A community-led campaign to build 2,000 new homes on the South and West sides was awarded a $10 million grant on Tuesday from the Pritzker Traubert Foundation.
As the winner of the foundation’s 2025 Chicago Prize. the Reclaiming Chicago initiative will be able to expand into Chicago Lawn as part of its effort to turn vacant land into sites with affordable homes.
Reclaiming Chicago is a city-backed campaign, led by the organization United Power for Action Justice, to build homes across Roseland, Back of the Yards and North Lawndale. The initiative also includes Lawndale Christian Development Corp., the Southwest Organizing Project and The Resurrection Project.
“It is really an exciting boost for our efforts to be able to accelerate our innovation and be able to really demonstrate that this is feasible, that we can do this,” Raul Raymundo, CEO and co-founder of The Resurrection Project, said.
So far, Reclaiming Chicago has built 76 homes and has 90 more under construction. But winning the Chicago Prize allows it to expand into Chicago Lawn, where Reclaiming Chicago can “test even more innovation,” Raymundo said.
Penny Pritzker, cofounder and trustee of the Pritzker Traubert Foundation said in a news release, “With this investment we are supporting community leaders who are working to create more affordable housing in Chicago Lawn and finding opportunities to bring down the high cost of delivering new housing.”
Reclaiming Chicago is purchasing a 17-acre lot from a private developer, in a deal that’s expected to close by the second quarter of 2026, Raymundo said. The development is expected to take place over the next five years.
The parcel, at the corner of West 74th Street and South Talman Avenue, will become one of the largest clusters of new homes built on the South and Southwest Side in more than 20 years, according to the Pritzker Traubert Foundation.
The Southwest Organizing Project and Resurrection Project will co-develop 125 single-family homes and two-flats. Because it’s building two-flat homes, a first for Reclaiming Chicago, the total number of units will likely be near 160, according to the campaign.
Homes will be affordable to families making between 80% and 120% of the area median income.
The project will include green space, and a Homeowner Association will be created, setting it apart from previous homes built by Reclaiming Chicago, Raymundo said.
“We want families to be engaged as residents,” he said. “When people recognize that they’re not just buying a home, they’re buying part of the community, that becomes a different mentality for them. They have a sense of ownership, civic pride and so forth.”
Raymundo said the Chicago Lawn project will help create a stronger sense of community and support nearby commercial corridors and, by extension, the city.
“This is how we’re influencing the economic activity of the neighborhood — and the city, for that matter,” he said.
The Chicago Prize will also add to a $42 million revolving loan fund for new home construction, where “loans will be issued to build homes, repaid when the homes sell and then redeployed for the next round of construction,” according to a news release.
Raymundo said one of the initiative’s goals is to create a sustainable path to homeownership. That means going beyond building homes to building wealth, by offering subsidies to homebuyers and hosting meetings that demystify the homebuying process.
“The only way you get sustainable homeowners is [ensuring] families are properly educated and are properly prepared so that they can sustain a home,” Raymundo said. “The cost of the home is not just the price or the interest rates, it’s also the long-term sustainability. We want to make sure that families are well aware that this is building wealth for them in a sustainable way.”
Reclaiming Chicago is the third awardee of the Chicago Prize, which began in 2020 and has committed $40 million toward supporting economic development on the South and West sides. Past winners were Always Growing, Auburn Gresham — paving the way for the Gresham Healthy Lifestyle Hub — and the Garfield Park Rite to Wellness Collaborative, which pitched the Sankofa Wellness Village.
The Chicago Sun-Times receives funding from the Pritzker Traubert Foundation.