1, 2, 3 tests.
Test 1, 2, 3. Test.
Good morning. Good morning.
We're, we're about to start in a few minutes.
Good morning. I want to welcome everyone
to the September meeting on the Committee on Housing
and Real Estate of the City of Chicago.
The time is 1109 and the meeting is called to order.
Today we have nine items of the agenda.
I'm gonna start with roll call, uh, to establish quorum.
Uh, vice chair Mitchell, vice Chair Mitchell,
not President Alderman Elam Alder.
President Alderwoman Do.
Alman, do President Alderman Robinson. Now present.
Alderman Quinn. Present Alderman Moore. Present.
Alderman Taylor. Present. Alderwoman Tabes. Present.
Present. Alderwoman Scott. Present. Der person. Fuentes.
Present, um, Al Women.
Rodriguez Sanchez is, uh, chairing the other meeting.
Alderman Casada. Alderman Caza. Alderman Vieques.
Alderman Gue. Present. Al Women Metz. Now present.
Alder Women. Clay. Now President Alder Women
Hackworth Present and other women hadn't, not president.
I think she's still in the other room.
So that give us 12 members present, including myself.
We have quorum. Uh, we have a,
a Rule 59 request from other President Harris
to participate remotely.
Can I get a motion to allow them to participate?
So move by Alderman Casada. All those in favor say aye. Aye.
All those opposed nay in the opinion of the chair.
The ayes have it. Um, we now have al person, uh, Harris,
can you hear us alum?
Yes, I can. Thank you. All right.
You are all good to go. Uh, today we have, uh,
10 public speakers.
Um, each speaker will be given three minutes
to speak on all items of the agenda.
Uh, the first speaker is, uh, uh,
Kat Douglas from the, from South Side Together.
Yeah, the, it, it is in the back.
So if you can make yourself to the back.
Thank you so much. Hi.
This mic. Can you hear me? Okay. There we go.
I had to get closer. Good morning, y'all.
My name is Kat Douglas. Um, I'm a Woodlawn resident.
I'm also a member of Southside. Together.
Um, affordable housing policies in Woodlawn
and South Shore are necessary.
They're really important. We know folks are already being
displaced from the neighborhood
and have had to move out of the city during to, due
to rising cost of living in 2022.
South Shore was number one neighborhood in Chicago
where investors were buying properties.
South Shore is now the number one eviction capital
or the eviction neighborhood, uh, in Chicago,
meaning folks in this situation with unstable housing
and continued rising costs without protections will
only make it worse.
Um, uh, right to return.
So the CBA policies that would provide protection,
they include development on the vacant lots must priorit,
or, um, development on vacant lots, prioritizing leasing
to residents displaced from the area in 2018 for 30 days
after leasing starts, uh,
the city must preference neighborhood developers
to build housing on vacant.
On the vacant lots. Developers must include a plan
for hiring and training local residents.
The commissioner can contract other agencies
to advise tenants about resources, coordinate with tenants
and tenant organizations to do building wide inspections,
provide emergency locations, um, operate a tenant hotline.
Um, we are urging the older people
to vote on the Jackson Park Housing Pilot, um,
Out of committee and into, um, the official vote
to be happening tomorrow.
We, um, myself at Southside together, our organization
as a whole, and the coalitions that we are working
with are urging alders to listen to folks' concern
and address the needs that are happening
for people living in Woodlawn in South Shore,
bypassing the Woodlawn CBA.
Thank you. Next we have a Sharon, um,
Sharon Lewis from, um, also from Meadows East,
east side community.
So it's, um, hello gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen.
So it's Meadows East Side Community Resource Organization.
So I am here on behalf of my community,
and I would like to state that the proposed ordinance, um,
seeks, no, I'm sorry, the,
the community based housing providers offer quality
and critical housing. Yep.
One sec. Can we get either close
to the mic or is there something
Oh, I'm sorry. Can you you hear me better?
Yes, that's better. Thank you.
So the community based housing providers offer quality
and critical housing that supports affordable, lower
and moderate income housing households
with direct public subsidy.
So as, um, a resident
of South Shore since 1968, I think
that it's really important also as a property owner for
the committee to realize that those of us
who have small properties will be harmfully affected
by what's going on with this ordinance.
The fact that we were only given all
of the updates on this ordinance yesterday to come in
to address it means that there is something woefully wrong
with the way the system is working, that the communities
and the people who live in the community don't have an
opportunity to review
or address the alder persons who are presenting this alder,
this, um, ordinance.
So, in short, I would also like
to say we respectfully ask the housing committee to delay,
delay today's vote on the ordinance,
giving community members and residents
and businesses the opportunity to review,
to amend the language,
to exclude city owned parcels on designated
commercial corridors.
Um, example being 71st Street, Stony Island,
and prioritize these parcels for market rate
and mis mixed income development while continuing
affordability requirements on res res
residential side streets.
I'd also like to say that
we are not the eviction capital
in our 77 communities.
What we are dealing with is a level of blight
that was never seen.
I moved into my current residence in 1974.
