. We have already created reports showing how hospitals and universities have contributed to affordable housing in their communities. We will create additional reports that address the roles of corporations, financial institutions, and philanthropic organizations. 
2. We have initiated individual conversations with Northwestern University and Evanston’s two hospitals. We will additionally initiate conversations with the largest corporations, financial institutions, and philanthropic organizations. 
3. We will organize a summit among all of the involved organizations to establish an alliance among them and the structure, roles and processes for the alliance to use in increasing the supply of affordable housing. 

 
Equitable Zoning Project 
Our goal is to reform Evanston’s zoning code to support the creation and preservation of affordable housing as a way of creating racial and socio-economic equity and decreasing segregation. We will do this by rolling out the results of our equitable zoning review and the community feedback we have collected and engaging the City in using the results as input into short-term zoning decisions and long-term zoning reform.  
 

1. We will create a report of the findings from the Equitable Zoning Project so far and disseminate it throughout the community. 
2. We will analyze the processes used to gather resident feedback in the Equitable Zoning Project and create a report on what has been most effective. 
3. We will develop and begin to implement an advocacy campaign to incorporate equitable zoning policy in current municipal decision-making and long-term planning related to zoning reform. 
4. We will use the knowledge gained from the Equitable Zoning Project to expand the community education we provide. 
5. We will evaluate where we can extend our equitable zoning work to other municipalities. 

 
Inclusionary Zoning and the 3-Unrelated Rule 
Our goal is to support current, popular efforts to make some immediate changes to local zoning that will support increases in affordaiblity. We will do this by participating in efforts to strengthen inclusionary zoning in Evanston, establish it in other municipalities, and remove the set of ordinances that comprise Evanston’s “3-unrelated rule.” 
 

1. We will build on work the City of Evanston has done to evaluate inclusionary zoning in other municipalities and determine which zoning provisions result in the greatest number of affordable units. 
2. We will continue our research into alternatives to the 3-unrelated rule as a means of discouraging predatory investors in student housing and the creation of “animal houses” in single-family neighborhoods. 
3. We will provide community education on our findings and input into the public processes related to changing these ordinances in Evanston and to establishing inclusionary zoning in Skokie and other suburbs that do not yet have it. 

 
State-Level Advocacy 
Our goal is to increase the State of Illinois budget for housing- and homelessness-related line items and to have the state legislature pass pro-affordable-housing legislation including improvements to the Affordable Housing Planning and Appeals Act. We will do this by collaborating with partner advocacy organizations and by leveraging the advocacy energy of Joining Forces’ membership, community partners, and program participants. 
 

1. We will work with partner advocacy organizations to define and articulate budget asks and proposed legislation. 
2. We will reach out in-district to legislators in our region to educate them on our issues and advocate for their support. 
3. We will organize people with lived experience of housing struggles to do a lobby day in Springfield where we will reach out to all state legislators with a unified and distinctive plea for support. 

 
Communications & Education  
Our goal is to increase the size and engagement of Joining Forces’ membership, while increasing community understanding and activism around the need for affordable housing and the solutions to addressing the shortage. We will do this by creating a more substantial infrastructure for communications, including member recruitment and stewardship functions along with a robust community education program.  
 

1. We are developing and implementing a communications schedule that addresses the need to recruit members, maintain their engagement, provide education, and incite them to action. We are making communication to members about all of our work and the need for their involvement a top priority. 
   
2. We are creating more roles for members to participate in action, including research, watchdog, and legislator cultivation roles.  
   
3. We are revamping our affordable housing workshops to make them more interactive and more modular so that we can deliver them in more tailored ways to different audiences and provide education on a broader range of housing topics. The modules should allow for more engagement with our content during, and even outside of, workshops.  

 
People with Lived Experience  
Our goal is to incorporate the experiences and voices of people with lived experience of housing struggles in all efforts to increase the supply of affordable housing. We will do this by engaging with participants in Connections’ programs and with members of the communities whom we reach through our new relationships with community partners who have roots deep in the communities most impacted by the affordable housing shortage. 
 

1. We will establish a “Client Advisory Board” that meets regularly and provides input and initiates activities related both to Connections’ programs and to Joining Forces and its advocacy work. ​
2. We will continue to work with the Equitable Zoning Project’s community partners to provide education and get their direction on what types of housing advocacy we can support them with. 
3. We will engage people with lived experience in meetings with legislators at all levels as part of all our advocacy work. 
4. We will work with people who would like to share their own housing stories to shape and deliver them as a way to support advocacy efforts.