By Audy Nicko
@redlineproject
AI disclosure: ChatGPT was used to create an outline and images for this story. Perplexity.ai created the summary. ElevenLabs was used to create the audio version of this story.
Summary: Chicago’s rising rents and uneven public transit access are forcing many workers to live far from their jobs, producing long commutes and declining quality of life. The essay argues that Chicago’s housing and transportation conditions, though supported by a growing national dependence on transit, increasingly burden residents’ finances, time, sleep, and mental health
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New York City is known for its expensive rent and public transportation. IT is what New Yorkers do. Taking the subway is part of their daily routine, it is how they get everywhere, along with riding buses.
So does another big city — Chicago.
But over the years, the rent has increased and the public transportation has lacked access to parts of the city. Many residents have chosen to live far from where they work because rent in the city is unreasonable.
In 2023, NEWMARK‘s report ranked Chicago sixth on the Cost-of-Living Index, with a rate of 118, above the national average of 100. Chicago was still below New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington D.C. and Miami.
According to data from the Illinois Policy Institute, Chicago’s average rent now costs $2,200, up over $600 a month in just under 10 years. Rent rose 6.2% during the first six months of 2024. Choosing to have affordable housing and commute long distances becomes living choices.
The long-term effect of this often gets overlooked. Dr. Kate Lowe, an associate professor in the Urban planning department at UIC, said that commuting far every day could decrease the quality of sleep.
This situation has impacted Chicago-area residents Jacob Burton and Kailey Rubinas.
For instance, Burton works in UIC’s University Village area but lives in Andersonville on the North Side.
“I’d love to live near University Village, where I work,” he said. “But the rent there is too expensive. It’s not realistic for me.”
However, the prices that he needs to pay for rent are unreasonable, which shows the effect of rising rent prices, the unreliable public transportation and increasing distance between where people live and work.
Living in the city has become more expensive throughout the years, and many residents must spend nearly 30% of their income to afford living in the city. However, living further from his job with reasonable rent suits Burton despite needing to commute over an hour each way by train and bus.
Rent in Chicago has been increasing at a rapid pace for the past couple of years. Many Chicagoans are spending more than 30% of household income for rent and utilities, according to a WBEZ analysis of census data.
According to the Illinois Policy Institute, neighborhoods like University Village are one of the top five areas that are expensive to live in, with the average rent of $2,796. To find more affordable housing for renters has become much harder. Spending that much money on rent can be very unrealistic for some people despite the strategic location to work.
According to Lowe, commuting on a daily basis can have an impact on people. She mentioned commuting side effects such as spending less time with family and friends, reducing sleeping or resting time, higher stress and poor mental health.
Burton said that because of the long hours of commuting every day he becomes less energetic, he spends his money on buying takeout food for the convenience because he’s already exhausted when he arrives home.
Some people choose to live long distances from their work to have those reasonable rent prices even if it means spending hours on hours combined each week with the potential of high stress and decreasing mental health.
Chicago is a walkable city, with a public transportation system, the CTA. The CTA trains and buses offer commuting to the north, south, east, west and both major airports.
Although the city provides this great accessibility, the daily commute can be a headache.
Rubinas, an assistant academic operations director, said that taking public transportation was one of her goals when she moved to Chicago three years ago from a small town in Michigan. However, she said “it has become unreliable to use public transportation and has increased [my] stress and the enjoyment of commuting.”
Some people might enjoy commuting because in those times they could use it by reading a book, article or spend time to make doing other things.
According to Psychology Today, “Commuting times have steadily increased in the U.S., and the rising problem of congestion has only exacerbated the issue of wasting time, money, and fuel.”
Read More
Read the other stories in our five-part series about Chicago housing issues.
Coverage: The City’s Rental Crisis | Chicago Facing an Affordable Housing Crisis | Mapping Chicago’s Affordable Housing | Infographic: Chicago Rent Prices as Tall As Their Buildings
Opinion: A Legacy of Discrimination: Chicago’s Housing Bias | Quiet Displacement: Chicago’s Affordable Housing Crisis
As rent prices become more unreasonable which causes some workers to live further away from their work place. Many Chicagoans and nationwide workers rely on public transportation which becomes essential to their daily lives. According to a 2025 report from the Federal Transit Administration, transit ridership in the United States jumped by more than 17 percent from 2022 to 2023, with agencies providing 6.9 billion trips nationwide.
Many people would waste their time commuting from their home to work every day, but the stress is a problem. Burton said that he needs to wake up early, feeling stressed because he doesn’t want to miss his train. This effect on commuters might be reduced if rent in some areas becomes more reasonable.
Lowe warned that “these aren’t only about the transportation issue, this is about the quality of life issues.”
There are many Chicago neighborhoods that receive unequal reliable transit service than others. For workers that live there, their commute might look different from workers who have better access to public transportation.
Lowe emphasized the need for better transit service in disinvested areas to address long commutes and inequities. Some areas in Chicago neighborhoods such as in the North Side and South Side have some differences in terms of equality on public transportation services. However, some areas do not have any CTA routes.
Burton said that “The North Side has trains every few minutes, but on the South Side you can wait forever. It doesn’t feel equal at all. And it definitely affects people who rely on transit the most.”