For decades, widespread vacancy and abandonment, lack of quality affordable housing and jobs, and few amenities have prevented residents on Chicago’s South and West sides from building wealth. Coupled with a history of racist policies and practices like redlining and predatory lending, homeownership—the chief engine of wealth-building in America—is even further out of reach in these neighborhoods. But while vacancy is still too prevalent in Chicago’s communities of color, if put into the hands of residents deeply rooted in these communities, the thousands of underutilized properties on the South and West sides offer great promise. On this panel, we will hear how collaboratives are working to address longstanding issues of vacancy, inequitable access to homeownership, and what they’re doing to support Black and Latinx developers.