Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order Wednesday creating a new director of housing solutions role in his administration and called on the state legislature to seek ways to make housing more affordable for working families.

The director of housing solutions will be tasked with expanding affordable housing for middle-income working families, the governor said during a news conference. Pritzker said his team was still working to identify who will fill the new role and how much the salary will be.

The move comes in response to recommendations from an advisory committee that proposed several options to address the state’s missing middle housing problems. 

Escalating housing costs have been a problem in Illinois and most states across the country since the pandemic, making it more and more difficult for first-time buyers and others to find housing that costs less than 30% of their annual income. 

“There has not been enough focus on working-class and middle-class housing, and that is what we are here to address today,” Pritzker said. “Illinois needs to quickly and dramatically ramp up our efforts to approve and build new housing and to give more affordable options to working families.”

Pritzker acknowledged that his executive order was just one step in a long process to address the complex problem of housing affordability. 

The housing inventory crisis has been more severe in Illinois than in most other states. Since 2019, Illinois’ housing inventory dropped further and rebounded more slowly than the national trend line, the advisory committee noted in a September report.

Illinois REALTORS® CEO Jeff Baker, a member of the committee, praised the governor’s actions on Wednesday. 

“Illinois REALTORS® commends the governor’s commitment to housing and was proud to be a part of the governor’s Missing Middle Housing Solutions Advisory Committee,” Baker said in a news release. “The director of housing solutions and the bold ideas in the committee’s report are exactly what our state needs right now to bring housing stability to Illinois families and communities and to help more of our neighbors achieve the American Dream of homeownership.”