Hey y’all! Today I am going back to something I thought was a good idea a million years ago: Doing write-ups on our city council meetings! I’m gonna focus on the Champaign City Council because I live in Champaign and also because I feel like there are already a lot of folks who pay attention to what’s going on in Urbana City Council. I’m not gonna promise that this will be truly weekly, ideally, it would be but first I’m trying to be sure I can stick with it. So right now, I will attempt semi-regular recaps of Champaign City Council meetings.
Meeting Agenda for 9/8/26 Meeting of the Whole
Special Recognition: Welcoming Week 2026 Proclamation
IHDA (Illinois Housing Development Authority) Housing Stock Report Study Session
Audience Participation
Council and City Manager Comment
Present: Deb Feinen (Mayor), Joan Walls (City Manager), Davion Williams (District 1), Bob Pollett (District 2), Shauna Clayborn (District 3), Michael Foellmer (District 4), Vanna Pianfetti (District 5), Matthew Gladney (Member at Large), Kathy Shannon (Member at Large)
Absent: Will Kyles (Deputy Mayor)
Welcoming Week 2026
Proclamation made by Mayor Deb Feinen, declares that 9/9/26 to 9/19/26 are Welcoming Weeks in Champaign, Urbana, and Rantoul. Proclamation also affirmed in the text by Urbana Mayor DeShawn Williams and Rantoul Mayor Sam Hall III.
Cool stat from the proclamation: Immigrants make up 12.4% of the population of Champaign County! Cool!
Check out all the cool Welcoming Week events Here!
IDHA Housing Stock Report
Full Report Here
Supplementary Reading: City of Champaign Housing Needs Analysis & Strategy (Adopted 8/18/26)
(P.S. The supplementary reading is really cool if you’re a person who likes data about the community. I may do a write up about interesting info I find in there, so if anyone’s interested lmk!)
Purpose of the Report
This report was created by City staff in partnership with IHDA, which is the state housing finance agency that administers the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. Because of this partnered report, any proposed LIHTC developments in the studied neighborhoods will receive additional points on an application, which makes it more likely that these projects will be chosen for LIHTC funded, affordable housing developments.
Methodology
The report consists of two parts: The Housing Stock Survey and IHDA Market Analysis. The report focuses on neighborhoods in the North and Central areas of Champaign. The neighborhoods studied are as follows: Beardsley, Bristol Place, Carver Park, Douglass, Garden Park, Garwood, Martin Luther King, Holiday Park, and Ridgewood. Two neighborhood residents represented the North and Central neighborhoods in communicating the information of the report and finding ways for residents to be involved. The Housing Stock Survey studied exterior conditions of all homes in the chosen neighborhoods. The Market Analysis evaluated the need for affordable housing in the selected neighborhoods and the possibility of receiving extra points on a LIHTC application.
Info I found interesting
Reviewed 5,563 building and/or parcels for data on the building type, overall exterior condition, and condition of the roof, paint and siding, yard, porch, residential garage, and windows.
Out of the 5,563 surveyed buildings or parcels, 4,053 were residential properties. The vast majority (79.2%) were single-family detached homes, while 6% were townhomes, 8.4% were multifamily, and 6.1% were mobile or manufactured homes.
Roof conditions and siding conditions had the highest proportion of fair
and poor ratings, closely followed by window conditions.Across the selected neighborhoods, there is a strong supply of naturally occurring affordable housing – but supply is not keeping up with demand. The largest need is for housing that would be affordable to those with low incomes, making 30% AMI (about $17,000/year), which is in line with the findings from the Housing Needs Analysis and Strategy. For context, this would translate to housing costs of $500 a month or less.
Both selected neighborhood areas were classified as High Revitalization Areas, which indicates a need for additional neighborhood investment and planning efforts. It also means LIHTC applications in these areas would receive extra points.
Summary of Conclusions
IHDA’s Affordable Rental Unit Survey found the largest need for housing units affordable to individuals making 30% AMI (about $17,000/year). This parallels findings from the Housing Needs Analysis and Strategy, which projected the demand for over 1,200 rental units for those with an income of 40% AMI (about $22,500/year). Market-rate construction will not be able to build housing units at this price point, so creating these units will take a subsidy of some kind, such as LIHTC.
The Housing Stock Survey revealed the continuing and growing need for housing rehabilitation, particularly for roof repair and replacement. Prioritizing federal CDBG funding and identifying new funding sources for housing rehabilitation will be essential to preserving existing housing.
12.9% of multifamily properties were in fair or poor exterior condition. Currently, the City does not have a dedicated program for rehabilitating multifamily housing. The Housing Needs Analysis and Strategy recommended starting a rental rehabilitation program and exploring partnerships with Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to make low-cost loans available to landlords to repair their properties. The Housing Stock Survey provides staff with specific data points that can inform the creation of a rental rehabilitation program.
Notes from the meeting
These areas were chosen because of the age of the housing stock (old), the neighborhood services department has heard more calls for service from these neighborhoods, as well as possibility of LIHTC credits in the area.
This is not the full report, will be finalized in October.
Audience Participation
Charlisa Hart of Champaign - Spoke on the need for equal neighborhood representation on the Unit 4 school board. References a growing movement for a new Unit 4 school board structure (more on that movement here), and claims that the North End of Champaign has not had direct representation in 50 years (I’m saying claims not because I don’t believe her but I just don’t wanna fact check this right now lol). Also references a recent residency verification fiasco at Unit 4. There used to be an article on it on WAND but it’s now gone, so here’s a Wayback Machine version of it from August 21!
“Look no further than the 2026 registration residency verification fiasco. The district setting rigid enforcement of residency rules forced hundreds of families into exhausting lines and left vulnerable children locked out of the classrooms on day one. This policy directly harmed the students who need stability the most. All because there is not one board member who understands the lived realities of our underrepresented neighborhoods.” - Charlisa Hart
Council and City Manager Comments
Deb Feinen (Mayor): Leads vote to continue Housing Survey work, passes unanimously
Joan Walls (City Manager):
Davion Williams (District 1):
Has notes on communication. How do we make folks know what’s going on with the report. Interested in maybe having people go door-to-door, getting people the info who aren’t going to community meetings
Thanks them for the work
Bob Pollett (District 2):
Thanking staff for cool maps and their work
Shauna Clayborn (District 3):
Thanks them for doing work stuff
Michael Foellmer (District 4):
Not much commentary, also thanking for this work being done
Vanna Pianfetti (District 5):
Will Kyles (Deputy Mayor):
Matthew Gladney (Member at Large):
Thanks staff for the work
Kathy Shannon (Member at Large):
Thanks the staff for doing this work and is happy with the report
Meeting Adjourned!
Good news! Writing this up didn’t suck too bad, so hopefully I’m gonna keep doing it. The school board stuff also sounds pretty interesting, so I’ll keep an eye out for that saga as well. But that’s all for me folks, thanks for reading <3