Home Sweet Homan Initiative Gains Momentum as First Five Modular “Smart” Homes Are Sold March 24, 2025

For the past 16 months, the Foundation for Homan Square and IFF’s Community Development Solutions team have focused on developing single-family homes in Chicago’s Homan Square neighborhood to provide affordable homeownership opportunities to individuals and families who live, work, or worship on the city’s West Side. Designed to help buyers build generational wealth and activate vacant lots in the community in a productive way, the Home Sweet Homan initiative is enabling Homan Square residents to live and thrive in place as additional community assets are developed and property values rise. The initiative is part of a broader campaign led by United Power for Action and Justice to catalyze the development of 1,000 new homes on the West Side

All of the Home Sweet Homan homes include three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and two living rooms, with two-car garages and enclosed yards. While the layout of each home is the same, buyers get to choose interior and exterior finishes from a range of packages to customize their homes, and accessibility features like ramps, elevators, and lowered counters can also be installed, if needed. Regardless of the finishes selected, each home also includes major appliances as part of the purchase, including stoves, refrigerators, and washers and dryers. The all-electric homes boast a variety of smart home features that allow homeowners to control the home’s temperature, alarm system, and lights remotely, helping to increase energy efficiency, reduce monthly utility bills, and make the ongoing cost of homeownership more affordable.

With a model home for the initiative completed in November 2023, Home Sweet Homan has resulted in nine new homes in the neighborhood to date, five of which have been sold to new homeowners. In the coming months, three additional homes currently under contract will be sold, and three additional homes will be built by Inherent Homes in a nearby factory on the West Side that leverages modular construction, placed on their lots, and completed. All homes are being developed on lots acquired from the Cook County Land Bank Authority (CCLBA) and the City of Chicago.

With each of the Home Sweet Homan properties being sold for $275,000—slightly below their appraised value—and grants of up to $60,000 available to buyers that can be used for down payments, principal reduction, closing costs, and other expenses associated with the purchase of their home, the initiative represents a unique opportunity for buyers who want to remain on or return to the West Side but might not otherwise be able to find a comparable home at an affordable price. Among the buyers benefitting from these new, high-quality homes is Roshawn Moreira, a native of Belize and longtime Chicago resident whose family has been able to fulfill their dream of homeownership.

Learn more about Roshawn and what her new home means to her in the CCLBA video embedded below.