Illinois RealEstateRama

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced today that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has awarded grants totaling $3,161,281 to communities throughout Illinois. Today’s funding will support and improve the capability of each department to respond to fires and other types of emergencies

Illinois home sales in June surged 12.5 percent higher than last year while median prices also saw strong gains, according to the Illinois Association of REALTORS. Statewide home sales (including single-family homes and condominiums) in June 2015 totaled 17,972 homes sold, up 12.5 percent from June 2014 when 15,982 homes sold

Without Congressional action by the end of this month, transportation funding to states and mass transit agencies will be slowed down or stopped, jeopardizing infrastructure projects and good paying jobs in Illinois and across the country, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said today at a construction site near the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge. It’s been nearly two months since the Senate passed a stop-gap measure to keep the country’s major transportation and infrastructure programs running through the end of July, when the Highway Trust Fund is expected to become insolvent

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman and other community leaders joined the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) in unveiling the new disinfection facility at the Calumet Water Reclamation Plant (WRP) on Friday

U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05), a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD), hosted a roundtable discussion with minority and women-owned businesses and transportation agencies about the need for a long-term, fully funded transportation bill and the effect it would have on Chicago’s economy

Debra Grand, incoming Board Chair, and Mark Angelini, President of Mercy Housing Lakefront Mercy Housing Lakefront, one of the first to develop permanent supportive housing projects of significant size in the Chicago area, will use the grant to expand its Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI).

The White House announced a new effort to increase access to high-speed broadband for low-income families. The initiative, ConnectHome, will help to bring high-speed broadband to over 275,000 low-income households.

The Justice Department today announced an agreement with the owners and operators of Four Seasons Estates Mobile Home Park in Effingham, Illinois, to settle allegations of race and familial status discrimination. Under the consent order, which must still be approved by the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Illinois, the defendants must pay $217,500 to victims of discrimination, who intervened in the lawsuit, to account for the harm they suffered and their attorneys’ fees, and an additional $34,000 to the government as a civil penalty

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) met with the Illinois Farm Bureau today to discuss the importance of continuing to support and invest in Illinois’ agricultural communities. The group discussed the impact of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) long-delayed proposal to set production levels under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and other agricultural priorities

Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17), a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, reiterated her call for Congress to take up and pass a long-term highway funding bill to protect Illinois transportation projects and jobs. Without action by Congress, the Highway and Transit Trust Fund will expire at the end of July. Hundreds of thousands of jobs and thousands of vital construction projects across the country are hanging in the balance

Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17) continued her efforts to assist homeless veterans by voting for the Homes for Heroes Act, which passed the House on a bipartisan basis.

U.S. Representative Randy Hultgren (IL-14) has been awarded the Illinois Municipal Utilities Association’s 2015 IMUA Public Service Award for his efforts to protect tax-exempt municipal financing, a critical infrastructure tool that helps local and state governments finance new roads, schools, hospitals, fire stations and more.

U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) today released the following statement after the House overwhelmingly passed H.R. 6, the 21st Century Cures Act, by a vote of 344-77. Davis was an early cosponsor of this bipartisan bill to modernize our health care infrastructure and accelerate the approval process for new drug development, medical devices, and other treatments.

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today introduced legislation that would make the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) eligible for a program that speeds completion of rail improvement projects, such as the Red and Purple Lines Modernization program. The Expedite Transit Act, S. 1734, would expand eligibility criteria of a federal transportation funding program to provide local transit agencies such as the CTA with increased access to public-private partnerships and innovative financing

U.S. Representative Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) will host a “Homeowners Resource Fair.” It will take place on Saturday, July 18th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Cordell Reed Student Union Building at Chicago State University, 9501 S. King Drive