Blue Island Case Study

Issues Analysis: Destabilized Housing Stock and deteriorating residential buildings in Blue Island
Context

In the last decade, municipalities have been faced with vacant housing parcels from foreclosure. Municipalities have struggled to maintain residential buildings and stabilize housing stock. One particular municipality that has struggled with this issue is the City of Blue Island. Blue Island has been slow to recover from the amount of foreclosures it experienced. In addition, Blue Island has faced steady population decrease. According to the Homes for a Changing Region report, the national foreclosure crisis, contributed to vacant units nearly doubled in Blue Island in the past decade. This report will address the following:
1. Overview
The government structure is a Mayor who is the chief executive and a city Council as a legislative branch. City Council of Blue Island is made up of 7 aldermen. Approximate population is 23, 706.
Blue Island has deep roots, it was founded in 1835 and is one of the oldest communities in Cook County. Blue Island was founded upon a strong industrial economy. Similar numerous cities with an industrial background, Blue Island has been in a state of transition. Blue Island has experienced a significant decline in population, in addition to job loss. This has greatly strained the municipality’s resources and expenditures.
Blue Island can be characterized generally as a low-to-moderate income community, with significant pockets of middle class and working-class family households, as well as more impoverished sections. Basic educational attainment of Blue Island residents (25 years and over) has increased over the last decade; however, the proportion of residents receiving degrees of higher education has decreased. More Blue Island residents are receiving high schools diplomas now, as compared to 2000, while a smaller percentage of residents are achieving bachelor’s degrees or higher.
Background of
According to the Blue Island Comprehensive Plan, Blue Island has lost roughly one-sixth of its private sector jobs since 2000. According to census data from the Illinois Department of Employment Security, the number of jobs in Blue Island decreased from 9,521 to 7,889 during the last decade, a loss of 17 percent. A majority of the job losses has occurred within the industrial sector with businesses moving or in some cases shutting down operations. One of the challenges that the City of Blue Island face is slow economic development this issue was intensified after the economic recession. Blue Island has been slow to recover from the