Affordable housing might increase by 1,000 units a year in Chicago 

By Susan S. Stevens 

Affordable housing advocates said a new City of Chicago ordinance designed to increase the number of dwellings with lower sales prices is the first of several actions needed to provide more decent housing to the underserved. The City now requires developers to make at least ten percent of their units affordable to low-income individuals and families.

            “We feel it is a step in the right direction,” said Tom Walsh of the Balanced Development Coalition, an umbrella group supported by Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, a public interest and law policy center. “We have come a long way in the last couple of years and feel it can be built upon.”

            “We were advocates for years,” said Kevin Jackson, executive director of the Chicago Rehab Network, a not-for-profit group. “We think it was smart public policy for what we know today is an increasing need.”

            Mayor Richard M. Daley’s office said the new policy is expected to produce about 1,000 units of affordable housing units each year in the city.

The City Council approved the ordinance June 11 to help meet the need for affordable housing without discouraging developers. Two days later, Daley introduced an ordinance designed to help apartments remain affordable after buildings lose federal use restrictions; the full council is expected to approve that affordable rental measure.

The City defines affordable housing as what is affordable to individuals and families who earn up to 60% of the Chicago primary metropolitan statistical area median income (AMI).

Walsh said it is unfortunate the ordinance uses the six-county AMI, which in 2006 was $75,400, in contrast with the city’s AMI of $45,240. There is a “much greater need” for affordable housing for households bringing in less than $75,400, he said.

Under the ordinance, a developer planning to build ten or more residential units and operating under conditions that include zoning changes allowing for higher density or buying City land must designate ten percent of the units as affordable. Walsh’s group favored 15%. When a developer receives government aid, however, the percentage of affordable units must increase to 20%.

            “Our new policy will support economic development, increase the supply of affordable housing in communities citywide, and make sure people have the housing choices that meet their needs,” Daley said. “It builds on our other affordable housing policies and is designed to work with the marketplace so that we can continue to create more affordable housing units.”

            “We believe it is an important ordinance that will further the City’s commitment to housing that all people can afford,” said Connie Buscemi, spokesperson for the Department of Planning and Development. She said she had not heard of any developers complaining about the ordinance. “They understand the City’s commitment.”

            “It’s the kind of stuff we need to build upon,” said Jackson of the Rehab Network, who called for making “all the tools available” to reverse a 12% decline in rental apartments at a time when housing prices soared 56%.

            Aldermen Toni Preckwinkle (4th) and Walter Burnett (27th), with 26 cosponsors, had sought a tougher measure, termed the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. It would have automatically required that 15% of all units in all new or rehabbed developments with more than ten units in the city be affordable, regardless of any zoning changes or financial incentives. That proposal never made it out of committee.

            At the full council meeting, Preckwinkle called for the ordinance to be increased from 60% to 80% of the AMI. Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th) proposed using the City’s AMI and a 15% set-aside. Both motions were defeated.

            After the vote at a special City Council meeting, about 30 people rallied in the hallway outside council chambers to demand an even tougher affordable housing measure.