Real Estate Opportunities

The Home Start, LLC program implemented by Turnstone Development has an objective to find development projects that will help revitalize and stabilize "Areas of Greatest Need" that have been most negatively impacted by foreclosures, high-risk mortgages, and high rates of abandoned or vacant properties. In addition, this program seeks to ensure that funds are used to benefit the priority populations and goals identified in the Illinois Comprehensive Housing Planning Act (P.A. 94-965.), including providing affordable housing options for such special needs populations as very and extremely low-income households, low-income seniors, and low-income persons with disabilities.

Under the Community Revitalization Program, Turnstone Development proposes to perform cosmetic and necessary code/rehabilitation of vacant buildings in order to transform them back to its highest and best use for the area. As an example, vacant houses decrease surrounding property values, diminishing the equity and assets of neighboring homeowners and investors; they are also properties that are magnets for vandalism and criminal activity, that may cause health and safety issues for its neighboring inhabitants.

Therefore, the projects goals asserted by Turnstone Development under the Home Start, LLC Program include but are not limited to:

• Beautifying and maximizing the best possible utilization for a vacant, blighted building.
• Supporting the various municipal and City revitalization plan.
• Generating additional real estate tax revenue for the municipality.
• Creating new affordable housing for the increasingly growing low-income elderly and disabled populations throughout the City of Chicago and suburban Cook County area, with a specific focus on providing on-site supportive housing services as well.
• Specifically target and decrease the current Housing Authority of Cook County's (HACC) senior waitlist population. Currently there are over 3,000 applicants 55 years and older on the HACC Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) waitlist who are eligible for these units.

With new housing opportunities, combined with a safer population inhabiting the community, it is projected that more business and economic opportunities will venture to the community, completing the revitalization plan. The project will help facilitate the transformation of a blighted, State identified "Area of Greatest Need" location back to an economically flourishing community. The project will also create an affordable housing option for State identified "Priority and Special Needs Populations" such as including extremely low income households, low income seniors, low income persons with disabilities, and persons who are homeless and those at risk of homelessness; it will also help decrease the current number of seniors eligible for this project (currently over 3,000 people 55 and older on HACC HCV waitlist) on the Housing Authority of Cook County's (HACC) Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) waitlist.

As an Illinois Not-For-Profit Corporation, Turnstone Development is chartered to facilitate the mission of providing affordable housing opportunities throughout the United States with an emphasis on securing scattered sites for low-density, mixed-income housing units, which may be single-or multi-family, rental or for-sale units directly and correlates to address growing foreclosure rates and vacancies.

Due to the growing foreclosure rate among Section 8 landlords, a Public Housing Authority (PHA) must often-times relocate our families. The impact of foreclosure negatively affects the PHA and those families served. Families' lives are disrupted both emotionally and financially and the PHA incurs additional administrative expenses in efforts to transition a family from one unit to another. This demonstrates a need to implement measures to ensure those families can remain in their homes and communities. According to an analysis of foreclosure filings and units subsidized under HACC's Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCV), 49 of the HCV families are affected by foreclosure within HACC's jurisdiction.

Therefore, the project's goals asserted by Turnstone Development under the Home Start, LLC Program center on revitalizing and stabilizing communities that have been negatively impacted by foreclosures, high-risk mortgages and high building vacancy and abandonment rates. The following specific goals outline the intended objectives that would come from this program:

Financial Institutions:

• Assist financial institutions in selling off properties where they have taken possession by offering them an attractive vehicle to bundle and sell off properties to HACC / Turnstone, which is in the business of developing and managing affordable housing. Turnstone is a Federal 501(c)(3) and therefore the donations are tax deductible.
• Help financial institutions lower their cost structure (e.g., legal costs, real estate commissions, taxes, etc.) through purchasing properties they may have to otherwise hold onto for a long period of time.
• Help financial institutions satisfy their Community Reinvestment Act requirements.

Communities within the United States:

• Help communities address the needs of their at-risk residents.
• Help communities address potential non-compliance with the Affordable Housing Appeals Act.
• Help communities address the potential negative consequences of abandoned and unoccupied properties.
• Interact with community and faith based groups to help and assist their clientele.

The Housing Authority of various municipalities:

• Help to reduce the waiting lists for Section 8 and Low Income Public Housing.
• Expand services into more suburban Cook County communities where there is a growing need of affordable housing.
• Help expand the homeownership program, including potentially partnering with HUD-approved housing counselors.