State Senator Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago) passed legislation in the Senate that will promote equality and break down socioeconomic residential barriers by extending the Housing Opportunity Abatement Program until 2024.

“In Chicago and across the state, there is an unspoken division between residents of different socioeconomic backgrounds,” said Hunter, career advocate for housing equality and Chair of the Illinois Human Services Committee. “Property value and geography dictates a family’s quality of life. Low-income families should have equal access to geography-based services.”

In 2010, 29 percent of low-income households resided in majority lower-income areas. Initiatives like the Housing Opportunity Abatement Program exist to combat economic segregation across the state.

The property tax abatement program provides incentives for property owners in “opportunity areas,” or communities with low poverty and healthy tax bases, to rent a portion of their apartment buildings or homes to low-income households using Housing Choice Vouchers.

Sen. Hunter’s measure would prevent the program from ending in 2014.

After passing the Senate unanimously, Senate Bill 3147 now goes to the House for further consideration.