Community Relations Commission Meeting Summary: June 11, 2026
Community Relations Commission Meeting – June 11, 2026
The Community Relations Commission met at 5:32 PM on Thursday, June 11, 2026, at City Hall, Rockford, Illinois. Chairman Eric Brown presided. The meeting featured three informational presentations on housing, economic mobility, and family self-sufficiency, followed by updates on unfinished business and planning for upcoming action items.
Consent Calendar
- Journal of Proceedings for the May 14, 2026 meeting was approved unanimously by voice vote (motion by Commissioner Jurea Crudup, seconded by Commissioner James McDowell). Commissioners Mary Kaull, William Martin, Mary Jude Pakiela, and Shimere Shanklin were absent.
- Communications: Chairman Brown reminded commissioners of the Mayor’s “Open Door” meeting hours on June 26, 2026 from 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM.
Information Only (Presentations)
1. Zion Development – Ron Clewer, Managing Director and CEO
Ron Clewer presented on a partnership among Zion Development, the PlatFORM Group, and North West Neighbors to create affordable housing in Rockford. He highlighted key data:
- Construction gap: Building costs (~$400/sq. ft) exceed sale prices (~$280/sq. ft), leaving developers underwater without subsidies.
- Inventory stagnation: Virtually zero new homes built in the last decade; only 90–95 single-family permits issued in 2025 – up from ~20 the prior year.
- Cost burden: 50% of renters and 23% of homeowners spend more than 30% of income on housing.
- Racial wealth gap: 67% of white residents own homes vs. 37% of Black residents.
- Current efforts: Cataloging and geocoding home conditions to target investments; launching advocacy programs like YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) and YIGB (Yes In God’s Backyard) – a state bill to allow churches to develop housing expedited; reviving financial literacy and homeownership counseling.
- Position: Clewer expressed full support for the city’s housing strategy and zoning code changes, and urged the commission to support these changes when they come before the Zoning Board of Appeals and City Council.
2. Bridges To Prosperity Northern IL – Mary Cacioppi, Founder/CEO
Mary Cacioppi described the organization’s data-driven work to increase economic mobility and reduce poverty:
- Poverty data: 43% of Rockford’s population lives in a distressed zip code; 26% of Winnebago County families are ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed). The 61104 zip code ranks 1,108 out of 1,111 in Illinois – only three zip codes are more distressed.
- Getting Ahead Program: A 10-week curriculum for individuals in poverty; over 5 years, 250+ graduates achieved: 43% increased household income, 44% decreased debt, 59% pursued additional education, 24% reduced reliance on safety-net benefits.
- Goal: Scale from 50 to 500 participants annually to reduce Rockford’s poverty rate by 4 percentage points over the next decade.
- Upward Mobility Action Plan: Announced October 2025 with Mayor McNamara, focusing on housing affordability, financial empowerment (26% of county households have debt in collections; 43% in neighborhoods of color), and childhood literacy.
- Position: Cacioppi expressed strong support for scaling the Getting Ahead program and for establishing a financial empowerment center in Rockford.
3. Rockford Housing Authority Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program – Carandus Brown, Human Services Manager
Carandus Brown presented on RHA’s holistic approach to supporting families toward self-sufficiency and homeownership:
- FSS Program: 101 families currently enrolled; 62 actively building escrow accounts. Recent graduates exited public housing with lump-sum down payment checks ranging from $20,000 to over $40,000.
- Partnerships: BMO Bank (LIPH program with guaranteed mortgage pathway after one year), Associated Bank, Midland Bank; Family Counseling Center (mental health barrier removal); YouthBuild (vocational trade skills); Habitat for Humanity (sweat-equity homeownership); Life-Force Development Institute (financial/digital literacy).
- Outcomes: Since 1996, 56 Housing Choice Voucher participants have bought homes; 31 LIPH participants transitioned to HCV and then homeownership; currently 5 participants in the home-buying process.
- Position: Brown emphasized the importance of preparing families to sustain homeownership, not just purchase homes, and called for community-wide collaboration to build trust and accountability.
Unfinished Business
1. Commissioner’s Questions for the Alderman Update – Michaela Harris
Michaela Harris, City of Rockford Contract and Grant Compliance Officer, reported that she is coordinating with the Mayor’s Assistant to schedule five small meetings between commissioners and aldermen (two evenings, three daytime sessions, with a possible Saturday option). A Doodle poll will be circulated to confirm dates.
