Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) was selected through a competition in the spring of 2019 to develop city owned land at the corner of 5th Avenue and Kedzie as an affordable housing community with neighborhood-serving retail. The competition was implemented in cities around the world and sponsored by the C40 Network of Cities that tries to help cities tackle climate change issues.
Thank you for your overwhelming support, we are pleased to share that Fifth City Commons is fully leased. We opened in mid-December 2024 and our last residents moved in in March 2025. Our waitlist remains open Property Website and Online Application – but note that the wait will be longer now that we are fully leased.
Why is the building called “Fifth City Commons”?
The area around Fifth Avenue that cuts through the west side of Chicago has historically been called Fifth City. The name of the building honors the history and the people who have worked to make it a better place for decades. In particular, the Fifth City Movement of the 1960s-1990s was a Black-centered movement that worked to ensure that community development was guided by people who were living in the neighborhood, not top-down outside solutions. The name “Commons” has to do with the shared spaces in the building and the sense of responsibility for the good of everyone living in the building.
We owe Dr. Meida McNeal credit for educating on this legacy through her solo performance and online exhibition, Fifth City Revisited.