City program wants to bring more families to the South and West sides, one vacant lot at a time

When Kai Bandele moved to Chicago nearly 20 years ago, it was into a two-flat in the West Side.

It was a win-win scenario: The building was owned by a friend of Bandele’s sister, and Bandele and her spouse were able to save enough money to buy a home before their son was born.

“Being able to stay in place, to save, to grow and to eventually purchase my own single-family home on the South Side — none of that would have been possible without that crutch being there for me,” Bandele said.

She's now experiencing a full-circle moment. Bandele and development partner Jim Webb were selected in February for the third round of Chicago’s Missing Middle Infill Housing program, which launched in 2024 and aims to add sorely needed market-rate homes in the South and West sides.

Their project, called Eleve West, will turn four vacant lots in West Garfield Park into four two-flats — the same type of housing Bandele first lived in. Construction is expected to start in the spring.

“My focus has been [building] single-family homes, but now, I'm able to actually step in and build homes that actually offer the exact same opportunity that I was granted,” Bandele said. “That feels really good to be able to do that for other families.”

Across Chicago, families are clambering to live in affordable, smaller-scale buildings. Two-flats and similar properties are on the market, but depending on where you look, they’re much harder to find. It's especially true in the South and West sides, where decades of disinvestment have left a patchwork of vacant lots that were once homes for middle-class families. But the city is pushing to build more of those "missing middle" homes through its program, as it looks to create more paths to homeownership without pushing existing neighbors out.

The strategy is also creating opportunities for generational wealth and economic development, developers involved in the program said.

“The work that we're doing is about bringing that layer back in a way that supports community and also creates pathways to ownership without over-building,” Bandele said. “We are not, in fact, introducing something new here. We are restoring a model that was proven to work and by providing more diverse housing supply.”

Under the program, selected developers are able to purchase vacant city-owned land for $1 and build single-family homes with accessory dwelling units, two- and three-flats, row houses, town houses or six-flats. The city also offers $150,000 in construction assistance per unit. That helps developers price the homes at an affordable rate for families making no more than 140% of the area median income, or $151,200 for a three-person household, according to the city.

Breaking ground

Housing has been a central part of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s platform. His $1.25 billion housing and economic development bond was approved in 2024 by the Chicago City Council, with $75 million allocated to the Missing Middle program.

The initiative has added 301 homes to the construction pipeline, according to the Chicago Department of Planning and Development. The first project under the program was in North Lawndale and broke ground in January.

Johnson said it’s no secret that Chicago needs “thousands and thousands” of new homes, and his program is a way to build housing at scale. He projects 500 homes will be built over the next five years from the program.

“I think that the example of success will be through [neighbors’] eyes, quite frankly,” Johnson said. “Do they see the promise of the acceleration and the rejuvenation of the very communities that we're working really hard to repopulate?”

Johnson said there are 14 minority-led development teams in the program so far. He also pointed to growing interest in the program, with more than 30 applicants for its third round, as a sign of success.

The fourth round was announced Wednesday and covers lots in South Chicago and West Englewood. It includes 30 parcels in the two neighborhoods, which the city is pitching for town homes and two- to six-flat developments.

Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright, whose department oversees the Missing Middle program, said developers recognize the “unique opportunity.”

She thinks the initiative will make it easier for developers to build these housing types without subsidies over time. She pointed to the city’s La Salle Corridor Revitalization initiative, which is giving developers subsidies to include large swaths of affordable housing when turning vacant Loop office buildings into apartments. Now, there are 20 conversion projects in the pipeline, and 14 of them don’t have any city subsidies, according to Boatright.

“You're making a market that exists a stronger market,” she said.

What’s missing

Middle income housing is also a statewide issue. Gov. JB Pritzker’s office formed a temporary committee in 2024 to explore solutions for the lack of missing middle housing.

