FHLBank Chicago awards $5 million to train new affordable housing developers in Illinois and Wisconsin
The 2026 round of its Community First Developer Program, announced Oct. 22, gives 27 organizations grants of up to $200,000 for about 95 fellowships and internships. Housing nonprofits and Habitat for Humanity affiliates are among them.
Chicago. The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago said on Oct. 22 that it has awarded $5 million through the 2026 round of its Community First Developer Program, which pays for people early in their careers to learn affordable housing development on real projects. The grants go to 27 organizations in Illinois and Wisconsin and are expected to fund about 95 fellowships and internships.
The program is open to nonprofit, for profit and quasi governmental organizations, and the money reaches them through the bank's member institutions, the banks, credit unions and community lenders that own it. This year's grants were set at $50,000 to $200,000 per organization. Fellows and interns work on project management, predevelopment planning, construction, financing and other parts of building housing.
Who received grants
The Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development in Madison received $199,738, through the member lender Forward Community Investments, for two housing development fellows. The nonprofit estimates that the projects they work on could create or preserve 93 homes in Wisconsin, in Madison, Beloit, La Crosse, Shorewood and Sun Prairie among other places.
The Central Illinois Land Bank Authority received $200,000 for one fellow and two interns, who will work on redevelopment in Casey, Mt. Sterling, Westville, Oakwood, Pontiac, Mattoon and Jacksonville, including vacant lot development and affordable multifamily housing.
Other nonprofits on the bank's list of recipients include Greater Fox Cities Area Habitat for Humanity in Menasha, Habitat for Humanity Waukesha, Jefferson and Rock in Waukesha, Acts Housing in Milwaukee, Impact Seven in Rice Lake, Full Circle Communities and the Southwest Organizing Project in Chicago, The Neighbor Project in Aurora and Zion Development Corporation in Rockford. Private development firms, two land bank authorities, a University of Wisconsin department and a state economic development office are on the list as well. The release gives the amounts for only the two grants above.
“The best way to learn housing development is to be part of the work from the beginning.”
Since 2022
The bank started the program in 2022 on the advice of its Community Investment Advisory Council. Through 2025 it had awarded $12 million and paid for 215 internships and fellowships; with this round the total reaches $17 million. The release does not say when the next round will open.
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