It was a beautiful community,
and then we were overwhelmed with
a different type of resident and housing.
And now what we are looking at is a community
that we would've never thought existed
unless it was apocalyptic.
So please give consideration to the fact
that this ordinance, to respect the community members should
be looked at again by the community members and it
Thank you.
Next we have John Wlo, WLO KLO Whiskey.
There we go. Thank you, John.
Yes. One second until we, we get the mic.
There we go. Mm-hmm. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Uh,
A little bit closer to the mic so that we can Morning.
Ev how about this morning? My name is John Kozlowski.
I'm from the Chicagoland Apartment Association.
Our members provide over 300,000 apartment homes across
the Chicagoland area.
The Jackson Park Housing Pilot Ordinance contains highly
concerning and hazardous housing policy
that risks deterring needed housing investment,
exacerbating our housing affordability crisis,
and harming the very tenants it is meant to serve.
Some of these policies are not contained
to a specific geographic area, but impact the entire city.
This proposal is being pushed through with little
or no input from the people who actually provide the housing
for the working people of the city.
It has not been subject to this scrutiny that a proposal
of this magnitude deserves.
We are requesting that you oppose this ordinance
and focus on the important work
of creating more housing instead of deterring it.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Next, um,
Sean Brown.
Yeah. LaShon Brown.
LaShon Brown from SSA number 42.
Good morning and think, can you hear me okay? Yep.
Thank you. Thank you for this opportunity.
I am also a resident of South Shore
and a housing advocate, real estate broker,
and I do manage the special service area number 42 on 71st
Street and Stony Island Avenues where we have been, um,
working tirelessly to
address the blight of the commercial corridor.
Uh, first and foremost, we value the city's commitment
to affordable housing and displacement prevention.
However, this ordinance, as it's written as particularly
with this application to the commercial corridors, has a,
will have a devastating impact on catalytic work
and investment already in motion.
We already know that South Shore has a very high poverty
rate, about 30% low
and declining home ownership, which is only 25% compared
to 46% in the city of Chicago.
And that's even more critical when we look at our many
millennials who are at a 25, 30 2%
home ownership rate versus
65% home ownership rate in the United States for black
and brown millennials.
And what this looks like is
that the highest?
Um, and of course, we have the highest housing choice
voucher concentration in the city of Chicago.
By almost 18% of the renters,
adding more deeply low income units to our commercial
corridors will concentrate poverty, deter investment,
and undermine the very stability
that this ordinance seeks to achieve.
I come from a low income household, I've worked my way
through, and as a homeowner, we should not be shut out.
Requi. This reduces the housing balance
by requiring primarily low income housing
that discourages market rate
and mixed unit incomes that will attract working families,
diversify income levels, and stabilize South Shore.
This would be a barrier to business attraction.
Strong commercial corridors require customers
with purchasing power.
This would undermine efforts to recruit, recruit quality,
retail and services.
Developers will avoid corridor parcels
where returns are capped
by affordability mandates prolonging band vacancies,
and missed reinvestment.
It will also block natural market forces.
Market demand should be harnessed,
not stifled along 71st Street and Stony Island.
South Shore has so much to gain
and so much to lose this ordinance without amendment
or allowing the community members to see it and discuss it
and amend it, it risk undermining the catalytic
investments already underway.
A balanced approach, protecting affordability on side
streets while fo fostering mixed income market driven growth
on corridors is the only way to ensure 71st Street
and Stony Island becomes the thriving community as
it's always meant to be. Thank you.
Thank you. Next we have Christian aam. Christian Ara.
Um, hello, my name's Christian Ephraim.
Um, I'm a resident of, uh, I'm a member
of Southside together, and I'm here
with my fellow community members from Woodlawn
and South Shore to Urge Council to, uh, approve
for Woodlawn at the South Shore Housing Opportunity
Ordinance Through committee today.
Um, south Shore and Woodlawn residents have been fighting
for housing protection since 2015.
And an ord, a version of its ordinance,
was introduced back in 2023 across the several precincts in
the fifth, seventh, and eighth wards.
South Shore and Woodlawn residents have overwhelmingly voted
in support of housing protections in the neighborhood.
And in the time that they've waited for them,
the rents have con continued to rise
and people have been forced to move out
of a neighborhood doing due to rising rents.
I I've known several homeowners retirees who have had
to come out of retirement to work in order to keep up
with their rising property taxes.
Um, fancy buildings
and new development is of no use
to community members if they're having to spend seven,
seven days a week working just to scrape by
so that they can live here.
Or if folks are like pushed out of a neighborhood entirely.
But people living in these neighborhoods is
what makes some what they are.
Not fancy buildings, not new developments, but people.
And if the people can't fry there, survive there
and afford to live there, that means nothing.
Folks in South Shore
and Woodlawn need more affordable housing,
more affordable housing in a predominantly low-income income
neighborhood is what's going to keep people there.
We need an office of tenant advocate.
So tenants living in tenants paying an arm
and a leg to live in rundown buildings owned by slumlords
or whatever, don't have to just keep paying and paying
and paying for people who are mistreating them.
