Roseland's revitalization: First modular home in 60 years signals affordable housing initiative

CHICAGO - The first modular "Hope Home" was built on Wednesday in the Roseland neighborhood. It's the first installation in an ambitious affordable housing effort that could bring thousands of similar homes to the South Side in the coming years.

The home only took crews a few hours to build. The reason for the speedy install: it's a modular home, consisting of eight pieces which crews put together like a puzzle. That model, plus public subsidies, are designed to keep the price down.

"What you see today is a new house going up. That house will sell for $200,000. So that is very affordable for a family who wants to live in Roseland and participate in the rebirth," said David Doig with Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives.

The home went in at 118th and Indiana on a city-owned lot and is expected to be the first of many.

"Our organization is working to make sure that we can get more commitments of land and money from the City of Chicago and from Cook County, so that we can get started on building the hundreds of homes that are needed for the over 10,000 city-owned vacant lots," said Amy Totsch, Lead Organizer with United Power.

These affordable homes, plus the fact that they're going in steps from a stop on the extended Red Line, signal a bright future for Roseland.

"What a glorious day in Roseland," said Shenita Muse of the Hope Center Foundation.

If you are a potential homebuyer, there's an upcoming housing expo where you can learn all about opportunities to buy one. It's happening on Saturday, December 9 at House of Hope.