Local governments around the world are confronting the same reality—traditional housing systems are no longer meeting the scale or urgency of community need. In the first installment of the Global Insights Webinar Series, presented by ICMA strategic ally Local Government Professionals Australia, New South Wales (LGPA NSW), speakers from the Chicago, Illinois, USA, and Shellharbour City Council, New South Wales, Australia, shared ambitious, innovative approaches designed to expand affordability, reimagine delivery models, and respond to rapidly evolving housing pressures. Despite the differences in geography, governance structures, and market conditions, the session revealed common themes around political will, new financing tools, and the need for more adaptive and diversified housing solutions.

Chicago: Pioneering a Green Social Housing Model

Led by Jung Yoon, chief of policy, mayor’s office, Chicago, and Daniel Hertz, director of housing, Impact for Equity, Chicago, focused on a bold new initiative known as Green Social Housing. The city of Chicago partnered with Impact for Equity, a local nonprofit, to create a permanent, mixed-income, publicly owned model seeded by a $135 million revolving loan fund. While public housing and low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) remain foundational to the U.S. housing system, their limitations—particularly dependence on inconsistent federal appropriations and the need for periodic recapitalization—have constrained the supply of new affordable rental stock.

Green Social Housing aims to address this structural shortfall by creating a new category of public-sector–driven development with four main pillars:

• Eliminating the need for private equity.
• Using internal cross-subsidization.
• Prioritizing sustainability.
• Establishing a quasi-public, nonprofit developer, the Residential Investment Fund.

Eliminating the need for private equity reduces project costs and enables a self-sustaining financial cycle where returns flow back into the revolving fund. Using internal cross-subsidization, the model maintains approximately 70% market-rate units and 30% permanently affordable units, which creates perpetual affordability that is rare in any U.S. market. By prioritizing sustainability, the housing maintains lower utility costs and directly reduces tenant burden. The establishment of the Residential Investment Fund enables Chicago to move at the speed of the market while maintaining public accountability.

This model emerged from a convergence of community advocacy, mayoral commitment, and inspiration from Montgomery County, Maryland, which demonstrated how public entities can finance mixed-income developments without relying on tax credits or traditional public housing.

Chicago’s team emphasized the challenges, including the need for careful legal structuring, political negotiations over oversight, and clarity about what the model can and cannot do. Despite challenges, the momentum to move this project forward is strong and the city expects to break ground on its first developments under this new system as early as next year.

Shellharbour: Leading Growth and Filling Immediate Gaps with Tiny Home Innovation

On the other side of the globe, Shellharbour City Council, one of the fastest-growing cities in New South Wales, showcased a very different but equally forward-thinking approach. Facing significant population growth, escalating housing stress, and mounting pressure on limited land supply, the council has adopted an ethos of leading change rather than simply regulating it.

Michael Park, director of planning and environment and Chris Homer, mayor, presented two interconnected efforts:

• Long-term structural planning for a diverse, affordable city.
• A near-term, rapid-response solution: the Mobile Tiny Homes Pilot.

As part of its long-term plan, Shellharbour is undertaking a major planning effort in its city center by leveraging government-owned land near a new hospital to deliver short-stay accommodation for healthcare workers, build-to-rent models to fill key housing gaps, mixed-use developments supported by inclusionary zoning feasibility work, and increased housing variety to allow for different income levels and lifestyles. These initiatives aim to shape a more compact, connected, and equitable city in the next 5-10 years. 

Recognizing that long-term planning alone cannot solve immediate pressures, Shellharbour is launching a two-year pilot program that allows mobile, tiny homes to be installed on eligible properties without development approval. The goal is to create quick, lower-cost options that can be deployed “overnight.”

Key features of the pilot include:

• Exempt development status through a targeted amendment to the local environmental plan (LEP).
• Strict definitions and size parameters to ensure tiny homes are truly mobile and registrable as vehicles.
• Flexible tenure models, allowing either homeowner-installed units or tiny-home owners leasing land.
• Opportunities for key workers, young adults unable to enter the local market, and residents facing housing stress.

Mayor Homer emphasized the political leadership required to advance the initiative, particularly in the face of “NIMBY” resistance. But with strong local support and alignment with state government processes, Shellharbour hopes the pilot will become a scalable model for other councils across New South Wales.

Applying Common Themes in Your Community 

Despite differing contexts and scales, initiatives from both jurisdictions reveal shared insights valuable for global practitioners:

Public leadership is essential: Both cities view government not just as regulator, but as developer, financier, and catalyst for new housing pathways.

Affordability requires new financial instruments: Chicago’s revolving loan fund and Shellharbour’s use of council-owned land demonstrate how repositioning public assets can stretch limited resources further.

Housing solutions must be both long-term and immediate. Chicago seeks to permanently reshape its housing ecosystem. Shellharbour pairs long-term precinct planning with short-term deployable units.

Political will is a decisive factor. Both projects encountered political hurdles such as oversight requirements, community skepticism, or regulatory constraints. Each succeeded due to visible, committed leadership.

Flexibility and evidence-based policymaking matter. Shellharbour emphasized feasibility testing and iterative policy design while Chicago highlighted adapting national models to local conditions.

The webinar showcased two governments willing to challenge traditional housing models and create new pathways tailored to their communities’ evolving needs. Whether through Chicago’s systemic financial innovation or Shellharbour’s agile tiny-home pilot, both jurisdictions illustrate how local governments can lead with creativity, pragmatism, and values-driven action.

As global housing challenges intensify, these case studies offer not just inspiration, but actionable frameworks. While there is no single solution to this global problem, bold and adaptive policy design can meaningfully shift what is possible.

For more information about ICMA's strategic alliances, future global webinars, or to be connected with the organizations mentioned in this post, contact ICMA global engagement staff at global@icma.org.