Sharon Smith, CEO of the Quad City Area Realtors, takes a question from the crowd at the Friday, April 11, QCAR Legislative Breakfast at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Rock Island. CREDIT KENDA BURROWS
Illinois and the Quad Cities are facing a housing crisis that is further blocking the path to the American Dream of homeownership and regional leaders were urged to remain committed to ending it at this year’s annual Fair Housing Legislative Breakfast. Attendees at the Quad City Area Realtors (QCAR) event Friday, April 11, at the […]
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Illinois and the Quad Cities are facing a housing crisis that is further blocking the path to the American Dream of homeownership and regional leaders were urged to remain committed to ending it at this year’s annual Fair Housing Legislative Breakfast.Attendees at the Quad City Area Realtors (QCAR) event Friday, April 11, at the Martin Luther King Center in Rock Island, were told the current crisis is fueled by a 150,000-unit shortage of homes in the State of Illinois and a shortage in the Quad Cities of 7,400 units. That includes a 4,407 shortfall in the Illinois QC and 2,993 in the Iowa QC.The annual QCAR event is held in April, Fair Housing Month. The 2025 breakfast “was a little bit different,” Quad City Area Realtors CEO Sharon Smith told the crowd, because the “legislators who are usually here are in session doing our work.”Fair housing, she said, means different things to different people. “For our Realtor group, fair housing means it’s fair and equitable to anyone that wants to pursue that American dream,” Ms. Smith said, adding that QCAR members stand ready to help them navigate the process. She also introduced a panel of experts to talk about ways to attack the shortage.That starts with recognizing that for too many Americans, homeownership remains a pipedream, according to Illinois Realtors President Tommy Choi. “What do you want to be when you grow up? That is a question we’ve all been asked at some point in our lives,” he said.
Making the path visible
Mr. Choi said when a teacher asked his class that question, “I was stumped.” Not so his classmates who were looking forward to such careers as professional athletes, pop stars and astronauts. “All of these answers just rolled off their tongues effortlessly while I was left speechless,” the son of a welder and dry cleaner said.Tommy ChoiAs a result, he added, “Something that I learned at a very young age is that you cannot be what you cannot see. No one that looked like me were those things in this country at that time. I learned that when the destination is invisible the path seems impossible.”The same truth applies to homeownership.“For many in our communities, especially those who have historically been marginalized, the idea of owning a home is just that, an idea, a dream just out of reach, a path they’ve never seen walked by someone who liked them and a door that’s never been opened to them,” Mr. Choi said.“That invisibility didn’t happen by accident; it was a product of policies and practices, some intentional, some inherited, that have blocked broken access to housing for far too long – redlining, restrictive covenants, predatory lending, crime-free housing ordinances that punish victims instead of protecting them,” he added.And while there has been progress, “the ethos of discrimination still shows up in our zoning laws, our financing systems, the disparity in who gets to say, ‘This house is mine,’” he said.Here's the good news, he said, “We – you – are all the visibility business. … Every single one of us in this room has the power to see what’s possible. We help people see the path to ownership, to equity to stability and especially to pride.”
Lighthouse in the fog
That’s what fair housing is about, he added. “It’s not just avoiding discrimination but actively illuminating what’s possible and being the lighthouses in a thick fog.”Talaysia West and Jakayla Walsh told Realtors they joined the West End Revitalization Group "because we are the future of our community and we want to be sure that we make a difference in the ways we work together to do that.” CREDIT KENDA BURROWSThat fog is made denser today by an estimated 150,000 unit shortage of homes in Illinois. “Inventory is at record lows; you all know this, right? Prices are also up nearly 40% in the last five years,” he said.That means middle-income families, “the so-called missing middle are being priced out, pushed out and left out,” Mr. Choi said. In response, Illinois Realtors – one of the state’s largest trade associations – launched a Housing Stability and Affordability initiative with “commonsense forward-thinking policies that are designed to tackle the housing crisis at its roots.”They include:
HB1709, which allows creating accessory dwelling units (ADUs) statewide. These backyard cottages, in-law suites, etc., are easy, affordable ways to expand inventories for first-time buyers and multi-generation families
HB1814 Missing Middle Housing Act reforms zoning laws so duplexes, triplexes and other modest-size homes can be built in neighborhoods without displacing people who call that community home.
HB3110: It bans crime-free housing ordinances statewide. Such laws rooted in bias, punish renters for any interaction with law enforcement even if they are a victim of crime.
SB148: The Homebuyers Savings Act. It helps buyers save up to $50,000 tax free for down payment and closing costs.
SB1959: It seeks to tackle unnecessary added costs to the home building process at the local government level.
“These aren’t just bills. These are bridges,” Mr. Choi said.”
Project NOW makes strides
Locally, making strides in the fair housing fight is Project NOW, the agency’s Chief Operating Officer Ron Lund reported Friday, while acknowledging challenges remain.In 2023-2024, homelessness rose 44% in Rock Island County, Mr. Lund said. In Illinois it was up 116% and in Chicago it rose 207%, “so unfortunately, we’re going in the wrong direction.” To help address that, Project NOW moved its headquarters from its former outdated 9,000-square-foot home to the Star Cres Building. It not only purchased and remodeled that new downtown Rock Island 36,000-square-foot facility, leaders converted the old building into an emergency overflow shelter to serve the Quad Cities homeless population in frigid weather to replace another agency’s overflow shelter that was not reopened last winter. Not everyone was happy with housing homeless people in the middle of the city’s $7 million redevelopment, Mr. Lund said, but the shelter served 162 individuals, including 10 children – the youngest was just six months old and the oldest 73. Project NOW also completed the complicated acquisition of the DeLaCerda House. It’s the only place outside of Chicago designed to serve those living with HIV. It also recently opened the first respite facility in the Quad Cities. Project NOW also created 67 units of housing using local landlords and property owners actively housing homeless individuals with rent secured by Project NOW.In all, Mr. Lund said, the agency provided 45,000 nights of shelter in the past six months. “We are on target to surpass 100,000 nights by June 3,” he added.In addition, Project NOW is actively listing commercial and resident properties. “If you have anyone looking for homes, let me know,” he urged Realtors.
