The city of Chicago would invest about $4.5 million into four separate programs that would help lower-income residents in Woodlawn fix up their homes, assist some to become new homeowners and aid others in getting financing to purchase and renovate vacant buildings, officials said.
In addition, the city would require developers that want to build apartment buildings on city-owned vacant land to set aside a specific number of units for residents who earn significantly less than the standard income guidelines.
The proposed legislation is the city’s first attempt to address housing concerns in a community near the site of the proposed Obama Presidential Center, which is slated to be built in Jackson Park. The ordinance aims to promote a mix of neighborhood growth, while attempting to preserve affordable housing, Chicago Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara said.
“The mayor has talked about the fact that when she came into office, she made it a point to sit down with a variety of voices from Woodlawn, South Shore area, and her takeaway was the city really needed to step into a proactive role,” Novara said. “A lot of time has passed … there is some eagerness and impatience to ensure that there’s a framework in place so that people don’t get run over. And we have a history of that in this city, in certain neighborhoods, so it’s a valid concern.”
The draft of the ordinance comes just a couple of weeks after a group of protesters held a sit-in outside Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office demanding a meeting to discuss rising housing costs near the Obama site. The members of the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition wanted to talk with Lightfoot about how the city could implement a so-called CBA ordinance that would guarantee certain protections for residents by creating a rental assistance fund, for example, and forcing developers and rehabbers to set aside 30% of their apartments for low-income renters.
The draft ordinance also is the culmination of dozens of meetings city officials have had with stakeholders, clergy members, community leaders, homeowners and renters who have, at times, clashed over how to manage the transformation of the South Side neighborhoods that surround the area where the Obama center would be built.
The Obama Foundation is in the process of developing the Obama Presidential Center, a sprawling campus with buildings that will house the foundation offices, have meeting spaces for conferences and workshops, a public library branch, and an abundance of indoor and outdoor recreation areas. The center will be home to a museum devoted to telling the story of the first African American president and first lady.
The development is expected to transform the South Side by attracting thousands of tourists, bringing a new wave of residents and businesses that would cater to many visitors.
But it has also revealed just how complicated it is to create an ideal community.
As some celebrate the project for bringing much-needed investment to a neglected community, others have identified affordable housing and displacement as one of their more urgent concerns. They fear the fancy development ultimately will spur an increase in property taxes and rents.
On Monday, officials with the city Department of Housing unveiled a 30-page first draft of their ordinance proposal and presented it to a collective of community stakeholders, officials said.
It is a first draft that can be changed and adjusted based on feedback, Novara emphasized. Still, it offers a glimpse into just how city housing officials are trying to stem displacement and address an anticipated wave of gentrification.
The ordinance is unique in that it attempts to address issues that come with growth before they occur. It leans on reworking programs the city has implemented in other communities.
For example, the city is proposing using about $1 million to establish the Woodlawn Long-Term Homeowner Improvement Grant program, which would allow some residents to apply for funds to fix up their properties. That program is similar to one that was offered to residents who live near The 606.
There’s a provision that would allow tenants in a multiunit building that is being sold to organize and get the first opportunity to buy it — an idea modeled after a law designed to protect single room occupancy buildings.
Private developers constructing housing in Woodlawn are subject to the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance.
But under the proposed ordinance, the city would leverage its vacant lots to force developers that want that land to create some housing for lower-income residents. For example, a developer constructing a building with six to 14 units would have to set aside 10% of the apartments — or basically one to two units — for families that earn less than 80% of the area median income. That’s $64,200 for a family of three or less than $77,050 for a family of five.
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The ordinance tries to address the many concerns raised by residents, Novara said. She acknowledges it could not cover everything. The city doesn’t have the power to freeze property taxes. And the ordinance doesn’t establish a rental assistance fund, which is being pushed by some community groups.
Instead, it would funnel funding to established housing firms that would be tasked with turning renters into owners.
“There is no one voice in Woodlawn,” Novara said. “Rather than sitting in City Hall and somehow deciding what the path should be … we (got) folks talking to each other and coming up with a plan that we feel we can put resources behind, that our Law Department is comfortable with, and that is something that we feel like will achieve the goals we are hearing from people.
“While there are extremely varied views about where this community should be headed, a takeaway … that everyone agreed on is: No one who lives in Woodlawn now should be displaced,” she said.
In the past, 20th Ward Ald. Jeanette Taylor expressed frustration with how city officials were managing the process of drafting legislation to help residents in the community she represents. Taylor wrote her own ordinance last year, but it was placed on hold. As the city’s Department of Housing moved forward with its legislation, Taylor said officials were moving without her input or approval.
But on Monday, she said she was still reviewing the city’s proposal and expressed a more pragmatic tone.
“If my community as a whole is OK with it, then I’m for it,” she said. “I can’t make everybody happy, but I want to make sure we do right by people who have historically been wronged in these processes. We make the mistake of accommodating developers and investors and people who have profited from our pain. I get that this is going to be a process. We haven’t trusted a system that (has) mistreated us, so we have to build trust.”
Linda Tinsley has lived in Woodlawn for 14 years in an apartment where the rent is partially covered by a subsidy. Tinsley is a part of the CBA coalition. As she examined the city’s proposal, she said she worried that it still won’t do enough for the poorest and most vulnerable residents.
“We need to be helping people more. The income limits are so high and most likely at the rate they’ve got … it will more so be helping people with higher incomes,” she said.
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