$1.5 million to help renovate Pullman homes

Efforts to preserve and renovate historic homes on Chicago's South Side are getting $1.5 million from the Illinois attorney general.

State Attorney General Lisa Madigan made the announcement Tuesday in the city's Pullman neighborhood. Her office says the money comes from a national settlement after the foreclosure crisis with the country's five largest bank mortgage servicers.

Officials say the money will let the Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives acquire and rehabilitate 20 single-family homes and turn 15 buildings into new rentals.

Separately, the Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives has spent $5 million in the Pullman neighborhood to renovate 38 historic homes.

Industrialist George Pullman founded the area in 1880. The neighborhood also was the birthplace of the African-American labor movement.