Anti-Gentrification Plan Would Bring More Affordable Housing To Hot ‘Hoods

[M II A II R II K]

Anti-Gentrification Plan Would Bring More Affordable Housing To Hot ‘Hoods


August 28, 2017

By Heather Cherone and Mina Bloom

Read More: https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017...ification-plan

A new measure backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel would force developers of large projects in neighborhoods with red-hot real estate markets to build more affordable apartments in an attempt to combat gentrification. --- That measure would charge developers hefty fees to demolish residential buildings along the western portion of the trail without building homes for low-income Chicagoans.

- "Access to affordable housing is critical to Chicago's legacy as one of the world's most livable big cities, especially as the real estate market undergoes unprecedented neighborhood development," Emanuel said. "This initiative will create more affordable units in targeted areas while helping the city to assess the most effective ways of meeting neighborhood affordable housing goals." In three areas of the city that officials "determined through demographic data to be experiencing gentrification pressures," developers would not be allowed to pay a fee instead of setting aside units for low-income Chicagoans, according to the Mayor's Office.

- The mayor's proposal, though, drew immediate fire from 35th Ward Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, who called it "a joke and a handout to developers." The 35th Ward includes parts of the Hermosa, Logan Square, Avondale, Irving Park and Albany Park neighborhoods. Ramirez-Rosa took issue with the measure's income limits, saying the new qualification — 80 percent of average median income ($50,600 for a two-person household), up from 60 percent of average median income — won't cater to the working-class people in the area who need affordable housing.

The goal of the three-year pilot program is to create another 1,000 affordable housing units, officials said. Those areas are:

• The Milwaukee Corridor, including 9 square miles along Milwaukee Avenue within parts of Logan Square, Avondale and West Town.

• The Near North area, which includes 6 square miles near the North Branch Industrial Corridor

• The Near West area along the CTA Green Line on the Near West Side.

.....

[Antinaz]

Need more middle class housing, not low income.

[C.]

Originally Posted by Antinaz

Need more middle class housing, not low income.

+1

Ugh. This plan is awful and will just encourage slumlords. Too expensive to demolish property for redevelopment and no incentive to reinvest in the property. Want to create more middle class housing? Make it easier and more affordable to build. I swear the anti-gentrifies are stupid. How many times have they protested development only for them to be pushed out of the neighborhood because they're promoting scarcity. If they were smart, they would show up at zoning meetings in other hot areas in town and encourage high density development in those areas so the yuppies will have somewhere to live. Time and time again, they're protests with the same end result. Stupid.

[mhays]

So, make market rate housing more expensive...sounds like a destructive policy.

This is a big reason SF, NY, etc. are so expensive. Adding massive costs to every housing development. It makes not only those buildings more expensive (obviously), but also makes every other rental in town more expensive because the pressure valve (construction) only kicks in at higher price points.

[Pedestrian]

So he wants more housing for lower income people in those neighborhoods where there is already a concentration of low income people. We used to call this "ghettoization". It makes for dangerous virtual "no-go" zones for the middle and wealthier classes but forces the poor to live in them.

Let me know when he requires "affordable" housing in upper income neighborhoods, say on Lakeshore Drive.

[Qubert]

Chicago has whole swaths of the city that are literally emptying out (Lawndale, Austin, Engelwood, etc), I fail to see how "gentrification" is a serious issue city wide. If for anything, some displacement may help to stabilize hurting communities as they receive fresh blood.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by Qubert

Chicago has whole swaths of the city that are literally emptying out (Lawndale, Austin, Engelwood, etc), I fail to see how "gentrification" is a serious issue city wide. If for anything, some displacement may help to stabilize hurting communities as they receive fresh blood.

It's not. It's a ploy by the Hispanic Aldermen of heavily Hispanic wards that are gentrifying to appease their angry constituents. It's a horrible idea, but politics and votes aren't about good ideas.

Even the city's leadership appears to have written off certain parts of the city as unlivable.

The free market will respond to this. I've already laid out in another thread what I think developers will do.