Abundant Housing Illinois has put together a bunch of pro-ADU events this month – two of our own, one with a partner, and one is a City Council meeting – in anticipation of the vote on September 25, 2025.
Monday, 9/8/25 ADU Advocacy 101 webinar. With special guests (from AARP Illinois and ULI Chicago) we’ll advise members on how to advocate for ADUs in their wards before the vote.
Tuesday, 9/23/25 House+ADU tour in Woodlawn. RSVP is required because capacity is limited. This is a members-only event but there are promo codes for Abundant Housing Illinois members (check the Slack) and for 20th Ward residents (ask me).
The house tour is a 3-block away from the Cottage Grove ‘L’ station in Woodlawn, and the address will be provided after you RSVP.
Thursday, 9/25/25 The City Council meeting where I expect ordinance SO2024-0008918 to be approved! We’ve got 13 people signed up so far to go.
Finally, our ADU petition. We’re trying to collect 500 more signatures to deliver to City Council.
Greenline Homes builds all-electric 1, 2, and 3 unit houses in Chicago’s South Side, and this year they’ve started building single-family houses with a “junior accessory dwelling unit” on the first floor. An accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, can mean a few things, but generally it means a smaller home within a house that has one or more dwelling units. In Chicago, this is most commonly done by adding an apartment in a basement space of a single-family house or a two-flat, and on the ground floor of an older courtyard building during a renovation that moves shared laundry from the ground floor to in-unit.
Over in Woodlawn, however, Greenline Homes has built what appears as a single-family house but has an apartment with one bedroom and one bathroom in the front half of the first floor. It occupies about one quarter of the houses’s overall floor area. In the rear half of the first floor is the primary unit’s kitchen, living and dining room, and a half bathroom. Upstairs, the space belongs all to the primary unit and has three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
Many Greenline Homes have previously been built as two-flats with a lower level full-floor apartment and an upper level duplexed apartment for the owner. The intention is that buyers have an immediate rental income opportunity, or a place for multigenerational living. Think having an adult child living nearby (on-site!) as they transition from college graduation to full time job or having their first child.
The house is for sale, and there are several others like it, so if you’d like a tour contact Wayne Beals. Here are similar ones under construction that will deliver this year:
Further reading: junior ADUs can also be lockoff units, where the smaller unit is connected to the primary unit via stairs or a locked door, but maintains its only exit to the outside.
