We want to start by saying thank you. Your investment in JCUA’s Community Ventures Program (CVP) reflects a shared conviction that every person in the Chicago region deserves a stable, dignified place to call home and a strong neighborhood surrounding them.
This belief matters more than ever. Across Chicagoland, the legacy of segregation and disinvestment continues to shape who has access to safe, affordable communities and who doesn’t. But the organizations that CVP partners with are not waiting for someone else to act. They are leading — transforming vacant buildings into shelters, building cooperative housing models, and creating pathways to homeownership in neighborhoods that have been systematically overlooked.
This year, your support helped CVP invest in a wide range of housing solutions: interim shelter for young adults and families experiencing homelessness, transitional housing for returning citizens, accessible apartments for low-income seniors, and community land trust homes that keep long-term affordability in the hands of residents. Each of these projects represents real people gaining real stability.
In 2025, CVP reached the milestone of providing $10 million for affordable housing and community development projects. Through the zero-interest, flexible loan pool you’ve helped grow over the past 35 years, we’re continuing to meet community partners where they are with patient, responsive capital that other lenders often can’t or won’t provide. That kind of flexibility is rare, and your partnership makes it possible.
We also want to express our deep gratitude to Rose Shapiro, who is transitioning from her role at JCUA into an exciting new opportunity in the community development world. Rose has helped lead CVP over the past three and a half years with tremendous care and dedication, strengthening relationships with our partners and deepening CVP’s impact across the region.
We’re proud to share the details of this year’s work with you below. Thank you for being part of this effort.
With deep gratitude,
David Feinberg – Advisory Committee Co-Chair
Jessica Nepomiachi – Advisory Committee Co-Chair
Project Spotlights
Ujima Village
In 2025, CVP was proud to provide a $200,000 interest-free loan to Unity Parenting & Counseling to turn a vacant motel in Auburn Gresham into the new home for Ujima Village — the South Side’s only fixed-site, non-congregate shelter for young adults (18–24) experiencing homelessness. The renovated space will increase capacity to 34 private rooms (each with its own bath); end daily check-outs so residents can stay 24/7; and remain low-barrier to allow for walk-in services.
Mt Pisgah Place
In 2025, CVP was proud to provide a $200,000 interest-free loan to Housing Opportunity Development Corporation (HODC) to support the development of Mt Pisgah Place, a new affordable apartment building at 1805-1815 Church Street in Evanston’s 5th Ward. The five-story mixed-use building will bring 33 one- to three- bedroom units of housing affordable to households earning less than 30-60% of area median income (AMI) to the historically redlined, and increasingly unaffordable, neighborhood.
Sylvia Center
In 2025, CVP was proud to provide a $200,000 interest-free loan to Cornerstone Community Outreach to transform the Sylvia Center in Uptown into a newly non-congregate, fixed-site, shelter for families experiencing homelessness. The renovated facility will include 51 private rooms (each with its own bathroom), supportive services, and upgraded amenities. Cornerstone is proud to support families of all configurations at Sylvia Center. The shelter is unique in providing interim housing where single fathers and their children and multi-gendered households with or without children can stay together. The redevelopment of the building into a non-congregate facility will offer even better experiences and outcomes for their residents.
2025 CVP Portfolio
- 2638 Cortland with Here to Stay Community Land Trust
Development of 6 community land trust units of affordable housing for homeowners at 60–80% AMI in Logan Square - Abrams Intergenerational Village with The Renaissance Collaborative
Development of 71 units of intergenerational housing affordable at 30–60% AMI for seniors, secondary education students, and grand-families in Washington Park - Humboldt Park United Methodist Church with LUCHA*
Construction and rehabilitation of 22 affordable rental housing units, including 5 Permanent Supportive Housing units, in Logan Square - IMAN Health Center Expansion
Expansion of a community health center in Chicago Lawn - Joyce Chapman Apartments with IHDC
Construction of 39 PSH units in West Pullman - Jumpstart Housing Cooperative*
Acquisition of 3–4 units of affordable cooperatively-owned housing in Bronzeville - Mt Pisgah Place with Housing Opportunity Development
Development of new affordable apartment building in Evanston’s 5th Ward - Pilsen Housing Cooperative (PIHCO)
Expansion of an affordable housing cooperative in Pilsen - SACRED Apartments with Claretian Associates & IHDC*
Construction of 81 units of affordable housing, including 17 PSH units, in South Chicago - Saint Leonard’s Ministries
Renovation of 53 units of transitional housing for people recently released from incarceration in the Near West Side - Sylvia Center with Cornerstone Community Outreach
Renovation into non-congregate, fixed-site shelter for families experiencing homelessness in Uptown - The Write Inn with Housing Forward
Rehabilitation of 65 units of interim housing in Oak Park - Ujima Village with Unity Parenting & Counseling
Renovation of the South Side’s only fixed-site, non-congregate shelter for young adults experiencing homelessness - Villa Guadalupe with Claretian Associates
Renovation of 53 units of housing for seniors, including 47 PSH units, in South Chicago
*Loan repaid in 2025
CVP Advisory Committee
- David Feinberg, Co-Chair — Chicago Community Loan Fund
- Jessica Nepomiachi, Co-Chair — IFF
- Jane Bilger — Community Strategies
- Ralph Brown — Technical Assistance Corporation
- Nia Crosley — Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella
- Julie Kaviar — Office of Cook County Commissioner Scott Britton
- Asher Kohn — M-Group
- David Levinson — Level 21, LLC
- Maryah Phillips — Chicago Community Trust
- Lesley Roth — Lamar Johnson Collaborative
- Jeff Zaluda — HMB Legal Counsel
CVP Supporters
$250,000 and above
Anonymous; Marcia Bogolub & Phil Kaplan; Crown Family Philanthropies; Sara Henry Donor Advised Fund, Jeff Zaluda, Donor Advisor
$100,000 and above
Chicago Community Trust; First Eagle Bank
$50,000 and above
Anonymous; Robert L. Cohn; Landau Family Foundation; Polk Bros Foundation; Providence Bank & Trust; Greg & Florence Rothman
$25,000 and above
Miriam A. Kalichman & Charles F. Firke; Steve & Gerry Keen; Sheldon & Pearl Leibowitz, Lew Leibowitz Legacy Fund); David Levinson & Kathy Kirn; Lisa Moss & Andrew Bokor; Sara Paretsky
$10,000 and above
John z”l & Marge z”l Alschuler; Rich & Andy Amend; Anonymous; Peter Ascoli; CSS, designated by David Feinberg; Tami Cohen, Highland Capital; Peter Hanig; Jay Heyman; Steve Rothschild & Lisa Oppenheim; Nikki & Fred Stein; Rabbi Jeffrey Weill & Julie Chizewer-Weill
$5,000 and above
CIBC; Mr. B Foundation; Rona Pietrzak
Additional CVP Supporters
Judy Adelman; Todd Budnick; Arthur Elstein; Michael Frankenstein; Margot Harris; Rabbi Ari Hart; Elli Krandel; Amitai Loew; Rachel Mayo; Marc Meltzer; Laurie Mikva; Leora Mincer; Irving & Marilyn Naiditch Family Foundation; Friends of Roberta Nechin (z”l); Daniel D. Newman; Paul Peterson; Jo Ann R. Potashnick; Judith Simon; Shahar Sztainer