We are very different mayors from very different towns and from very different parts of Illinois — but we were all elected by our neighbors to ensure our communities can thrive and be where families put down roots. We take that responsibility seriously.
Over the years, we have watched the housing shortage deepen, home prices rise and more families get priced out of the communities they call home. The reality is simple: Too few homes are being built. Constrained by a patchwork of outdated zoning rules and overly complex approval processes, our current system limits supply and drives up costs. That is why we support Gov. JB Pritzker’s Building Up Illinois Developments, or BUILD, plan. It is designed to cut through these barriers and make it possible to build more homes in more places for more people — and our communities will be better off for it.
Between 2019 and 2024, average home prices in Illinois increased by 37%, and the number of home listings dropped 64%. Illinois’ housing inventory has decreased more and rebounded slower than the national average, with the state now facing a gap of over 142,000 housing units. At the current pace, Illinois will need over 225,000 more housing units in the next five years to keep up with demand. While other states are building at several times our pace, our state is falling further behind, and our communities are the ones paying the price.
There are real people behind these numbers. This is about the workers commuting over an hour each way because they cannot afford to live near their jobs. It’s about the young couple outgrowing their apartment and unable to start a family because no starter home exists in their price range. It’s also about the longtime residents looking to downsize or age in place, who have nowhere to go in the neighborhoods they have called home for decades.
The housing shortage is not an abstract policy problem happening somewhere else. An entire generation of young people is beginning to see homeownership as a dream that’s out of reach. This is happening here, in all of our towns and across our state. We all need to be the ones answering for it.
You are probably wondering why local officials are challenging the instinct of protecting local control. But here’s the reality: The housing market does not stop where our towns end. The housing market, and subsequent shortage, crosses municipal boundaries and affects communities across Illinois, from large cities to small towns. Yet the system for addressing it remains fragmented and reflects the larger problems that we are all facing — the fewer houses available, the more expensive those few become. That’s why we support a statewide solution to give us the framework to do the things that make sense for our individual towns. BUILD does not replace local control with a one-size-fits-all system. It does not override community character or dictate identical development across Illinois. It creates a tool kit for us to implement a housing vision for our individual communities that addresses our unique needs on an improved and more efficient, affordable and attainable timeline.
BUILD would mean more townhomes, two-flats, duplexes, cottages, bungalows — just regular types of houses that have historically formed the backbone of neighborhoods, made housing affordable and showcased the uniqueness of Illinois’ architecture. They are the homes that allowed working families, young people and seniors to live in communities they could afford. Somewhere along the way, these types of houses stopped being built. Regular, affordable houses have since become so rare that people think the only options are unattainable mega-mansions or luxury high-rise developments. It does not have to be this way.
BUILD would restore balance and establish a clear, statewide baseline that makes it possible to build regular types of housing in the first place. BUILD would establish minimum expectations and set a baseline to meet every locality’s housing needs, while preserving and enhancing the character of what makes each of our towns so unique. From there, we would retain control over how that housing fits in our communities through design standards, form and local context. We would still shape where housing goes, how buildings look and how development fits in our communities.
While our communities vary in size and character, the barriers to building housing across Illinois are remarkably consistent, and we share in the same goal of wanting what’s best for our communities. BUILD would make it more efficient, affordable and easy to build in Illinois, helping ease upward pressure on rents and expanding pathways to homeownership in our state. It’s time to BUILD.
Nothing about this is radical. What is radical is continuing to do nothing while working families cannot find housing or afford to put down roots in the communities they want to live in.
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The state has a plan. Let’s let them get to work.
Jason Ashmore is mayor of Sesser. Andrew Goczkowski is mayor of Des Plaines. Spencer Johansen is mayor of Lexington. Vicki Scaman is village president of Oak Park.
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