They need more city resources so that they know somebody is
by their side and the city will provide support
to these people, and we need a right of return.
So the folks who have been pushed out
of this neighborhood over the past 10 years can come back,
can live here, and can thrive
and benefit from all of its development
that's coming to the neighborhood.
Um, thank you.
Thank you. Next we have, uh,
Jonathan Scott from South Shore
Community Development Corporation.
Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes, sir.
Okay. Hello everyone. My name is Jonathan Trey Scott.
I serve as the Director of Real Estate Development
for the South Shore Chamber of Commerce.
I would first like to say that we're not against the CBA,
we are against our large catalytic development sites along
71st Street and Stony Island being placed into this
housing pilot audience.
'cause one of the issues is that we have to deal with facts.
South Shore holds the most voucher holders within the whole
city of Chicago, but we do not have the resources attached.
When after the plan of transformation happened, a lot
of these individuals, they were directed
to live in South Shore.
And we talk about affordable housing being built.
'cause the alderman said, where they gonna live.
We have acres
and acres of vacant land along the Straight Sea State Street
corridor that was supposed to be used
for housing development.
It's been used for a tenant center.
It's been used for a Chicago fire site.
And that what that should be, what the fight is.
We have business owners
that have basically put their hard earned money in
to renovate in the corridor.
And we need to be able to attract a higher income
to our community so we can have that diversities of income.
We have been working with Department of Planning,
we have been working with N-H-S-N-N-A community members
on community led plans.
We have a active quality of life plan.
We have a study that was paid by the SSA 42
where we had Perkins
and Will, where we did a 71st street, um, housing, uh,
whole study along 71st Street.
We have a market analysis done by SB Freeman,
and we also, uh, in process of negotiating with HR
and ada, understand where to put the housing at,
at which a MI within the community,
we have had community layer efforts.
The Alderman Yancy has been at the table
until we had this audience presented to us.
This audience came to us on a Monday.
And so we have been looked at him
as a collaborative partner.
And we are not pro, we are not against the CBA,
but we wanna bring all the voices to the table
so we can make a policy that works for everyone
because the business owners were not considered,
the property owners were not considered.
And this has been pushed through
and jammed through and forced on us.
And we don't want to seem like the bad guy
because we understand with the displacement.
We have a community investment vehicle that is designed
to be a community led effort
where we purchase the properties on the commercial corridors
and it's community owned.
We have our first community owned property at 1735 East 71st
Street, where we are actively fighting
against gentrification.
And so that's something where we want
to take account of that.
We have these community layer efforts
where everyone has been involved,
and we would like this to be a community layer effort
where we can bring all the voices to the table
and we can work in there because these are our neighbors.
These are, these are families, these are our friends.
We don't want anybody displaced.
We're the last Black Lake Frank community
and we're fighting like hell to keep it that way.
Thank you. Now, now, um, Diane Hodges.
Diane from the Chamber of Commerce.
Good morning. I am a
50 year resident of South Shore.
I am a board member on Genesis Cooperative,
which was established in the 1980s.
I run a garden on 70th
and Merrill, which was a murder block for over 40 years.
And I have worked to help transform that block.
Um, in 2022, Lori Lightfoot
allocated money for condos and cooperatives,
and it was supposed to be $5 million a year
to help these particular properties
that had become very vulnerable.
The money stopped coming two years ago.
So I am asking that they return that money so
that the condos
and cooperatives in South Shore can continue to thrive
and be able to do the major repairs that they,
that they need to do.
I'm also asking and requesting
that you hold back on taking this to the council
because we,
as people in South Shore have not had the opportunity
to really evaluate it.
I am a researcher with University of Chicago,
with the Urban Health Lab
and the study that has been done on Washington Park,
Woodlawn and South Shore, we are all different entities.
And so we breathe and we think differently.
And so when you put us all together in one box,
it is not fair.
It's unjust because we're different.
And so what we're asking today is
that you hold back on moving this through
and allow us to sit down
and create some type of homeostasis in figuring out
what will be best for all of us.
Thank you. I would like to recognize Ali Manhattan
and Ali Mitz for, uh, purposes of the quorum.
Um, next we have Sahar
Panami Sahar.
Thank you.
Hi, my name's uh, Brent. Brent Bradford.
I'm, uh, so I'm a resident of South Shore.
I'm a member of the South side.
Together, I'm here to speak in favor
of the South Shore Housing Opportunity Ordinance.
This or ordinance is a way for residents of South Shore
and Woodlawn to be protected as the cost of housing go up.
Due to the Obama Center in March of this year, 30 buildings,
primarily in Woodlawn
and South Shore, joins together to form the CKO tenants.
Union tenants were dealing with dangerous living conditions,
including sewage coming out
of a woman's toilet three times a day.
For two years, the landlord did not do anything.
She had tried to contact the city and the landlord,
but there were no response, no support.
Eventually, she got into contact with Alderman Yancy
and the tenant's union and us.
We were able to come out and get her out of a union.