While Illinois has implemented tactics to boost the affordable housing stock, the committee didn't find a similar effort toward expanding housing options for those making between 80% and 140% of the area median income. An individual at 80% in Chicago would have an annual income of $67,150, while 140% of the area median income would be $117,600.

The committee produced a suite of solutions aimed at increasing development and lowering costs. Among the proposals was a missing middle homeownership program, offering subsidies to homebuyers.

Pritzker’s recent Building Up Illinois Developments plan, dubbed BUILD, proposes solutions to cut the administrative red tape in housing, along with strategies to increase supply and lower costs, as well as $100 million in capital funding to support middle housing construction. The funds would be administered by the Illinois Housing Development Authority. BUILD would also legalize a wider range of housing types statewide, such as duplexes and four-flats.

Bob Palmer, policy director at Housing Action Illinois, said missing middle housing keeps the market balanced. If there’s a shortage of missing middle housing, those individuals will instead live in affordable housing, reducing the housing options for the state’s most vulnerable.

Webb said Eleve West wouldn't be possible without Chicago's Missing Middle program. He said each building would sell for at least $300,000 if not for the construction subsidy the city provides through the program. The developers have yet to determine their units' sale price. They're going through environmental testing on the site, which may affect its final listing prices.

High construction and labor costs are some of the barriers developers deal with when trying to build missing middle housing. Eleve West, on West Jackson Boulevard, is a $3.1 million investment.

“It did not work on paper without us displacing people,” said Webb, who’s also managing partner at TruDelta.

Boatright said the Missing Middle program is about recognizing the importance of housing diversity.

“We have high-rises in Fulton Market. We've got traditional single-family homes being developed on vacant lots,” she said. “This is an opportunity to … really promote density and address infill housing in a unique way.”

The program is also a way to address population loss and the city’s glut of vacant land. As of spring 2025, the city owns more than 7,000 empty residential lots. Many of them are clustered in neighborhoods whose populations are “substantially less than 50% of their 1960 levels,” according to the city.

“This strategic decision to invest in housing — particularly missing middle — it has to address all facets of the predicaments and challenges that people in Chicago have endured,” Johnson said. “We have to build more units. They have to be affordable and we have to create a pathway to long-term sustainability. That is the essence of what the missing middle initiative is about.”

Expanding the program

Boatright said aldermen and community members have been asking when the Missing Middle program will come to their neighborhood.

Abraham Lacy was among them. The president of Far South Community Development Corp. was looking forward to the program coming to Morgan Park and other South Side neighborhoods, after it launched on the West Side.

Far South CDC was announced as one of the developers in August 2025, during the program’s second round.

Lacy said it's building four three-flats, at 10726-34 S. Loomis St. and 10717 S. Glenroy Ave., that will be sold as condos.

Compared to neighborhoods like Hyde Park, residents in Morgan Park can transition from renting to owning a home without leaving the neighborhood, he said.

He said the Missing Middle program will help Morgan Park boost its population because more housing options will be available to those priced out of other Chicago neighborhoods.

He said the area around its condo project is peppered with vacant lots. Filling in those parcels is key to improving the quality of life for residents, even if it’s smaller infill projects instead of a flashy megaproject.

“There's something about these small, subtle moves that is really going to … help change the trajectory of the neighborhood,” Lacy said. “It's not something that’s going to be so disruptive and it's going to require so much pushback, or NIMBYism. It is a very creative and subtle move that allows for the neighborhood to get built back up, and it allows for ownership."

Webb said the Missing Middle initiative is the next step in rebuilding communities, after former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Invest South/West program, which aimed to spur economic development in historically neglected communities via public dollars. Much of its focus was on mixed-use development and small business grants.

“This is about how neighborhoods actually get rebuilt. When we bring quality housing back to vacant lots, even at a small scale, it starts to stabilize blocks, bring residents back and support the kind of everyday economic activity that neighborhoods depend on — especially in a place like Madison and Pulaski, which is a major a major corridor on the West Side,” Webb said. “That's how you rebuild the fabric of communities like Garfield Park over time.”