Oak Park Regional Housing Center

MISSION

The Mission of the Oak Park

Regional Housing Center is
to achieve meaningful and
lasting racial diversity
throughout Oak Park,
Berwyn, and the region.

Expanding Options, Ensuring Demand, Encouraging Community

Oak Park Regional Housing Center

When the Housing Center was founded (1972), Oak Park was nearly all
white and did not reflect the regional average.
25.0%
22%
20%
20.0% 19% 18% 19% 19%
African American Percentage of Population

15.0%

11%
10.0%

5.0%

0%
0.0%

1970 1980 1990 2000

Housing Center Opens, 1972 Oak Park Region

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Oak Park Regional Housing Center

Regional Segregation
and Opportunity
in the Chicago Region
2000

Racial and Ethnic

segregation provides
the basic structure of
inequality.

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Oak Park Regional Housing Center

Fair Housing & Diversity in Oak Park Today

Oak Park is not perfect but it is an open and

Latino Other or Multiple Race
inclusive community both in reality and in 4.0% not Latino
Asian not Latino
perception. 4.3%
3.1%

For most races Oak Park mirrors regional

averages.
Black not Latino
22.4%
Oak Park is consistently cited as a model for
diverse communities. White not Latino
66.2%

Expanding Options, Ensuring Demand, Encouraging Community

 Oak Park Regional Housing Center
Diversity and Integration Measurements
for Selected Oak Park Exchange Congress Communities (2000)
100 100%

90 82% 90%

80 80%

% Black not Latino

70 70%
White:Black Dissimilarity Index

60 54% 60%

50 50%
41%
45%
40 32% 40%
31%
30 34% 35% 30%
22% 21%
20 20%

10 10%
19 52 49 17 23 26 41 45 56 62
0 0%
South Maplewood, Shaker Hts, Bellwood, IL Park Forest, Oak Park, IL South Oak Park, MI Matteson, IL Evanston, IL
Orange, NJ NJ OH IL Holland, IL

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Oak Park Regional Housing Center

Direct Services
•Promote Oak Park as an open and inclusive
community
•Encourage affirmative moves to prospective
tenants in Oak Park through apartment locator
services
•Work with property owners and managers to
ensure that they comply with fair housing law
•Work with property owners and managers to
ensure that their units attractive and desirable

Expanding Options, Ensuring Demand, Encouraging Community

Oak Park Regional Housing Center

Promotion
•Advertising
•Public events
•Brochures
•Networking
•Housing industry
•Non-profits
•Institutions

Expanding Options, Ensuring Demand, Encouraging Community

Oak Park Regional Housing Center

Encouragement
•Counseling for renting
•Affirmative Marketing / Busting Myths and
Stereotypes
•Personalizing

Expanding Options, Ensuring Demand, Encouraging Community

Oak Park Regional Housing Center

Supply Side Interaction

•Building designs and unit features
•Management techniques
•Screening techniques
•Resident managers

Expanding Options, Ensuring Demand, Encouraging Community

Oak Park Regional Housing Center

Advocacy and Policy

•Advocate for diverse involvement in institutions
and civic life
•Provide regional leadership and advocacy
•Conduct research and provide anecdotal
evidence to inform, improve, and verify our
efficacy
•Advocate for affirmative public policies at the
state and national level
•Advocate to prioritize affirmative furthering in
philanthropic communities

Expanding Options, Ensuring Demand, Encouraging Community

Oak Park Regional Housing Center

Challenges
•Non-African Americans are reluctant to make
affirmative moves
•Communities that surround Oak Park and
Berwyn are highly segregated (either wholly or
internally)
•Misconceptions that we have solved the
problem in Oak Park (Housing is Dynamic!)
•The program is labor intensive and can be
expensive

Expanding Options, Ensuring Demand, Encouraging Community

Oak Park Regional Housing Center

Going Forward
•This program is transferable to many other
communities
•More effective in communities with decent
rental housing stock
•Can be modified for other housing and
demographic mixes
•Scalable to reduce costs (Berwyn example)
•As more communities engage diversity
increases in stability
Expanding Options, Ensuring Demand, Encouraging Community