Say YES to housing
and YES to zoning reform

Current zoning laws in our region make the creation and development of affordable housing difficult and expensive. We support zoning reform that promotes affordability, encourages abundance and embraces equity in zoning.

WHat is zoning?

Zoning determines how land can be used through maps, rules and procedures.​

Zoning codes determine:

• What kinds of buildings exist and where they can be built
• Which neighborhoods have affordable and accessible homes​
• Who you can live with 

Today's zoning perpetuates yesterday's redlining

 Historically, zoning has been used to differentiate, segregate, and price-out people with low incomes, people of color, and people with disabilities.

Throughout the 1930s the The Home Owners Loan Association (HOLC), a federal agency born as part of the New Deal, created and enforced race-based zoning policies throughout the country. These policies known as 'redlining' marked Black and brown neighborhoods as high risk for mortgage loans. The effects of these policies remain today; areas which received investments are currently single family only zones and are whiter and wealthier than other parts of Evanston. Disenfranchised neighborhoods have a higher diversity of buildings and people living there. 

​This historical practice has direct effects on our communities access to resources. The median income in the 5th ward, a historically Black and divested from neighborhood, ranges from $45,000 to $55,000, while the median income in Evanston (at large) ranges from $60,000 to $110,000.  

Equitable Zoning Project

In the summer of 2020, Joining Forces began what is now called the Equitable Zoning Project (EZP), with the intent to identify how the zoning code of the City of Evanston, Illinois, may play a role in:

• Discouraging the development of affordable housing,
• Preserving racial and socio-economic segregation, and
• Perpetuating inequities among residents.​

​"Earning little and renting don't go together sometimes, but you have to put a roof on your head and sacrifice some other things. Three square meals have been hard, you know, and you don't get to buy everything you want.”
- Black respondent who rents with income between $25,000 and $75,000

Read the report to learn more.

​Read our recommendations.

OUR Recommendations

Promote Housing Affordability​

Zoning reform will remove costly barriers in the process of affordable housing development. Currently, affordable housing developers face a series of hurdles as they try to line up multiple funding sources, wait out bureaucratic processes and fight negative public opinion.  Reform will pave a smooth path forward for affordable housing development.

Rent Growth Is Slowing (Where Housing Got Built)

Rethinking Zoning to Increase Affordable Housing 

Encourage Density and Housing Abundance​ 

Our country has a housing shortage. Increasing our housing stock will help address this problem and give our housing market the elasticity it needs to include affordable and missing middle housing.

New Research Confirms the Benefits of "Light Touch" Density

Shifts toward the extremes: Zoning change in major U.S. metropolitan areas from 2003 to 2019 

​Embrace Equity in Zoning

The City code does not require the membership of the Land Use Commission (LUC) to reflect the diversity of Evanston and include representatives from different walks of life. There are no requirements to include renters, people with low incomes, people of color, or people with disabilities—all groups who experience the greatest hardships with housing.

When public notice goes out to the community about a zoning change or a major variance, only property owners are targeted. Renters, who are vastly more likely to be low income and people of color, are not included and can only find out about the notice if they are signed up for the City’s newsfeeds, find the notice in the Evanston Review, or hear about it via word of mouth. This means that the voices heard during public comment on zoning changes and variances usually lack those of these people. 

“Fair access to housing goes beyond the ability for any resident, regardless of income, to afford the mortgage or rent payments required for the available housing in their community, It also considers the ability of residents to live near their place of employment, schools, and services, in their preferred housing and ownership type, and in communities with a shared culture or identity if they so choose.” 

The APA Equity in Zoning Policy Guide