Organizations team up to build affordable housing on Chicago's West Side

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Several organizations are teaming up in an effort that could change the financial future for generations.

The partnerships are reshaping the path to homeownership for families on Chicago's West Side.

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ABC7 Chicago got an exclusive early look at newly built homes that are becoming the start to lasting legacies in East Garfield Park.

Connecting Capital and Community brings together 20 different organizations to make affordable homes possible. In fact they are able to build and get a family in a home in nearly half the conventional time, opening up the doors to generational wealth.

"Probably over 50% of my money was going to rent," homeowner Sonia Adams said. "The house I'm in is affordable to me. My mortgage payment is actually cheaper than what I was paying in rent."

Adams, a mother of two, remembers the day her dreams of owning a home came true.

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She unlocked the doors to her own home with the help of Connecting Capital and Community, or 3C. The organization works with developers, designers, vendors and homebuying education programs to create an opportunity for generational wealth on the Chicago's West Side.

"This is about meeting folks where they are. It's about helping them understand what options are available," Connecting Capital and Community Director Lynette McRae said.

McRae says the program helps to bring interest rates down, assist in down payments and with the help of Inherent L3C CEO and artist Tim Swanson, create a space anyone would to live in.

"The materials that we choose, the way we put this together, this had to beat expectations. This had to be built better than code minimum," Swanson said.

Swanson says each home is built in a factory in North Lawndale.

Then, they are brought over to a vacant lot. The process, he says, means they get a family in a home significantly quicker.

"We're able to take a vacant piece of land right here on the West Side of Chicago and have a family living there within three months," Swanson said.

While they build houses, they give those like Adams a place to build a home.

"Just the thought that I don't have to go anywhere in, you know, two years, you know, I don't have to worry about rent increases. My youngest children are going to be able to say like, this is the home that I grew up in," Adams said.

Visit www.cct.org/partnerships/3c/ for more information.