Fair Housing

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The Village of Mount Prospect is committed to affirmatively further fair housing through related provisions, ordinances, and housing and community development programs. To support this commitment, the Village has recently completed an Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (AI) for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

An impediment to fair housing is defined by HUD to be: any actions, omissions, or decisions that restrict the availability of housing choices based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin. Policies, practices or procedures that appear neutral on their face but which operate to deny or adversely affect the provision of housing as described above may constitute such impediments. In Illinois, protection under state fair housing law is extended to include discrimination based on ancestry, age, marital status, military status, sexual orientation, or unfavorable discharge from military service.

		Example of an Impediment to Fair Housing
		City A is a smaller city with an older housing stock and a significant population of elderly and/or disabled residents. However, City A only has a limited number of accessible rental units available in the city. The demand for accessible housing surpasses the number of available accessible rental units as well as the number of available accessible single family homes.
		City A’s lack of accessible single-family homes and multi-family units is an impediment to fair housing choice. In response, City A may implement actions to eliminate the stated impediment. Some of these actions could include:
		Adopting an accessibility standard for multifamily units that requires new structures to include accessible units for all persons.
		Amending the zoning code to provide more space for single-family and multi-family dwellings.

The AI is a review of impediments to fair housing choice in both the public and private sector. Sources used in the study included information provided by the census data, federal, state, and local housing complaint data, interviews conducted with various local government, real estate, financial and housing agencies, and surveys provided to the public.

By analyzing these sources of information the Village has determined that factors affecting fair housing include:

Lack of Education and Awareness
Lack of Available Sites for New Housing Developments
Limited Affordable Housing Locations

To address these findings, a Fair Housing Action Plan was developed with strategies that range from educating each resident to combining efforts with neighboring municipalities and addressing the housing issues collaboratively. The Fair Housing Action Plan includes the following goals:

Provide and Promote Education and Awareness
Support Affordable Housing and Housing Developments throughout the Village
Continue the Village’s Crime Free Housing Program
Provide Translated Fair Housing Documents in More Languages
Continue to Support the Community Relations Commission
Initiate Regional Housing Efforts

A copy of the full report is available here.

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