Housing and neighborhood report touts Rockford’s ‘improbable turnaround’ in less than a decade

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A new report from a national housing nonprofit highlights the city for making an “improbable turnaround” to increase home values, decrease the number of vacant properties and improve neighborhoods over the past seven years.

The report was prepared by Enterprise Advisors and released Friday as a follow-up to the city’s work with the National Resource Network in 2018. That year, the city partnered with the agency to develop a seven-year financial plan focused on improving the city’s economic state and strengthening neighborhoods. The National Resource Network is led, in part, by Enterprise Advisors.

“In 2017, our revenue projections were bleak for the future,” Mayor Tom McNamara said Friday. “We knew we needed experts to come in and assess our community, our finances and our neighborhoods.”

More news: Homebuilding in Rockford has hit its highest level since the Great Recession

The report, which includes a storymap intended to illustrate neighborhood and housing market changes, states Rockford has seen a 56% increase in property values since 2017 and a 17% decrease in vacant buildings. The rate of violent crime has fallen 34%, the report states.

Enterprise looked at the condition of property in each neighborhood and measured a series of data points, including foreclosures, code violations and homeownership rates.

The city used that data to prioritize funding and other interventions to improve properties.

McNamara said some of the key initiatives around housing include the establishment of the Northern Illinois Land Bank and the new Winnebago County trustee program or address foreclosures and vacant properties. The Community Development Financial Institution was launched in partnership with Rockford Local Development Corp. and private organizations to provide funding to revitalize rundown homes and reduce code violations. The city also partnered with Rockford Area Habitat for Humanity for a critical home repair program and the city funded an emergency furnace and weatherization program.

“I don’t think we celebrate our successes enough, and I think what’s pretty fun about this success is everyone played a role in it,” McNamara said. “I think it’s easy to forget how far we’ve come, and I think we need to celebrate those — and this is truly a community win.”

The city’s new housing framework calls for creating or preserving between 6,000 and 9,000 residential units by 2035. That plan calls for investing in new residential housing from luxury lofts to affordable apartments, increasing funding for the Community Development Financial Institution and advocating for more state resources to support the land bank, among other components. The city also plans to use its vacant property ordinances to push to get more empty commercial spaces back into use.

“I’m thrilled we are trending in the right direction based on strategic decisions and initiatives,” McNamara said. “We obviously know there’s still a lot of improvement that needs to take place.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas