If a coalition of housing activists has its way, the city will soon unveil a Marshall Plan for low-income housing–a plan that would spend $1 billion over the next five years to build or rehab 35,000 units of housing for the poor. The proposed plan, called the Chicago Affordable Housing and Community Jobs Ordinance, was introduced several months ago by 20th Ward Alderman Arenda Troutman. All summer housing activists have been leafleting el stops, wooing editorial writers, and conducting rallies at City Hall in support of the ordinance. For their efforts they have won the strong backing of 17 aldermen and more than 200 community groups.
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The dispute dusts off an age-old debate over where the city should spend its economic-development funds. Daley’s investment plans so far–airports, train lines, and gambling casinos–have revolved around fortifying the downtown or expanding the city’s tourist draw, and many housing activists feel he is shunning the neighborhoods.
“The issue as we see it is Daley’s will to address the real housing crisis,” says Josh Hoyt, a veteran neighborhood activist who is helping the Rehab Network organize support for the ordinance. “When it comes to something like renovating McCormick Place or Navy Pier or building a downtown trolley, casinos, or new airports, the mayor is ready to fully finance these schemes with taxpayers’ dollars. But when it comes to housing or schools, the underpinnings of the neighborhoods, [the city is] always broke. We can’t afford that attitude any longer.”
The housing crisis is most drastic in East Garfield Park, Oakland, and other predominantly black and poor south- and west-side neighborhoods. There residents scrape by on a median income of roughly $15,000, paying up to 55 percent of their income on rent.
She says the city helped construct 1,700 units of low-income housing last year, as well as several hundred homes that were selling for as much as $100,000. Such housing not only is an affordable alternative for middle-class residents, Carrott argues, but attracts middle-class residents to poor neighborhoods. “These families and individuals provide role models and an economic base for a community,” Carrott wrote in a memo to aldermen. “The city cannot afford to overlook this segment of the population’s housing needs.”
Despite the strong words, both sides say they hope some sort of compromise can be reached. Carrott says she plans to meet with Hunt and other activists. “I think we share most of the same goals,” she says.
