Dive Brief:
- Illinois Realtors last week launched the Illinois Housing Supply Accelerator Program, designed to work with local governments across the state to identify and remove barriers to housing development.
- The realtor trade group’s program promotes a “tailored” approach to reforms for each city’s housing market and looks to partner with mayors, county leaders and other stakeholders to examine zoning ordinances and development regulations that may be restricting growth.
- Illinois faces a statewide deficit of 142,000 homes and needs to build 227,000 in the next five years to keep pace with demand, studies show.
Dive Insight:
The accelerator program, which includes a playbook with local housing development strategies, comes after a state-level push for a unified zoning strategy across cities manifested in a bill championed by Gov. JB Pritzker.
The Illinois Municipal League strongly opposed that effort, and it was shelved at the end of the state senate’s spring legislative season earlier this year.
Pritzker proposed the reforms, which would have permitted more diverse housing types to be developed in cities, among other measures, in his February State of the State address.
The municipal league’s CEO, Brad Cole, described the proposal as a “broad preemption of authority on an issue that is entirely local.”
“Zoning and land use decisions are best made locally by the leaders elected in those communities,” Cole said in February.
Pritzker, who has argued local governments need to do more to boost housing, has vowed to revisit the proposal.
Illinois Realtors represents around 50,000 members and said it will deploy its governmental affairs directors to work with cities and counties in its new program.
“We’ve seen momentum building at the federal level, and we’ve seen state leaders recognize the severity of this supply crisis,” Illinois Realtors 2026 President Jeff Kolbus said in an Aug. 11 news release. “Now, the battleground is local. Mayors are asking for help, developers are ready to build, and this program delivers the exact blueprint and leverage needed to turn policy intent into actual homes.”
