Women, People Of Color Make Up Small Proportion Of Chicago Multifamily Leaders: New Analysis

Less than 1 in 5 Chicago multifamily developers employ a person of color as a leader or manager — and the numbers are even worse for women, according to a new Urban Institute study.

The analysis, released Wednesday, indicates women and communities of color have been largely shut out of the sector due to structural barriers like access to capital and industry network groups, “stifling their potential to contribute to the housing stock and create wealth for themselves and their communities.”

Study authors found that out of 177 Chicago multifamily developers, 30 were led or managed by people of color: 17 who are Black, six Latinos and seven Asians.

Out of that same pool of 177 developers, 21 were women-led.

“People of color and women are still significantly underrepresented in the multifamily development sector active in Chicago,” study co-authors Brett Theodos, Jorge González-Hermoso, Cole Campbell and Noah McDaniel wrote. “The lack of participation of Black and Latino housing developers is particularly striking, considering that this demographic makes up nearly 60 percent of the city’s adult population.”

The Urban Institute analysis also found that around 65% of developers of color are working for nonprofit clients, limiting the ability to create wealth. Women are also underrepresented among large, for-profit multifamily development firms. Half of the organizations led by women are nonprofits, whereas men as a whole lead about 10% of nonprofits.

The findings are especially important in light of a national and local affordability crisis, González-Hermoso told the Chicago Sun-Times. The city has estimated Chicago is short by 120,000 affordable units, and homelessness is on the rise.

“We know that this is in large part explained by a lack of housing supply, and so in this context where we need to increase the housing supply, we need all of the players to be able to reach their full potential and contribute to the housing supply and the housing stock in our cities,” González-Hermoso told the outlet. 

As part of its study, the Urban Institute recommends the city work to offer more subsidized low-interest loans or grants for developers, increase outreach to underrepresented populations when issuing requests for proposals for city development projects, and ease up on regulations that slow the process or make building new housing units too costly.

“So if you tackle that as a city, you in a way are making it easier for the smaller players to also participate in the housing development market,” González-Hermoso said.