Fix Chicago Housing

What can go up near the L?

The shaded zones reach a half mile from each station, about a ten-minute walk.

Near Metra stations in the city

The same idea for the 74 Metra stops inside Chicago.

Near Metra stations in the suburbs

The shortage is regional. Zone the other 168 Metra stops too.

The goal counts the whole Chicago region, so suburban homes count. Same levels as in the city; assumption: each suburban station builds 30% as much as an average Chicago L station (bigger lots, less demand). Station count: Metra (Wikipedia).

Zone by neighborhood type

Set the rules for a whole kind of neighborhood at once.

Downtown core

Mixed neighborhoods

Single-family areas

Sets every neighborhood of that type at once. Tap any neighborhood on the map to change just that one. Only the downtown core can go to towers.

One neighborhood at a time

Rezoned so far: 0% of the city's buildings

Apartments over shops on 38 main streets

Ashland, Western, Milwaukee, Halsted, Clark, Broadway, Cicero, 63rd, 79th and more. Applies to lots facing the street.

Turn empty Loop offices into apartments

Downtown office vacancy is about 27% (Cushman & Wakefield, Q2 2026). About 4,000 conversion homes are already underway, so they're in the baseline. This adds more.

The council docket

Real proposals and reform ideas, ranked by how many homes each adds with your map. Vote aye to pass one and watch the city change.

Before the council in Chicago and Springfield

Worked in other cities, not on the table here

Each card says what actually happened where it passed.

Ones that cut supply: what not to do

Each of these has a real goal, and some help people who already have a home. Each also means fewer new homes, so rent climbs faster. Turn one on to see the cost.

Already law, built into today's numbers2 items

No parking minimums near transit

Passed July 2025

Parking mandates ended in transit-served areas, about 74% of the city, starting September 2025.

Chicago Cityscape

Green Social Housing fund

Passed May 2025

A $135M revolving fund and a city-backed nonprofit developer for permanently affordable, mixed-income buildings.

City of Chicago

Your missions

Town hall ·

The ten things every community meeting hears, what the research actually says, and how another city got past it.

How to win the room

Which shortage are you solving?

Real estimates, all for the Chicago region; no official count exists for the city alone. Chicago permitted about 4,900 homes in 2025, yet the regional shortage still grew by about 8,800 homes in a year. Your goal: today's gap plus 15 years of that growth, on top of today's pace.

–new homes a 10-min walk from the L or Metra

–affordable homes (rent-restricted)

–existing homes torn down

Where the new homes land

Jobs, taxes and the city budget

–jobs in the year they're built

–lasting local jobs

–local taxes & fees a year

NAHB's local impact of building 100 apartments: 161 jobs and $2.2M in local revenue the first year, then 44 jobs and $503K a year (2015 dollars). The city projects an $882M budget gap for 2027 (WTTW).

Riders for the CTA

–new daily transit commuters

–more rides a year

–a year in fares

Homes within a half mile of the L or Metra fill trains and buses. Near CTA stations with new development, 25.4% of commuters take the train and 12.5% the bus (City of Chicago ETOD, 2020). The CTA budgets $394M in fares on 317M rides for 2026, about $1.24 a ride (CTA 2026 budget).

Your ward

Don't know your ward? The city's lookup finds it from your address. Ward lines: 2023 ward map.

Can they afford a 1-bedroom in 2041?

Share of pay going to a typical Chicago 1-bedroom. Under 30% counts as affordable. Today's rent is $1,745 (Apartment List, Oct 2026); rents rise 3.4% a year and wages 3.2% a year (BLS Employment Cost Index).

