“The way I see it, we had 500 blocks that used to have a vacant house sitting there and now they don’t,” said Cook County Commissioner and CCLBA founder Bridget Gainer. “What we really want people to do is rehab vacant housing and get these homes back in active use and on the tax rolls. But what was happening was, in order to get to rehab a house, you had to go through this gauntlet of a year in court and hiring a lawyer because you had fines and fees from the city that had accumulated. We have the ability to remove barriers like back taxes, code violations, old mortgages — things that encumber title. Once you take away these barriers, all these people walk through the door.”