Because the state pays either way. A failing furnace or a broken step becomes a hospitalization, a nursing home placement, or a demolished house — all of which cost far more than the repair would have.

North Carolina’s Housing Finance Agency found every $1 spent on its Urgent Repair Program could save up to $19 in Medicaid and Medicare spending, much of it from falls that never happened.

Keeping an existing home standing is also cheaper than replacing the affordable unit it represents.

Source: North Carolina Housing Finance Agency (2017).

• Rebuilding Together estimates every $1 spent on repair programs generates $2.84 in social return.
• The work itself is local. Contractors, suppliers, and trainees are all drawn from the communities being served.
• The trained workforce doesn’t disappear when the repair ends — it becomes skilled maintenance capacity that affordable housing developments and property managers can draw on.
• Repaired homes hold their value, which protects the property tax base of the neighborhoods around them.

Source: Rebuilding Together.

• Sealing leaks and replacing failing systems lowers utility bills for households already on fixed incomes.
• The same work improves energy efficiency, which cuts emissions across thousands of older buildings.
• Repairs remove hazardous materials and conditions — a health benefit that lands on the resident immediately.

• This bill is built specifically around older adults, who are entering homelessness faster than any other age group.
• Waiting lists at existing programs already demonstrate demand well beyond current capacity.
• Parts of Illinois have little or no repair infrastructure at all.
• The program creates a single front door that gives existing efforts — currently scattered across several departments — a reason to coordinate rather than duplicate.

Source: Urban Institute.

No. Low-income senior homeowners struggle to keep up with maintenance in every part of the state.

• Outside the Chicago area, more than 65,000 homeowners aged 62 or over earning under 80% of area median income live in one- to four-unit properties built before World War II. Another 152,000 live in properties built between 1940 and 1970.
• Large areas of Illinois have few or no contractors with home repair skills — the program builds that capacity.
• Manufactured and mobile homes are included.
• Springfield, for example, has a higher share of low-income senior homeowners with ambulatory difficulties living in older buildings, who need repairs or modifications to stay in place.

Source: DePaul Institute for Housing Studies (2023).

Seniors receive the repairs directly, without having to qualify for a loan — which matters most for those with poor credit or little equity.

• In Illinois, Black and Latine seniors aged 55 and older were denied home improvement lines of credit at 1.7 and 1.6 times the rate of white seniors. In Cook County the gaps widen to 1.9 and 1.8 times.
• Removing the lending step also keeps seniors away from scam lenders and predatory contractors.
• Older women are especially exposed: 31% of women aged 65 and over lived alone in 2023, against 19% of men. Among Black adults 65 and over, 32% live alone.
• Latine and Black older adults are twice as likely as white older adults to live in high-poverty neighborhoods.
• The workforce program opens skilled construction trade jobs to underrepresented groups.

Sources: Woodstock Institute; Pew Research Center.

The first year builds the machinery: a one-stop intake at the Department of Human Services taking inquiries online or by phone, a pathway for community groups and counties to become delegate agencies, the geographies to be served, and connections to workforce development partners.

Years two and three go to service delivery, at an anticipated average of $40,000 per home.

For comparison, Illinois seniors aged 55 and over requested a median of $55,000 when applying for home improvement loans, and Detroit’s Home Repair Fund has averaged $29,000 per home.

Sources: Woodstock Institute; Detroit Home Repair Fund.

Fix Our Homes Illinois is a coalition of more than thirty organizations — community and faith-based groups, housing researchers, aging services providers, and seniors themselves. It was founded in 2023 and is convened by Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly (H.O.M.E.) in Chicago.

Members include AARP Illinois, Access Living, AgeOptions, the Chicago Urban League, Habitat for Humanity affiliates, Neighborhood Housing Services, Rebuilding Together, the Woodstock Institute, and the DePaul Institute for Housing Studies.

See the full coalition list

Fill out the form on our Join the Coalition page, or contact Alizandra Medina at H.O.M.E. directly — AlizandraM@HOMEseniors.org or (708) 928-9757.

Join the coalition

The single most useful thing is to email your state representative and senator and tell them you support HB5170. A message from a constituent in their own district carries more weight than anything the coalition can send.

You can also share your story if you or someone you know has struggled to afford repairs, and sign up for updates so we can reach you when a vote is scheduled.

Email your legislator · Share your story