Chicago Housing Assistance Grant: Amount, Eligibility, and Payback

The Chicago HomeGrown Purchase Assistance Grant gives eligible homebuyers up to $70,000 toward down payment and closing costs on a home inside city limits. The program launched on June 8, 2026, with $21 million in funding, and is projected to help 300 to 400 buyers.¹ It is a grant, not a loan. If you stay in the home as your primary residence for five years, you owe nothing back.

How Much You Can Get

Your grant amount depends on two things: your household income compared to the Area Median Income, and which of two geographic zones your property sits in. Zone A covers neighborhoods where sale prices have climbed sharply, including Lincoln Park and Lake View. Zone B covers low-income census tracts where at least 70 percent of families earn below 80 percent of the statewide median family income, such as Englewood and Roseland.² A lookup tool on the city’s HomeGrown website will tell you which zone a specific address falls into.³

The tiers work like this:

At 80% AMI or below: $70,000 in Zone A, $50,000 in Zone B.
At 81–90% AMI: $60,000 in Zone A, $40,000 in Zone B.
At 91–100% AMI: $50,000 in Zone A, $30,000 in Zone B.
At 101–120% AMI: $40,000 in Zone A, $20,000 in Zone B.
At 121–150% AMI: $10,000, Zone A only. Zone B buyers at this income level are not eligible.³

There is one cap on top of the tier amounts: the grant cannot be more than 25 percent of the property’s purchase price.³

Who Qualifies

The income ceiling is 150 percent of AMI. In 2026, that is $127,650 for a single person and $182,250 for a family of four. Limits for other household sizes appear on the Chicago Department of Housing’s AMI chart, which is updated each year.²⁴

Income is only the start. You also need to meet these conditions:

You cannot currently own any real estate, including investment or vacation property.⁵
The property must be a single-family home, a condo, a townhome, or a two-unit building. Three- and four-unit buildings, ground-up new construction, and homes bought through certain City of Chicago land-sale programs are excluded.⁶
You must live in the home as your primary residence for at least five years.³
At least 1 percent of the purchase price has to come from your own funds.³
Your mortgage must be a fixed-rate loan from an Illinois-licensed lender. Adjustable-rate mortgages, interest-only loans, and rate buy-downs (temporary or permanent) are prohibited. Your back-end debt-to-income ratio cannot exceed 38 percent.⁷
You must complete six to eight hours of homebuyer training through a HUD-approved counseling agency. Buyers of condos and two-unit properties take additional training.⁵
Co-signers are not allowed on the application.³

How to Apply

You do not apply through the City of Chicago. The city selected two Community Development Financial Institutions through a competitive process to run the program:³

Neighborhood Lending Services, Inc. (NLS), an affiliate of Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago.
TRP Lending, LLC, an affiliate of The Resurrection Project.

The order of steps matters. Get pre-approved for a mortgage with a licensed lender first, finish the required homebuyer education, and sign a purchase contract on a property. Then contact NLS or TRP and submit your application along with income documents, identification, and the contract.³ You can only work with one of the two agencies, and if you have any personal or professional relationship with the agency you choose, you have to disclose it on a form.⁵

Funds go out first-come, first-served. There is no lottery and no announced closing date, but the pool is finite, so applying early matters.⁶

The Five-Year Rule and When You Have to Pay It Back

The grant is forgiven in monthly slices, one-sixtieth of the total each month over five years. Stay in the home as your primary residence for the full 60 months and the balance clears to zero. Sell the home, transfer ownership, move out, rent it out, or do a cash-out refinance before then, and you owe the unforgiven portion back to the city in full.⁵

Stacking HomeGrown With Other Assistance

HomeGrown can sit alongside some other down payment programs, but not others. The recapture agreement has to be recorded in second lien position, or third if you have both a first and a second mortgage. It cannot go below third.⁵

A boundary worth knowing: you cannot combine HomeGrown with any bond-funded program. That rules out Illinois Housing Development Authority subsidy programs and the IHDA TaxSmart Mortgage Credit Certificate.⁵ The Chicago Housing Authority’s Down Payment Assistance grant can generally be layered with other programs, subject to its own caps.⁸

If HomeGrown Doesn’t Fit Your Situation

Other homebuyer programs may work on their own or, where allowed, in combination.

The CHA offers a Down Payment Assistance grant of $20,000 to current CHA residents and $10,000 to non-CHA residents. You need to earn below 81 percent of AMI (or 120 percent for current CHA participants), attend an information session, get pre-approved by a CHA-approved lender, complete an eight-hour homebuyer course, and contribute at least $3,000 of your own money. Layered grants, seller credits, and gift funds combined cannot exceed 20 percent of the purchase price. This grant cannot be paired with CHA’s separate Choose to Own program.⁹

CHA’s Choose to Own program lets Housing Choice Voucher holders and public housing residents apply their subsidy to a mortgage. You need at least a year with your voucher or in public housing, first-time buyer status (no ownership in the prior three years), and household income between 50 and 80 percent of AMI. The program dates to 2002 and has helped 850 families buy homes.¹⁰¹¹

Statewide, the Illinois Housing Development Authority runs four “Access” mortgage programs, all paired with 30-year fixed-rate loans and requiring a 640 minimum credit score plus homeownership counseling. Access Home offers up to $15,000 (6 percent of purchase price) as a deferred, interest-free loan for first-time buyers. Access Forgivable offers up to $6,000 forgiven over 10 years and is open to repeat buyers. Access Deferred and Access Repayable provide up to $7,500 and $10,000 respectively, with different repayment terms.¹² Remember that IHDA programs are bond-funded and cannot be used together with HomeGrown.⁵

1
WBEZ. HomeGrown Purchase Assistance Program Eligible Chicagoans for Up to $70,000 in Down Payment
2
Chicago Sun-Times. HomeGrown Purchase Assistance Program Eligible Chicagoans for Up to $70,000 in Down Payment
3
City of Chicago. HomeGrown Purchase Assistance Program
4
Chicago Housing Trust. Homes for Sale
5
NHS Chicago. HomeGrown Purchase Assistance Grant
6
The Resurrection Project. HomeGrown Purchase Assistance Program
7
City of Chicago. HomeGrown Purchase Assistance Grant Program FAQ
8
CHA. Down Payment Assistance
9
CHA. DPA Eligibility Flyer
10
CHA. Homeownership
11
CHA. Full Eligibility Requirements for the Choose to Own Program
12
IHDA. Getting an IHDA Loan