According to the Census, the number of vacant properties in Chicago has increased 82% since 2000.   There are now more than 165,000 vacancies.   This crisis threatens to destroy the social and economic fabric of hundreds of neighborhoods.   Each new vacancy causes a decline in home values, attracts vandalism and crime, and causes other homeowners to leave the community.

Mercy Housing Lakefront and The CARA program are working to end this vicious cycle.   Mercy Housing Lakefront has partnered with the City of Chicago to launch a program to purchase, rehab, and reoccupy vacant homes.   In addition, Mercy Housing Lakefront has partnered with The CARA Program to  launch the Cleanslate Property Services social enterprise to create jobs for hard-to-employ individuals working to clean-up, board-up, and maintain vacant homes.  

Cleanslate Property Services will provide training and transitional jobs to hard-to-employ individuals: ex-offenders, formerly homeless individuals, recovering substance abusers, etc.   These individuals will work in crews to clean-up, board-up, inspect, and maintain vacant homes.

A critical component of this initiative is the need to track and monitor the status of thousands of scattered homes.   We would use the proceeds from the N2Y4 Mobile Challenge to research, identify, and pilot the use of mobile devices to upload property inspection data to an online database.   Ultimately, this technology will enable us to monitor and protect thousands of homes.