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How the numbers work

A simple model, with every assumption on the table

What each zoning level allows: Level Stories Homes on a 25×125 lot Based on Chicago zoning
Homes per lot follow the minimum lot area per home in the Chicago Zoning Ordinance §17-2-0303. A 25×125 ft (3,125 sq ft) lot is the city standard (Chicago Public Library).
How the game decides what gets built: A rezoned lot can rebuild if it holds homes, or a small one- or two-story shop lot with a street address on a commercial corridor or within ¼ mile of the L (parks, museums, field houses and named landmarks are never touched), was built before 2000, is shorter than the new limit, sits on a lot under about 40,000 sq ft, and the new building adds at least one home beyond what today's zoning already allows there. Your plan only gets credit for those extra homes: rebuilds that are already legal are part of what Chicago builds anyway (each lot's current district and its minimum lot area per home, or floor area downtown, from the city's zoning map). How many rebuild within 15 years comes from Chicago's own record. Each neighborhood has a demand factor from 0.3× to 2.5× (its share of buildings built since 1990 vs. the city average, from the city's building data). Matching 2013–2025 new-construction permits to the small homes standing in 2013 (City of Chicago building permits), lots where today's zoning already allowed more homes were torn down and rebuilt at these 15-year rates: about 0.4% in the softest markets, 3% at average demand and 7.4% in the hottest. The game raises those rates by half for rezoned lots, a cautious reading of two findings: in Auckland, permits in upzoned areas went from roughly 3,000 a year in 2016 to about 14,500 in 2021, an estimated 21,800 more homes than the trend (Greenaway-McGrevy & Phillips, 2023), and in Chicago, lots that already allowed more were rebuilt 1.5–2.2× as often as lots in similar markets that didn't, except in the hottest neighborhoods, where teardowns are common either way. So a rezoned lot rebuilds with about a 0.6% chance in the softest markets, 4.5% at average demand and 11% in the hottest. Which lots rebuild is a fixed random draw, so the map and the count always match.
If nothing changes: Chicago keeps permitting about 4,900 homes a year (TRD Data, 2025), but the regional shortage keeps growing about 8,760 homes a year, Zillow's 2023→2024 change (Mann Report). Rents rise 3.4% a year, Chicago's 2025 asking-rent growth (CoStar via Matthews). Both trends are held flat for 15 years.
Rent effect: Each 1% added to Chicago's 1,282,248 homes (Census ACS 2024) lowers rents compared with where they'd otherwise be. Estimates differ by a factor of ten, so the game shows a range. The cautious end is 0.19% per 1% (Mense, 2025), but that study measures a 1% rise in the year's new homes, not in all homes, so it understates the effect of adding to the stock. The strong end is 2% per 1%, from stock-based estimates that put the demand elasticity around −0.4 to −0.5 (Lauster & von Bergmann, 2024, summarizing Canadian and Australian government studies). Both use a constant-elasticity curve, so very large plans level off instead of driving rent to zero. Median gross rent $1,440 (Census ACS 2020–24); typical 1-bedroom $1,745 (Apartment List, Oct 2026).
Shortage estimates: 165,687 homes underproduced, Chicago metro, 2022 (Up for Growth, 2024). 115,282 home deficit, 2024 (Zillow via Mann Report). 224,445 affordable homes missing for extremely low-income renters (Housing Action Illinois & NLIHC via The Real Deal). City only: no study estimates Chicago's own shortage, so the game takes the city's share of the metro figure, 32.7%, because the city holds 1,282,248 of the metro's 3,924,020 homes (Census ACS 2024 via Census Reporter): 54,141 missing today, growing 2,862 a year, a goal of 97,078 by 2041. 41% of Chicago is zoned single-family only (Metropolitan Planning Council, 2023).
Affordable requirement (ARO): Chicago requires 10–20% affordable homes in projects of 10+ units that need a zoning change, city land or city money (City of Chicago). The game applies the dial to new buildings of 10+ homes. Production effects follow Terner Center modeling for Los Angeles, where output fell about 30% going from an 11% to a 25% requirement (Phillips, 2024). "None" uses the same study's no-requirement scenario: 398,800 homes over 10 years vs. about 233,000 at 20% (interpolated between its 16% and 25% runs), so 10+-home projects are about 1.7× as likely to get built, and none of their homes are affordable.
Office conversions: Downtown has 141.9M sq ft of office space and 27.2% vacancy (Cushman & Wakefield, Q2 2026). Chicago's 2026 conversions turn about 4M sq ft into 3,900+ homes (Sun-Times op-ed), about 1,026 sq ft per home. Nearly 27% of office stock could convert (CommercialCafe via WBEZ); developers disagree on whether that's too high or too low.
Jobs and taxes: Per 100 new apartments: 161 local jobs and $2.2M local revenue the first year, then 44 jobs and $503K a year (2015 dollars) (NAHB, 2015).
Policies that cut supply: Downzoning: from 1990 to 2010, downzoned North Side and downtown areas grew housing 1.8% vs 9.6% elsewhere (Freemark & Kisiel, 2025). Parking: garage parking adds about $1,700 a year, 17% of rent (Gabbe & Pierce, 2017). Rent control: covered San Francisco tenants were nearly 20% more likely to stay, landlords cut rental supply 15%, citywide rents rose 5.1% (Diamond, McQuade & Qian); St. Paul permits fell from 2,000+ a year to about 1,200 in 2022–23 after its 2021 cap (Minneapolis Fed, 2026). Transfer tax: LA apartment permits fell 18% in Measure ULA's first year (UCLA Lewis Center via The Real Deal). The game subtracts what each policy would cost from the ~4,900 homes a year Chicago builds anyway, so your total can go below zero.
People and pay: Median wages are BLS May 2025 for the Chicago metro, via WageDex. Wages grow 3.2% a year (BLS Employment Cost Index, June 2026). The people are made up; their jobs and pay are real.
Game assumptions (not measured): These are judgment calls, labeled everywhere they're used:

