When Chicago launched its Missing Middle Infill Housing initiative, Abraham Lacy said he had one question for Ald. Ronnie Mosley (21st), whose ward includes Morgan Park: When was the program coming to the South Side?

Now, Lacy, president of the Far South Community Development Corp., has his answer.

The program aimed at turning vacant city land into housing for working, middle-class families recently expanded to include Chatham, South Chicago and Morgan Park, with the hope that shovels will be in the ground early 2026.

Launched in fall 2024, the Missing Middle Infill Housing program began with 40 vacant lots in North Lawndale, which will now be developed into more than 100 housing units. The expansion of the program in April opens up 54 lots across the three South Side neighborhoods. With $75 million allocated to the program, the city expects to create up to 750 residential units.

The term “missing middle” refers to the hole in the center of a housing supply that often includes more low- and high-density properties, like single-family homes and high-rise apartments.

Missing middle isn’t as dense as large-scale apartment towers, but it has room for more people to live than a typical single-family home. It includes single-family homes with accessory dwelling units, two- and three-flats, row houses, townhouses and six-flats, according to the city.

Lacy said people often focus so much on affordable housing that they overlook the missing middle, which targets working class and upper-working class families, who are also being priced out of Chicago. Many people have left the South and West sides over the past few decades because it’s become unaffordable, he said. The population loss — and rising development costs — is partially why so many lots sit vacant.

 

Jim Vondruska/For the Sun-Times

“There’s no balance in between when it comes to housing,” Lacy said. “You’re going to get affordable housing, or you’re going to get a luxury house.”

Developers have until May 30 to submit their applications, which must include a projected development plan, construction timeline, conceptual design plans and budget, according to the city’s Department of Planning and Development.

The city will sell the lots for $1, according to DPD, and award up to $150,000 in construction assistance per unit.

The 54 lots are divided into 11 clusters. Developers must apply to redevelop an entire cluster, not select lots.

The deadline for the program was originally May 16, but DPD said it extended the deadline to ensure the lots in each neighborhood were subject to the same rules and regulations.

The city has also waived use of the Affordable Requirements Ordinance from all the projects to keep the focus on missing middle housing. It’s also giving developers up to a year to lease units, as long as they’re actively trying to find buyers for the properties.

Prior to the May 16 deadline, more than half a dozen developers had submitted applications to the program.

The city held informational sessions about the program last month. Engineers, community groups and developers, like Lacy, were among those who signed up.

Lacy admits he was initially wary of the program when it was first announced last year, mostly because of questions on how the city would fund it. But after going through the program and learning how it’s drawing from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $1.25 billion affordable housing and economic development bond, he thought it was “brilliant.”

“I’m like, ‘Man, whoever is going to be the owner of one of these things, they’re going to be really happy,’” Lacy said.

What interests Lacy about the program is how it solves a multitude of problems — among them, greater ease of development; opportunities for local and minority developers; reactivating vacant land and the ability for homeowners to build generational wealth.

Far South CDC is submitting an application for all five clusters in Morgan Park, according to Lacy. The corporation is proposing up to 118 units across the lots, mostly made up of three- and six-flats. The three-flats would include ADUs above the garage.

Lacy acknowledges that Far South CDC might not get awarded all five clusters, which would be a roughly $41 million investment. But he thinks the application paints a holistic picture of what can be done in Morgan Park and other neighborhoods through the program.

“We know that in Morgan Park, the market is relatively strong and has been for many years. But we know that in certain parts of Morgan Park, it has had its challenges,” he said. “We just have to do some infill to keep that market strong.”