What is City of Homes

The CITY OF HOMES, INC. (CoHo) is an Illinois not-for-profit corporation that is dedicated to promoting the preservation, redevelopment, adaptive reuse and continued viability of Berwyn’s historic housing stock and in making Berwyn the primary destination in the Chicago area for families and individuals seeking an affordable, walkable, location-efficient and transit orientated community.

The Berwyn Bungalow Preservation Initiative (BBPI) is a partnership between the City of Homes Inc. (CoHo) and the City of Berwyn to marry historic preservation and adaptive reuse.  CoHo, through the BBPI, encourages the continued viability of Berwyn’s historical homes by providing resources and incentives  for bungalow owners to preserve, restore  and rehabilitate their homes and maintain the city’s unique streetscapes and friendly neighborhoods.

For a one year old organization, we had quite a few accomplishments that we are proud of, most notably:

  • We advocated for Bungalow Appreciation Week in the City of Berwyn and the State of Illinois, and we were able to work with our city and state representatives to pass resolutions declaring the first week of May as Bungalow Appreciation Week in the City of Berwyn as well as the State of Illinois.
  • We developed Berwyn’s own Bungalow design guidelines with the assistance of the Berwyn Historic Preservation Commission and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
  • We advocated to streamline a process that makes it easier for homeowners to nominate their properties as local historic landmarks.
  •  Over 200 participants have been to our popular Bungalows on Tap seminars.
  • We were awarded a Healthy People 2020 Community Innovation grant to support health equity for Berwyn residents and the HP2020 goals of lead poisoning elimination and reduction of lead-based paint hazards. The program is implemented in partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago and Jack’s Rental and includes lead safe practices education as well as the availability, at heavily subsidized rates, of HEPA negative air machines and HEPA vacuums through Jack’s Rental.

However, none of this would have been possible without the contribution and support of many individuals and entities who have helped the establishment and continuous success of City of Home Organization, especially our board of directors that gets the job done.  Our directors are:

  • Nasri AbiMansour, President
  • Richard Bruen, Vice President
  • Jaime Flores, Treasurer
  • Christina Shorner, Secretary
  • David Ahlborn, Director
  • Rachel Johl, Director
  • Alicia Ruiz, Director
  • Cesar Santoy, Director
  • David Tomzik, Director

We also want to thank our partners and supporters without whom we could not exist.

In particular we want to thank the following individuals:

Special thanks to our corporate supporters: