Despite modest increases in affordable units, rental housing affordability remains a challenge in the Chicago area, according to the 2016 State of Rental Housing in Cook County by the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University. The MacArthur-supported report found Cook County's affordability gap — the difference between demand for affordable housing by lower-income households and the supply — is still seven percent higher than in 2007 when the housing market collapsed. The report also finds that more than 52 percent of Cook County renter households pay more than 30 percent or more of their income for housing, which is considered the threshold for affordability.