Rezoning raises Chicago's measured 2013–2025 rebuild rate by half (the rates and the reasoning are under "How the game decides what gets built"); lot size = 2× building footprint.

Homes today's zoning already allows on a lot don't count toward your plan. Downtown districts are converted at 900 sq ft of allowed floor area per home; planned developments and other special districts are treated as allowing none, so nothing is subtracted there.

Rent effect: the range runs from 0.19% to 2% lower rent per 1% more homes; the headline rent figure uses the cautious end.

Short-term rental limits return 10% (precinct bans) or 50% (primary-residence rule) of entire-home listings.

Coach houses: pilot pace doubled when every ward allows them by right.

Half of city-owned vacant lots get a 2-flat; 10% of "other vacant" homes return under an empty-homes tax.

Project boosts: single stair +25%, prerogative reform +15%, faster permits +10% (and homes arrive about 7 months sooner: 20% of a roughly three-year approval and build), no parking minimums +10%, small lots +20%.

Social housing at Montgomery County's target pace; office conversions as a share of downtown office space.

Shops only redevelop on commercial corridors or within ¼ mile of the L, and only on addressed lots with no landmark name (keeps parks and museums out).

Affordable homes count the affordable requirement on new buildings of 10+ homes, 30% of social-housing homes, and 20% of megaproject homes (the share Foundry Park, the 1901 Project and Bronzeville Lakefront commit to). Other levers are counted as market-rate.

The city-only goal spreads the metro shortage and its growth in proportion to homes (32.7% in Chicago), and doesn't count suburban Metra homes.

Suburban Metra stations build 30% as much as an average Chicago L station at the same level; megaprojects: half of the remaining planned homes get built by 2041 once the city funds the infrastructure.

Policy ranks ("Big" 15,000+ homes, "Medium" 4,000+) are based on your current map, so they shift as you play.

Neighborhood types come from the city's building data: the downtown core is the Loop, Near North, Near West and Near South Sides; single-family areas are where at least 70% of residential buildings hold one home; the rest are mixed. A policy set to one type only applies there; for supply-cutting policies the lost "built anyway" homes are scaled by that type's share of buildings built recently.

Build timing ramps up: about 6% of a plan's 15-year homes arrive in the first two years (approvals and design), 68% in years 3–10 and 26% after.

Empty land: lots that are vacant today can be built on when you rezone them, with no homes to replace. That's 25,282 privately owned vacant parcels with no building on them (Cook County Assessor, 2025), each taken as one standard 25×125 ft lot, plus 8,976 lots where a home or small shop stood in 2013 but nothing stands today. An empty lot is 1.5× as likely to get built as an occupied one, since it earns nothing and there's nothing to tear down. City-owned lots stay with the city-lots policy, and the vacant-lot policy only counts parcels the zoning hasn't already built on.

