Last year Naperville was named one of the safest cities in America, but is it one of the most affordable? In April, Naperville was put on a state list for cities that need more affordable housing, which wasn’t surprising. In April, only 7.5 percent of the housing in Naperville was deemed affordable. Affordable housing is calculated from the mean income of the city. If the house cost more than the lower portion of income it is deemed unaffordable.

If more Naperville does attempt to add affordable housing, it will be the only city in the area expanding that sector.. In 2015, the village of Bolingbrook and Joliet worked to get federal grants from the HOME Investment Partnerships Program to get more affordable housing in their cities, and are still working on that today.

According to the state, the city of Naperville must submit a plan to increase affordable housing by 2020. In a recent city council meeting, the council unanimously voted to set a goal to have at least 20% of the homes in Naperville be deemed affordable. Their plan to achieve this is to develop the Fifth Avenue area to have more affordable housing because it’s closest to public transportation and the council believes it is the best place. Overall this will have a large impact on the Naperville community.