On Wednesday, December 17, Abundant Housing Illinois celebrated our collective wins in 2025 with our partner organizations. In front of a sold out crowd of 150 people, Robert Spragg summarized our successes in Chicago and in Springfield.
Special thanks go to Audrey Wennink (Senior Director, Transportation, at Metropolitan Planning Council) for her speech about the NITA transit bill, Josh Chodor for organizing the event, and Viktor Köves for photography.
2025 Wins: Local + State Policy Breakthroughs
Chicago Housing Policy Wins
- Permanent ADU ordinance passed
- ADU opt-in expansion passed
- Upzonings with strong community backing: Howard St and Broadway
State-Level Victories
- Northern Illinois Transit Authority (revenues and reform for transit)
- The NITA bill includes People Over Parking Act
Support from Statewide Coalitions
- American Planning Association – Illinois Chapter
- Illinois Homes for All Coalition
- Metropolitan Planning Council
- Lobby day advocacy made a decisive impact
2025 Wins: Neighborhood Organizing
Showing up to meetings & hearings
- Old Town Canvas
- 1840 N Marcey St
- Ford City redevelopment
- Broadway Corridor upzoning
- 3819 N Kedzie Ave
4 new neighborhood groups spun off
- Neighbors of Edgewater and Uptown
- North West Neighbors Alliance
- Lakeview Urbanists
- Neighbors of Lincoln Park and Old Town
Neighborhood-level organizing wins:
- Joseph made a TikTok video about a neighborhood organization's opposition to new housing, which went locally viral and caused more people to attend the upcoming meeting and flipped the organization from likely opposing the project to supporting the project
- “People Over Parking” reforms
Member Power: Turnout, Testimony & Grassroots Leadership
Member Turnout that Moved Policy
- 1,000s of constituent letters to electeds
- High-impact testimony across multiple wards and committees
- Witness slips submitted at key moments
Members Generating Knowledge
- Blogs, visualizations, maps, research shared with coalitions and media
- Dozens of op-eds and LTEs supporting housing abundance
Building for 2026: Getting Involved
- Join Abundant Housing Illinois and organize and chat in our Slack!
- Show up to meetings, hearings, canvasses
- Submit testimony & letters
- Contribute data, maps, stories
- Come to Springfield lobby days!