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27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett thinks he's found a way to fox up neighborhoods, put people back to work, and help some Chicagoans find affordable housing. Burnett would like to put the more than $1 billion in TIF funds that the city is holding into building affordable housing. "You build the houses, people work, people get affordable housing, people pay taxes, money comes back to the city," Burnett told CBS2. Currently only about four percent of TIF monies go to affordable housing in the city. He'd like to see that number closer to 20 percent. "We need to do our own stimulus package," says Burnett.
While the alderman says he's talking to the mayor about his idea, there are several other steps that need to happen before TIF money could be used to build affordable housing. That's because TIF funds are supposed to be used under strict circumstances. (Burnett's due diligence notwithstanding, not all TIF money appears to be used in accordance with what the state legislature intended it for.) So aside from winning Daley's support and the approval of the city council, Burnett would also need to convince the General Assembly to approve such a change.
In the meantime, homeless advocates are hoping for the change as well.
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That's an interesting idea, but the city also needs more jobs for the people who would live in affordable housing. It's a chicken-and-egg type of thing, but focus should be on jobs--not make-work crap like Streets and Sans, where a third of the workforce is absent on any given day, but sustainable, 21st century employment, whether in green-titled trades or what not--rather than on building so-called affordable homes (I say so-called because "affordable housing" programs in Chicago often are loosely defined programs that simply line the pockets of the clout-fortunate).
It seems to me that manufacturing building materials and swinging hammers on a jobsite is real work, not "make work." And given the prevalence of green building products and practices, wouldn't putting people to work redeveloping neighborhoods affordably, for the very folks that pay taxes, give Chicagoans the most bang for their buck? If Chicago's elected leaders could get their act together and bring some of that green manufacturing to our city (like windmill turbine factories, solar roofing materials or recycled/downcycled construction materials), the multiplier effect from such spending might actually result in real jobs with real wages in the city.
This concept strikes me as a bit pyramidal in nature. Yes, the act of building affordable housing would create jobs ... for a while. But what happens to these jobs once the money is spent and the affordable housing is built? What do the workers in these jobs build then?
It's this kind of invented commerce from both government and private industry that led to the fix we're in now.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not promoting Burnett's plan - it's far too thin on the details for me to really get behind it just yet. But to call it a pyramid scheme belies a lack of understanding about how some basic economic concepts work.
Not in Chicago, Kevin.
And I think at this time of dire recession and a housing slump even in Chicago, we are better off focusing on sustainable jobs (not just those in the trades) rather than a new kitty pot for local developers and zoning lawyers, even though I acknowledge the deep need for affordable housing for both lower and lower middle class residents of Chicago.
Thank you. You say it much better than I can, and in much briefer fashion.
That is true, but I'd rather see this city make serious moves away from simply traditional trades and more toward, say, green manufacturing--which some younger trades workers I know are learning at local schools. I'd also like this city to fully exploits its wonderful universities and find a way to support more biotech and the like (How? I really have no idea. But it has to be better than spending millions for a relative few workers from Boeing, Miller-Coors and the like.)
And my point stands about abuses in so-called "affordable housing." This city certainly needs more of it, but I have no trust in current government to provide it, based on recent past experience with the CHA mixed-income resettlement effort.
Couldn't 'green tech' be put to use through building housing and other infrastructure projects?
I am sure, but my main point is 1) I don't really trust any so-called "affordable housing" plan put forth by any Chicago alderman or mayor at this point; and 2) I think we are better served spending the money on sustainable job creation that involve more than just trades (and, by extension, zoning and development lawyers, and union officials, with too much clout).
As well, I am not sure this would be the right thing to do with housing still pretty far down, and with commercial real estate on the verge of collapse.
Be careful what you wish for on this. The term "affordable housing" is used by politicians in several different ways. Affordable housing to some means housing available for purchase to lower income people who must apply and meet certain criteria in order to qualify for "a discount." To some others (in the 46th Ward), affordable housing means building strictly Section 8 housing all financed by local homeowners property taxes.
The Wilson Yard TIF was used for "affordable housing" and it turns out there is no floor on the income level of the people who can live there. It is for low, very low, and extremely low incomes. It is essentially two 8 story buildings (178 units) of Section 8 housing - the exact type of housing HUD and the CHA are staying away from - and refused to build anymore in Uptown. I don't see how this is an improvement for anyone in the area - no matter their income level.
Also, the "jobs" created to build this "affordable" housing, as we have seen with the Wilson Yard TIF, will go to none other than Walsh Construction. Daley would have it no other way.