Buffalo Grove teaming with neighbors to address foreclosures

Buffalo Grove trustees this week formalized the village’s participation in the Northwest Suburban Housing Collaborative, an multi-suburb effort to address issues surrounding foreclosures and affordable housing.

The village joins Arlington Heights and Palatine in the effort, and they’re expected to be joined soon by Rolling Meadows and Mount Prospect. Arlington Heights will serve as the lead municipality.

The participating communities will share the services of a grant-funded consultant, known as the housing coordinator, and receive technical support from the Metropolitan Planning Council and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus. The mayors caucus obtained a $35,000 grant to fund the coordinator position.

Under the towns’ intergovernmental agreement, a steering committee will be established consisting of two representatives from each community.

Robin Snyderman, vice-president for community development for the Metropolitan Planning Council, said the collaborative already is at work. It has hosted two forums so far: one for business leaders to look at the housing demands of employees, the other to introduce owners and managers of multifamily housing to programs and tools that promote affordability and sustainability.

The collaborative will follow up on the private sector contacts made during those forums, Snyderman said.

The housing coordinator will work to attract funding for future programs that could include housing preservation and redevelopment, she added.

“A single point of entry can really help leverage needed public sector resources to address these local challenges on a meaningful scale,” Snyderman said.

A similar collaborative that started in the south suburbs two years ago already has leveraged more than $20 million in public sector funding, from county, state and federal sources.

“Those are dollars that would have been difficult for any one town to attract on its own,” she said.