If the South Shore Housing Opportunity orders existed at
that time, that tenant would've been able to call the office
of the tenant advocacy emergency hotline
and been moved out of that situation more quickly.
Moreover, the office
of the tenant advocate could have allowed her to call
for a building wide inspection, ensuring
that her pipes were up to date.
This is just one of many examples of
how the ordinance could change the lives
and help residents in the South Shore area.
For my own grandfather lives in a unit
that received 40 million grant
and has still dealing with issues of,
and he's a homeowner dealing with issues
as far as leaking pipes.
There's a hole in his ceiling from old pipes and sewage,
and there's like metal grating in the corner from it.
This happens every year. He's had
to put more money in his own pockets against his own home.
People aren't being taken care of
and there isn't enough accountability from home, from,
from the people who own these homes.
And there's nothing to really be,
to take care of these folks.
And I'll link my time. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Next we have Val free from the
Neighborhood Network Alliance.
Hi, um, I am val free from the
Neighborhood Network Alliance.
And just to give you a little background real quick,
we've been working on opposing this ordinance, uh,
certain things in this ordinance for a while.
We are not against a CBA,
but we are, we are for what works for South Shore.
Woodlawn and South Shore are not the same neighborhood.
You cannot put them in the same package
and say, this works for all a few things
that we wanted to point out.
Uh, we pulled together a crew, a crew
of neighborhood residents to make recommendation
for the current ordinance.
We pulled together, um, people like Anthony Simkins,
Calvin Holmes, Linda Green, to make recommendations
that have been ignored.
But what we would like to do is just to today,
just kinda give you some
of the things some people have already spoken on.
But we would like to conduct a study to understand rents
and home own and home values affordable for to everyone.
And, and especially every income demographic of South Shore,
low to very low, middle, and upper.
We would like to reevaluate the feasibility
of its current allocations of development
and funds for deeply affordability affordable units.
At least 80% of the vacant residential zone, city owned
lots should be reserved for affordable housing.
Our recommendation is in 2022,
the overall home ownership rate for black homeowners is
39% for the city.
And it's le it is 22% for South Shore.
This is the we need to
refocus our mon our attention on home ownership
and wealth building.
Uh, we would like to remove the, our,
the A OR in lieu of the DE development.
And we would like our a, we would like our m our ROI
to be at least 60%.
So if someone decides that they want
to buy a home, they can afford it.
We also would like to say that
South Shore ranks number one in terms
of section eight voucher holders.
Number one, in terms of scatter sites residents,
we have 12 project based section eight developments.
We also have the highest number of migrants.
But here's the thing, there are 77 neighborhoods in the city
of Chicago, and we shouldn't be number one
to add more to that.
When we can spread this, we can spread.
We, there are other neighborhoods that can help
with the most vulnerable people in our, in our city.
What we need is funding
and resources to help the people who are already here.
Not more of that with no help.
When CHA decided to impact South Shore with
holders, we didn't get the resources.
So what are we looking at?
Thank you. Uh, well, I like
to recognize all the woman Angela Clay for the quorum next.
And the last speaker is Kiara Harding from the south sho
from South Side together.
Hi, everyone. Happy. What's today? Wednesday?
Happy Wednesday. My name is Kiara.
I'm a proud member of the South Shore CBA coalition.
I am really hopeful that we have the ability
to pass the Jackson Park Housing Ordinance today.
This ordinance and campaign has been happening
for over 10 years,
and we have done several referendums,
allowing community members to showcase their want
and desires through the democracy process, um,
in this ordinance to not be delayed.
Myself and many other people like me have been displaced
from South Shore and would like to come back to South Shore,
um, in many different ways.
I am really, I am really interested
and hopeful that we can make this happen.
In addition to obtaining
and maintaining the affordability of the community,
we really ha we really need the right to return.
We really need things for renters.
As many people have said, Southshore is, it's 77% renters.
Um, I've been a renter for most of my life,
moving every two years trying to find affordability.
We need affordable, affordable housing
to be developed on vacant lots, given
that we have identified evictions.
Let's talk about median income.
The median income in South Shore is $37,280.
The current residents are, are rent
and mortgage burden, meaning
that they are spending more than 30%
of their income on housing.
We aim to create a housing ordinance that people
who currently live in the neighborhood can afford.
We deserve development.
Yes, we deserve the experience, the benefit
of those developments.
I have been a homeowner for the last three years,
and I tried to purchase a home in South Shore.
I had $150,000 and I was priced out.
I think wholeheartedly that this piece
of policy will allow myself
and others to return to South Shore, to exceed,
to do the exact opposite.
That the people who are here to oppose it are saying,
I am in the audience.
I'm just like flabbergasted
because I cannot currently live in South Shore.
And people who are saying that they are doing development
work for residents of South Shore,
like are literally making people move out.
They are displacing people.
Like are you are like, as a participant
of the South Shore list quality of life plan.
I can say that this ordinance is the most holistic thing
that I have ever experienced, that I have.
Let me come down. I'm getting a little bitrate.
It, it tries to reach the audiences between renters,
homeowners, condo owners, and small property owners.