2. Affordable Housing Pilot Program Update (Tabled)
Commissioner Scott Garwick requested that the update from Commissioners Mary Jude Pakiela and Scott Garwick be tabled until the July 9, 2026 meeting. The commission agreed.
New Business
Bi-Annual Report Draft – Chairman Eric Brown
Chairman Brown asked each commissioner to submit 2–3 bullet points on their projects for inclusion in the Commission’s Bi-Annual Report to the Mayor. Deadline: June 22, 2026. Chairman Brown will compile the report for commission approval at the July meeting. A tracking mechanism is being created for future reports.
Upcoming Action Plan Items
- Modular Homes Pilot Programs’ Presentations – July 9, 2026 (Commissioners James McDowall and Rita Bravo).
- Food Insecurity Panel Discussion – August 14, 2026 (Commissioners William Martin and Rita Bravo).
Key Outcomes
- Approvals: Journal of Proceedings accepted unanimously.
- Decisions: Affordable Housing Pilot Program update tabled to July 9, 2026.
- Directives: Commissioners to submit project bullet points by June 22, 2026 for the Bi-Annual Report.
- Action Plan: Modular Homes and Food Insecurity presentations scheduled for July 9 and August 14, 2026, respectively.
- Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 7:29 PM following a unanimous voice vote (motion by Commissioner Garwick, seconded by Commissioner Crudup).
Meeting Transcript
Uh to order. Before I do the roll call, I just want to remind everyone, the sound system is down. The microphones are intended for the online feed. Please remember to speak up so that those microphones can get all of us and all the things that we have to say tonight. So can we do a roll call? Commissioner Barrero? Present. Commissioner Bravo? Present. Commissioner Brown? Present. Commissioner Johnson? President. Commissioner Cole? Absolutely. Commissioner Martin? Absolutely. Commissioner McDowell? President. Commissioner McKay? Absolutely. The first thing on our agenda is the acceptance of the journal, the Journal of Proceedings for the Community Relations Commission meeting held on May 14th. We have a motion to approve the journal. I have a motion to approve. Hearing no discussion, all in favor? Any opposed? The journal is approved. The next thing is we have a communication from the mayor's office reminding us of the open door meeting for the commissioners that is set for June twenty-sixth from ten thirty to noon. As uh as you heard, I do serve as the CEO and director for Zion Development amongst a few other roles. So on the first sign or first slide, just kind of break down how I engage in Rockford now. So years ago, I was in private real estate development with William Charles Investments here in town. Um left them, went to the housing authority for a number of years where I joined the housing authority to be their director of real estate development because I hadn't done any development in quite some time. Started that a few months, became their CEO, served as CEO for almost eight years, and then left there for uh two-year period in Washington, D.C. with the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities to think about how might we integrate health and human services into a housing model. So what you'll probably see tonight, what you've probably experienced in your uh you know, really starting to ingest housing information is they're very disparate, disconnected systems that don't talk well to each other and don't work well with each other. So my hope in the alliance work was to start to get those to communicate better. Um and then I left, came back into a for-profit role with Gorman and Company to develop real estate. Um here in town, the most uh obvious one that people recognize is we did do the embassy suites hotel, which is not housing but indirectly kind of. Um but we also did uh collectively in my time at RHA with Gorman, the Jane Adams project down on uh in the Orchid neighborhood, just south of here, uh 38 units there. We did uh repositioning of Orton Keys, which is 175 units. We also did the Grove, um, which some know is the New Town Project, which we some of us may recognize were significant challenges getting across the finish line with that. And then since just completed the Lafayette Hotel, um which is adaptive reuse of 54 affordable housing units. So I left Gorman in December and through my organization, uh which is called Tipping Point Consultancy, entered into an agreement with um the platform group. The platform group is formerly Rockford Housing Development Corporation. I serve as their CEO under contract. And then we created a strategic alliance with Zion Development and with Northwest Neighbors. Zion is a midtown district organization who's been in existence 40 plus years. That's the role I'm coming to you today to talk to you through. And then I also serve as the CEO and director for Northwest Neighbors, which is a Christian community development corporation just like Zion, but it serves the Northwest side of Rockford. If we could flip to the next slide.
openpublica.com