Chicago policymakers have introduced measures to increase housing supply, in a move that local activists and construction industry stakeholders have hailed as key to easing affordability pressures on residents.
According to the city's 2025 annual report on homelessness, Chicago is facing its largest gap in affordable and available housing in a decade, with the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) Count estimating that 7,452 people were experiencing homelessness, either in shelters or unsheltered locations, on January 23, 2025.
Steven Vance, a social worker in Chicago, said policies that previously curbed the city's housing supply have pushed up rent costs amid demographic changes.
"Households are declining in size, and that means we need more homes, and I thought it was strange that we would artificially restrict how many homes could get built in Chicago. Right now in Chicago, we have one of the highest rent growths, compared year to year in the country, and so now is a pivotal time to allow more housing," he said.
To address the challenge, Chicago has introduced zoning and land-use reforms, including the Additional Dwelling Units (ADU) Ordinance, aimed at increasing residential density and expanding housing supply.
The ordinance effectively expands housing access across the city by allowing ADUs in attics, basements, and accessory buildings, easing the rent burden and creating more budget-friendly housing options.
"In December 2020, City Council adopted an ordinance that would legalize ADUs in five pilot areas. (With ADU,) rents will maybe not always come down, but they will not climb as quickly as they are now if we have more housing options," he said.
The construction sector in the city has welcomed the policy change, with builders jumping on the opportunity to create new structures. For many in the industry, boosting housing supply is not just about doing business, but about addressing the issue of affordability as Chicago residents themselves.
"The housing market in Chicago has been impacted by the ADU program, to me, in a really big way. It's enabled a lot more rental projects to be constructed. I want there to be more housing in Chicago. I think there is a need for that, and I think there's also a need for responsible development that maintains the character of the neighborhood. Affordable housing to me is a really important issue, and to me, the biggest denominator in affordable housing is the lack of supply. The best route to affordable housing is to have an influx of housing," said Nick Serra, a construction professional.
Chicago expands housing supply to ease affordability pressure
The Chinese government has stepped up its ecological conservation and green development efforts this year, with new policies aimed at ensuring harmony between humanity and nature as the country modernizes.
To upgrade its legal system for ecological protection, China this year has adopted a new Ecological and Environmental Code, a new National Parks Law and revised Regulations on Nature Reserves.
China has also started implementing its stricter ambient air quality standards since March and is taking measures in key counties to tackle pollution and stagnant water in small water bodies, and remove heavy metal pollution from agricultural soil.
"Building a beautiful China is a major strategic effort being made by the Communist Party of China Central Committee with Xi Jinping at its core, taking into account the overall situation of modernization featuring harmony between humanity and nature as well as people's aspirations for a better life. It requires us to reject the short-sighted approach of draining the pond to catch the fish and the practice of leaving ecological deficits to future generations. Instead, it asks us to shoulder the historical responsibility of benefiting generations to come by laying a solid ecological foundation for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. This is not only a change in the development paradigm, but also an innovation in the concept of civilization," said Li Hongwei, a professor at the Social and Ecological Civilization Teaching and Research Department of the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China.
In addition to national measures, countless local projects are also underway to address specific issues.
Jiangsu Province in east China has established the country's first application and service system presenting real-time 3D visualizations of the province and its cities and counties to provide digital support for targeted ecological governance.
In east China's Jiangxi and Zhejiang, a number of protection and restoration projects for abandoned mines and marine ecosystems are accelerating.
"Now, we have started the application process for Shan-Shui Initiative projects, encouraging and guiding neighboring provinces to break down boundaries, plan and jointly apply for cross-provincial Shan-Shui Initiative projects for the same natural geographical unit, and carry out inter-provincial prevention and control efforts around national ecological security barriers such as the Three Eco-zones and Four Shelterbelts," said Zhang Jianjun, deputy director general of the Department of Territorial Space Ecological Restoration at the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The Shan-Shui Initiative, which translates as "mountains and rivers" initiative, is China's ambitious country-wide effort to restore 10 million hectares of natural spaces, including mountains, forests, grasslands and waterways, by 2030.
The Three Eco-zones and Four Shelterbelts are the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Eco-zone, the Yellow River Eco-zone (including the Loess Plateau Ecological Barrier), the Yangtze River Eco-zone (including the Sichuan-Yunnan Ecological Barrier), and the Northeast, North, South, and Coastal Shelterbelts.
This year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will push for implementing ultra-low emission standards for 100 million tons of cement clinker production and 50 million tons of coking production.
In the meantime, the ministry will promote the building of more zero-carbon industrial parks and factories, revise regulations for the management of carbon emission trading, and continue increasing supply for the national voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction trading market.
China has already seen fruitful results from its ecological conservation efforts this year.
The Xiliao River, once the only major river among China's seven major river systems to suffer long-term drought, has seen full spring water flow return for the second consecutive year, signaling new progress in the ecological recovery of the river basin.
The latest satellite remote-sensing images show that in some sections, the water area has increased from less than 5 percent of the waterway in 2024 to 90 percent today.
The rising water levels over the past two years have also led to the return of migratory birds and other ecological improvements.
Progress has also been made in biodiversity. This year, a breakthrough has been made in wild reproduction of the Chinese sturgeon, a group of endangered Baer's pochards were released into the wild for the first time in the world by Chinese biologists, and the populations of giant pandas, crested ibises, and Hainan gibbons continue to recover.
On the consumption front, China has improved a trade-in subsidies program for consumers choosing to upgrade to energy-efficient home appliances.
Meanwhile, a national campaign to double the number of charging facilities for electric vehicles in three years is in full swing, with a goal of establishing a nationwide network of 28 million charging facilities by the end of 2027 to meet the needs of more than 80 million electric vehicles.
China intensifies conservation, green development programs