We are hopeful that we can get this passed
and so that we can like really, really get to the heart
of like, making South Shore
and all of the surrounding com communities better.
Thank you very much. The committee also received six
written public comments, all
concerning items six on the agenda.
Written comments were emailed
and including your packets today.
Thank you everybody for coming and joining us.
That concludes our public comment.
Uh, our first order
of business is the Rule 45 report from July 9th, 2025,
which was also emailed and handed out to committee members.
Can I get a motion to recommend approval of this report?
So move duit. All those in say aye.
All those oppose a name in the opinion of the chair.
The ayes have it. The Rule 45 report has been approved at
the request of the local, um, older person.
We will be holding item number six on the
agenda until further notice.
That was item by DU Manhattan.
Now we'll move on the items before the committee.
The first three items are from the Department of Housing.
Item one is Ordinance 20 25 0 0 18. 2 2 3.
Redevelopment agreement for sale of properties
to citizens Building a better community, LLC under city lots
for working Families program to construction
of single family homes at
6 0 1 6 27 29, 6 31, 6 33, 6 35, 6 26 22, 6 24,
and 6 26 E East 40 46th Street
and 45, 31, 45 53
and 48 33 South Evans Avenue, including modification
of program requirements
and reduction of waiver of certain fees in the third
and the fourth wards, Brian O'Donnell from the Department
of Housing is here to testify on behalf of this ordinance.
Thank you, Brian.
Thank you. And good
or good Morning, uh, chairman Citro Lopez
and committee members for the record.
My name is Brian O'Donnell,
representing the Home Ownership Bureau
of the Department of Housing.
Present today is, uh, Melvin Bailey, uh, one
of the two principles of citizens for building a better
Citizens, building a better community.
And Alder Dowell is here.
Uh, alderman Robinson is not, but has
provided a letter of support.
We are here to request approval for the sale
of 12 parcels in order to facilitate a city LA for working
families development in wards three and four.
Next slide.
There. It's, these are the 12 parcels that will be sold
to the developers for the development of 15 homes.
And total, the lots of evaluation
of approximately $1.23 million.
The 15 homes are all expected to be two flat homes.
So 30 dwelling units will, will, will be created
with the sale of these lots.
The estimated, and this is a very loosey goosey, uh,
the estimated maximum sale price for, uh, two unit dwelling
with a three bedroom owner unit would be about $713,000.
That was when I did this, uh, which was
for the presentation.
It would've been in, um, June.
So this is finalized when, um,
we execute the redevelopment agreement.
And if you want me to explain how we got there, I'll,
I'll do that during the question period.
Next, please. Here's a map
of the lots under consideration today.
The lots are those with the green dots.
They're between Evans and St.
Lawrence Avenues from east to west and between 44th
and 49th Street.
Although there's just one not south of 46th Street.
One. One second. One second. Brian?
Yes. Yeah, can, can we take a second so we can maybe
get someone from, from the tech room to help us so
that we can see the, the screens?
Yeah, because it
Sure.
No, it is, is the screen
that blurry, um, on the monitors is?
Yeah, I think we can do,
we can take a brief re a brief recess.
We'll, we can, I think we can email you
and you don't have, yeah, yeah.
So maybe, yeah, because some members don't have a monitor,
so maybe we just, we can email you also the presentation.
Um,
yeah, sure.
Mm-hmm. You you wanna I will email
them as soon as I get upstairs.
Yeah. Yes.
Can yes, can we, Brian, can we,
because are you doing the next item too, right, Brian?
Or No? I don't believe Eric is in the next one.
Um, can we take a brief, brief, brief recess
so we can get copies to the members?
Is that, is that okay? Okay. Let's take a brief recess.
That way you can see it. Is that okay? Yeah.
Yeah. That be the attorney. Oh. Oh, he's the attorney.
That may be, but I don't know.
In the, the, yes.
Um, let's take a brief recess
and then we, we can figure out
with copies or we move the room.
Okay. We're gonna take a a few minutes
to figure out the tech, the tech on this.
One sec.
Um, can I get a few minutes of your attention?
We are going to be moving to the main chambers.
We were able to get the live stream
to be working on the other room.
'cause a little hot over here
and there's a little, um, a little crowded.
So we are gonna, we're able to move the live stream.
So we are gonna be moving to the, to the chamber
so we can make our way to the main chambers.
We're gonna, we're gonna relocate the,
the meeting on housing real estate.
Thank you.
Let me grab, have to grab his stuff.
How are,
are you gonna stay here?
No, I'm going. I'm just waiting for
She surely was not.
I saw Bishop. He up like
Mic check. One two.
Mic check. Three four. Mic. Checking the mic.
Mic one, mic two.
Mic three Mic check over.
Okay.
Thank you. The, the meeting on housing
and real estate will be resume.
Thank you very much for, um, for your patience.
Now we're resuming. You have been receiving a notice
of the change of rooms from 2 0 1 a to the main chambers.
And also you have should have received a copy
of the presentation and will be displayed as well.
Um, now we're gonna resume with item number one.
