Affordable Housing in Chicago

Panelists include Christine Kolb MPP'09, Senior Director of Development at Greystar; Stacie Young MPP'00, Director of The Preservation Compact; Bryan Esenberg, Deputy Commissioner, Bureau of Housing Development for the City of Chicago Department of Housing; and Joy Aruguete, Chief Executive Officer of Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation.

Lunch will be provided.

Panelist Bios:

Joy Aruguete has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation for the past twenty three years. In this capacity, she supervises operations for this 52-year-old award-winning nonprofit community development corporation dedicated to community controlled development, the preservation and management of affordable housing, economic development centered on job creation, comprehensive community planning and engagement, and the development of community leaders. Ms. Aruguete received her Masters Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also holds a Certificate in Non-Profit Management from Roosevelt University, and an Illinois Real Estate Managing Broker License.

Bryan Esenberg is the Deputy Commissioner, Multifamily Financing for the City’s Department of Housing, where he allocates over $100M per year to create and preserve affordable housing. Prior to joining the City in 2013, Bryan managed real estate development programs for the nonprofit housing agency Neighborhood Housing Services. While at NHS, Bryan helped build and sell over 100 affordable homes to working families and through his leadership, NHS preserved over 1,000 units of housing while growing the City’s receivership program.

Christine Kolb is a senior director of development for Greystar, and responsible for the sourcing, acquisition, and development of multifamily, active adult, and student-oriented housing throughout the Midwest region. Prior to joining Greystar in 2019, Christine was Associate Vice President of Development at Focus Development, where she led the pursuit, entitlement, capitalization, and construction of over $350 million of projects in suburban and downtown Chicago. Christine’s career in real estate began as a Director of Community Outreach for the Urban Land Institute, where she shaped land use policy, managed philanthropic housing initiatives, and led technical assistance programming for the Chicago area. She remains passionate about working with public, private, and non-profit partners to creatively solve real estate challenges. In addition to her work, Christine serves as President of Real Estate Finance Forum, a professional organization for women in commercial real estate finance; sits on the Housing & Land Use Committee of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP); and is a Member of the Alumni Council for the University of Chicago’s Harris School. Christine received a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from the University of Oregon.

Stacie Young is Director of The Preservation Compact, a policy collaborative to preserve affordable rental housing. Located at Community Investment Corporation (CIC), the Compact’s preservation strategies focus on both the government assisted stock, as well as the unsubsidized, or Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing stock. Activities include creating a $36 million mezzanine debt fund for high cost markets; convening an intergovernmental group to preserve 6,200 subsidized units; expanding utility funding for efficiency; driving building code relief; creating a $48 million loan pool for 1-4 unit buildings, and a new $5 million CDFI 1-4s partnership. Young also worked for DePaul University; the City of Chicago Office of the Mayor, and the Chicago Department of Housing.