Meet Bonita Harrison, a Chicagoan bent on making affordable housing a reality

Bonita Harrison’s goal has always been to own 200 units of property. As a residential developer, her mission was to create noticeable change to a South Side neighborhood when it comes to affordable housing for and by people of color.

She was well on her way with her firm Sunshine Management, which had 68 units before the pandemic. Now, she only has 15 left, a mix of two-flats and four-flats and single-family homes.

“When you’re a smaller business it’s hard for someone to have that capital to go through the tough times,” Harrison said. “I had to sell because I was constantly being crunched taking money from myself, my family, my daughter, trying to make decisions: ‘I’m not paying my own mortgage, but I’m paying the mortgage for all these other buildings.’”

In the real estate field since 2006, Harrison, 40, is just one of a number of property owners trying to hold on to what they worked for. After much during the pandemic and hundreds of millions