Uh, Brian O'Donnell, uh,
will resume his pre his presentation.
He was on item number one on
your agenda. Thank you very much.
Do you want me to start from the beginning? Yes.
So just so that, thank you.
All right. Good afternoon, uh, chairman Ccho Lopez,
vice Chair Mitchell Committee members for the record.
My name is Brian O'Donnell,
representing the Home Ownership Bureau
of the Department of Housing.
Present today, too is Mike, uh, Melvin Bailey
of Citizens Building a better Community.
He's in the gallery and Alderman Dowell is here.
The, the third ward where I heard a request approval
for the sale of 12 parcels in order
to facilitate a city lots
for working families development in Bronzeville in
Wards three and four.
These are the 12 parcels that will be sold to the developers
for the development of 15 homes.
In total, the lots have evaluation
of approximately $1.23 million.
The 15 homes are expected to be two flat homes.
So 30 dwelling units will be created
with the sale of these lots.
So if you could ignore this slide
and look at the sheet that I gave you.
'cause I had made a mistake on the pricing sheet.
It wasn't a, doesn't affect the price usually,
but it does affect the price.
As you know, I work usually where there's u usually not much
of a market, but Bronzeville,
a single family home market price is at least 800,000.
Um, which means the,
and the affordable two bedroom, uh, two unit price
with a three bedroom owner unit
and a two bedroom rental would be $695,000 roughly.
Here's a map of the lots under consideration today.
The lots are those with the green dots.
The lots are between Evans and St.
Lawrence Avenues from east to west and between 44th
and 49th Street, there is just one lot south of 46th Street.
Here are the typical floor plans for the proposed homes.
The first and second floors would be a three bedroom owner's
duplex with a two bedroom rental and the lower level unit.
The next first slides, which I'll present rather quickly,
are the elevations for the parcels
under consideration today.
First up is 6 0 1 to 6 0 3 East 45th Street,
which will be the site of two homes
down the block a bit will be four homes on lots from 6 29
to 6 35 East 45th Street,
six 20 to 6 26 East 46th Street will be the site
of three homes, 45 31
South Evans will be the site of one home,
45 53 South Evans will be also be the site of three homes.
And 48 33 South Evans will get two homes.
This concludes the presentation I request
for a favorable consideration of the proposed ordinance.
And, uh, Melvin and I are happy to answer any questions.
Thank you. Are there any questions?
I know we have a, a letter of support from Alman Dowell
and Alman Robinson.
Are there any questions from committee members? Wo Taylor.
Thank you, chairman. Can you go back to two slides
with the pricing on it?
With the what? The one that's,
Oh, that, okay.
Yep. The homes are
2, 3, 4, 5, and six.
You got a price where it says develop market price.
So yeah, but if I gave you a handout, which as, as I said,
usually when I'm working, I'm working where these,
like the house we develop would be setting the market.
That's not the case here.
So I just made a mistake
and put 500,000 as their market price instead
of about 800,000,
which would be the price. But that only forces
That for just the three bedroom or is it
Bedroom? Single family.
So, okay.
Uh, if you look at the sheet, I'll walk you through
how we calculate it.
So the, the 2 51, the estimated affordable price would be
for a single family home, a three bedroom,
single family home, the fair market rent
and zip code 6 0 6 5 3 is $1,220.
We give credit for 75% of that,
which would be $915.
Uh, we add that to, um, the maximum mortgage payments
and then back into, uh, what the price would be,
which in this case would be about $695,000.
Is that based on the ward as a whole
or that particular?
So the, the price, the, so the,
the rental prices are based on fair market rents,
which are done by zip code.
So every, every time we,
or we would present it too flat, depending on where it was,
uh, the rental income would be different.
Although I think every, they're all over a thousand
dollars for a two bedroom
Seem affordable, but, okay. Thank you Joe.
Yeah, but it's a two flat.
So the, the, the buyer would
be getting $915,000 or $915 in rental income.
At least that's what we're crediting them for.
And that keeps, that keeps it affordable
to the person buying it at 120% a MI.
Thank you. Any other questions?
Otherwise, can I have moved to pass?
Moved to pass by Alderman Mitchell.
All those in favor say aye.
All those opposed na
and depending of the chair, the ayes have it.
The due pass recommendation
of this item will be reported out the next city council
meeting on September 25th, 2025.
Item number two. Thank you. Thank you ran.
Item number two is ordinance 20 25 0 0 18 8 5.
Sale of city owned renovated motel at 52 30
North Lincoln Avenue.
Former Diplomat Motel
to Cornerstone Community Outreach under Department
of Housing non-con congregate shelter
and acquisition program to operate
and manage as a non congregate shelter to be known
as the Haven on Lincoln in the 40th ward.
Meredith Mu, uh, Muir from the Department of Housing is here
to testify on behalf of this ordinance.
Good afternoon. Uh, for the record, uh,
Meredith Muir from the Department of Housing.
I'm here to present on the land disposition proposed
for the Haven on Lincoln.
The site in question is at 52 30 North Lincoln Avenue
in the 40th ward under Alderman Vasquez.