Land assembly: bigger buildings need bigger sites, so a mid-rise project buys up the lots next door on the same block face (no skipping across a side street or a gap) until it has about 5,000 sq ft of land (two city lots), a high-rise about 7,500 (three) and a tower about 15,000 (six). Lots that are vacant today count. If the neighbors can't be bought (newer buildings, already taller, or zoned lower), or the site is too narrow (under about 30 ft for a mid-rise, 40 ft for a high-rise or 65 ft for a tower), it builds the biggest level its land allows. New buildings sit square to the street on the old footprints and only grow back toward the alley, never into a street. Each lot's chance of redeveloping stays the same; projects just come in fewer, bigger pieces.

Building size: each new building's floor area is its homes × 1,026 sq ft (the same per-home figure used for office conversions, which includes halls and walls). Drawn heights vary from project to project (6-flat 3–4 stories, mid-rise 5–6, high-rise 9–12, tower 25–36), and a building only spreads wider once it reaches its zoning height. Towers sit on a 4-story podium.

Tower level: about 30 stories and 40 homes per standard lot (DX-12-style floor area at about 900 sq ft per home), only within ¼ mile of the 26 busiest L stations (2025 weekday entries of 4,000+, CTA; airports left out), and capped at 97,500 apartments over 15 years, about 6,500 a year on average: the 2021 forecast for downtown, which would be its best year since at least 1999 (Integra Realty via Connect CRE).

Vacant-lot gap financing: 15% of the ~31,000 privately owned vacant parcels (Cook County Assessor, 2025, class 100) get a 2-flat by 2041 at up to $150,000 of subsidy per home (Missing Middle's cap, Hoodline), and rezoned projects in soft markets are 50% more likely.

Transit riders: one commuter per new home within ½ mile of the L or Metra, 37.9% of them by train or bus (ETOD 2020, from 2012–16 census data), two rides a workday for 250 days, valued at CTA's 2026 average of $1.24 a ride.

Policies that cut supply cost this share of the homes Chicago builds anyway: downzoning 25%, parking minimums 10%, moratoriums 15%, rent control 30%, transfer tax 5%. They also cut rezoned projects: parking minimums 15%, moratoriums 20% (and 25% later), rent control 40% on buildings of 3+ homes, transfer tax 18% on buildings of 20+.

Local taxes use NAHB's 2015-dollar estimate, compared with the city's 2027 budget gap; it counts revenue to every local government, not just City Hall, and leaves out what new residents cost to serve.
Myths you've unlocked
Big projects in the pipeline: Chicago's giant master plans add up to about 31,000 planned homes that aren't built yet: The 78, Bronzeville Lakefront, the 1901 Project, Cabrini-Green, Foundry Park and the rest of North Union (purple dots on the map). That's roughly six years of the ~4,900 homes the city permits each year, but only about a tenth of the 2041 goal. Most are stuck on infrastructure or financing, not zoning, so "Get the megaprojects built" is a money decision, not a zoning one. Some planned housing has been lost to other uses: the Tribune printing site's 5,900 planned homes became the Bally's casino (Multi-Housing News), and a 13,575-home plan for the old U.S. Steel South Works site was cancelled; it's slated to become a quantum computing campus (Wikipedia).
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Data: Building footprints, stories and unit counts: City of Chicago (released February 2013; the city's portal copy was last updated in 2015), garages and sheds removed, brought up to date with Cook County's 2022 building footprints (aerial survey with LiDAR heights): 14,563 buildings that were torn down or replaced by 2022, or whose lot is vacant today (Cook County Assessor vacant land, 2025, or the city's land inventory), are removed; 18,694 buildings that appear in the 2022 data but not the 2013 data are added with their measured height (they can't be rebuilt in the game, and the homes inside them aren't counted because the county data has no unit counts); and about 42,000 buildings with no recorded stories get them from LiDAR (roof height less 4 ft, ÷ 13 ft a floor). These fixes lower totals a bit in busy neighborhoods: some lots the 2013 data treated as one-story shops are really three-story buildings, and some lots were already rebuilt. Street centerlines: City of Chicago. 77 community areas. 124 L stations inside the city from the CTA station list; 74 Metra stations from Cook County GIS.
Not modeled: Construction costs and interest rates (see the end of a simulation), school and transit capacity, and displacement beyond the homes directly replaced.