FOCUS COMMUNITY: WOODLAWNMaking a critical concentrated impact--early and often
CCLF made its first loan in Woodlawn back in 1992, and since then has financed a total of 10 projects in the predominantly African-American (now mixed-income) neighborhood located just south of Hyde Park and the University of Chicago. These CCLF-financed projects have leveraged approximately $27.5 million in additional financing that created or saved 215 units of affordable housing. More than 60% of those units have been developed by Woodlawn East Community and Neighbors (WECAN) to serve very low-income renters. We believe this early and concentrated effort has helped catalyze the significant redevelopment Woodlawn has experienced in the last 12 to 15 years.
Other CCLF borrowers in Woodlawn include Woodlawn Development Associates, Omega-Woodlawn, Greenline Development (2 projects), and Woodlawn Rennaissance Partners LLC.
When we realized the impact that our concentrated effort was having in Woodlawn, we established focus communities in other parts of the city (specifically Englewood and North Lawndale) to help stimulate similar neighborhood rejuvenation.
Woodlawn is also a designated New Communities Program (NCP) community area. (NCP neighborhoods are part of a long-term, comprehensive citywide community development initiative.
Learn more about the neighborhood: its geography, history, census characteristics and the story of its redevelopment -- a journey from "a community of last resort" to "a community of choice"-- driven, in large part, to a mix of new rental and owned housing developments.