And the requested action today is, uh,
to authorize the Department of Housing
to enter into a purchase
and sale agreement to authorize the sale
of 52 30 North Lincoln, known as the Haven on Lincoln
upon rehabilitation completion.
A bit of background here.
Um, so initially the Department of Housing
and the Department of Public Health coordinated together
to plan to acquire
and rehabilitate the property in question, uh,
utilizing DOH funding
and, uh, TIF funding in order for the building to serve
as a pilot program through the CDPH, um, model
that was seeking to serve people experiencing homelessness
with a variety of wraparound services
and healthcare provisions.
However, changes in funding through the department of uh,
public health has, uh, made it no longer prudent for CDPH
to fund the operating model.
Originally conceived d h's funding for construction has, um,
been in process and construction is underway
to adaptively reuse the building, uh, for on, uh, non-con
for motel style units with one and two bed units.
In the on property.
There are onsite supportive services spaces, uh, space
for clinical care case management, community space,
and green space, uh, in the current, uh, south parking lot.
The construction is intended to be completed in Q1 of 2026.
Since the program model with CDPH was determined untenable
to proceed, C-D-P-H-D-O-H-D-F-S-S, the mayor's office
and the 40th ward coordinated to,
to determine the best next use of the property.
And we worked to determine that it should serve as a site
through do H'S non congregate shelter acquisition program
with a grantee finalist who had yet to find a site
for acquisition, which is Cornerstone Community Outreach.
They're an existing and longstanding shelter operator
and a selected grantee through the program.
So upon completion of the rehab of the site,
the building will be donated, uh, to Cornerstone,
who will operate the building under a substantially similar
model to the previously planned pilot.
A bit of context, this is the, the neighborhood, uh, context
for the site in question.
Uh, just north of, I believe it's Foster.
Yes, just north, north of Foster on Lincoln.
The previous conditions of the building was a,
an existing motel, two story motel
with two outdoor, uh, parking spaces.
Um, the, the building was built in the fifties and sixties
and has had several, uh, rehabs over the course of its life.
The proposed, uh, renderings, show updates to the building.
Um, the units are all being substantially renovated.
Um, and the outdoor space in the south,
which was a parking lot, is being turned into exterior green
space for the residents of the property.
The north is being maintained as parking for staff, um,
and others on site.
So proposed timeline, just, um, there's been lots
of work done to date, but, uh, as long
as there is city council approval this month, then we intend
for construction to completion to take place
by March of next year.
We intend to align the land sale with
that substantial completion of construction in March
for then the program to be an implementation, uh,
upon construction completion
and, um, cornerstone's ownership of the building.
The benefits here is, um,
rehabilitating an underutilized building, establishing, um,
a 40 plus bed program that provides housing
and services to residents experiencing homelessness.
And it best aligns with sort of the original program intent,
um, and meets the parallel program investment need
through do H'S non-con shelter acquisition program.
So again, the request ac, uh, action is allowing DH
to enter into a purchase
and sale agreement to authorize the sale
of the property upon rehabilitation completion.
I am happy to answer any questions.
Thank you. There. Any questions? By committee members?
Alman Taylor,
How much was the building?
The ac the original acquisition? Yeah, how
Much are we purchasing For the purchase acquisition
that the city, um, went through was for 2.9 million
For two just to purchase the building.
No,
That's correct.
So we paid 4.2 million about this building.
How much is it? Go ahead.
We paid 2.9 million to per the
Building. 2.9 Yeah.
For a building.
And this is for a shelter
and not permanent housing?
That's correct. This is, uh, under this model will be part
of the non congregate shelter acquisition program.
We have five grantees through
that program spread across the city who have been working
with the Department of Housing to acquire
and rehab buildings to serve as non congregate shelter,
which is an improved model
and a proven model that helps to improve health outcomes,
housing outcomes, and connection
to supportive services outcomes for people
who are experiencing homelessness with the goal
of supporting their transition to permanent housing. How
Many shelters around this area?
In this area In in ward?
I don't have an answer to that,
but I can get that to you through the chair. Okay,
Thank you. Chairman. Thank go.
Uh, Taylor, follow by Aluminum Manhattan,
Uh, community Cornerstone Community Outreach.
Uh, that's who we're selling it to? That's correct.
They are a current delegate agency of the Department
of Family and Support Services.
That's correct. Are they funded with opera funds
For their shelter operations?
Yes. I don't know the answer to that.
I believe DFSS funds their shelters
through a variety of funding sources.
I don't believe ARPA is one of those sources, but
I can I get that information through the chair?
Yep. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you Manhattan.
Thank you Chair. Um, uh, for, um, I just wanted
to say very supportive of this project,
but also, um, just for some of my colleagues.
I know we haven't had programs like this a lot,
but we were able to open, um, a men's shelter, um,
using this same program, working with DOH.
So we were able to purchase a building
that had been vacant in my ward for more than 10 years.
It was an old health clinic
and turn it into a non congregate shelter, working
with an existing, um, uh, shelter provider.
So in a very similar model, um, doing
so created 72 beds for, for single men, um,
which was a huge need, especially on the north side.
So one of, one of the struggles that we've had in working
with our, our population of folks experiencing homelessness,
um, some of our people that are hardest to house, a lot
of them are single men.
A lot of them are single black men.
Um, and they, they're from the north side.
They live on the north side.
Like in my community, they live in Rogers Park.
And one of our challenges to housing people was that so much
of the shelter space that was available, one was congregate,
but two was like on the west side or the south side.
Um, so one, this takes up space for people
who might be looking for shelter on the west side
or the south side, but also, you know, not everybody who is,
uh, homeless and living outside is also not employed.
So people would be like, Hey, my job's up here, right?
Or, Hey, my family's up here.
And so it has been as, as I think a lot
of my colleagues here are gonna know from having more
experience even than me.
A lot of Northside communities have not been willing
to take shelters north, right?
Northside Alderman in the past had not been
willing to take shelters.
Northside neighbors had not been willing to take shelters.
And as a matter of fact, both this shelter provider
and the one Northside Housing that, uh,
operates the men's shelter in my ward had been displaced
from other Northside communities because of gentrification.
Somebody else bought their building and displaced their
shelter services, right?
So like Northside Housing, um, support services, they had
to operate out of a motel in my ward during the pandemic,
because they were displaced out
of uptown, out of Angela's ward.
Somebody owned their building was
like, this is more valuable.
We're gonna, you know, sell this, redevelop it.
So we're putting all these homeless people out,
we're displacing this, this organization.
And they begged and pleaded
and they went around to everybody on the north side.
'cause it's like their residents are north side residents
just because they don't have a permanent supportive housing
situation or their own home, but their north side.
And so without the shelter,
people are gonna stay on the street.
So, um, I've been really happy to be part of a,
a new group of older people on the north side with some
of my colleagues here in committee, um, clay
and Vasquez, who understand
that it is the north side's responsibility as well
to have shelters and to have services and to house it.
The other thing this program does is like Northside, um,
housing and support services in my ward.
They started out in Lakeview 40 years ago.
They got displaced from Lakeview, they got to uptown,
they were there for 20 years,
they got displaced from uptown,
and now they're in Rogers Park,
but they don't have to be displaced from Rogers Park
because the city bought their building and helped them.
They did a ton of fundraising on their own too, right?
Like, and help them, um, with the fundraising,
with the support, with the construction.
And now they own that building.
Nobody's gonna displace their organization from Rogers Park.
They get to stay there. And Cornerstone has a,
a great reputation as well in the uptown community.
And so with the 40th ward, they're keeping that proximity
and reusing spaces.
Um, but it's a, it was a travesty
to see an organization supporting people experiencing
homelessness be made, homeless and displaced.
So I just wanted to wholeheartedly say,
this has been a great program
and a huge advancement for the city to work
with proven operators, right?
This isn't just like organizations that come out of nowhere,
but to work with proven operators with good track records,
um, to help them help some of the people
that the city isn't helping.
So, thank you, chair.
Thank you, Al with
Thank you so much, chair.
I, I'll second a lot of what older women hadn't said.
I, I know what that hostility among residents can feel like.
I'll also say like, I have, uh,
well, it was a long ago history.
I have a history with Cornerstone Community Outreach.
I actually volunteered there
for three years when I was in college, um, part
of their like Friday night volunteer program.
Long time ago in the ward. I was much younger.
But if they're at all true to the same mission that they had
20 years ago in my life,
I think there'll be an exemplary operator for this space.
I had one question because you, you did say that the,
the operations as proposed differ from
how it was originally conceived.
Can you elaborate on that just a little bit, Meredith?
Sure. Yeah, of course. So the original conception
slightly further integrated, um, the goal of serving people
who are high zers across a variety of systems.
And so not just drawing from the existing, uh, group of, uh,
like in incoming calls that come to 3 1 1 for shelter,
but also sourcing folks who are coming from, whether it's,
um, emergency rooms, behavioral health,
emergency behavioral health rooms, um, jail or prison
and other sort of emergency systems
where folks have been proven to sort
of cycle across those systems.
And so the goal had been, um, the,
the pilot had integrated a little bit more, uh,
direct health healthcare provisions on site, um,
than the traditional shelter system offers.
But I will say Cornerstone Community Outreach's goal in this
space, um, is
to not only provide traditional healthcare services,
but also to bring medical respite care,
which is an integration
that moves the shelter system more towards those healthcare
provisions on site.
And so, though we are disappointed
that the CDPH pilot can't happen onsite in this building,
we think that this is a, a really close fit.
Um, and we'll just connect a little bit more
with the traditional shelter system, though many
of the same populations that you see cycling
through systems are coming through the
homeless shelter system as well.
Got it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Chairman Allworth.
Thank you. Thank you, chairman.
I just wanted to voice my support
for this endeavor.
I represent Edgewater, which is between Alder Hadden
and Alder Vasquez Ward.
And as you know, along the lakefront, we have,
we have a growing population of people
who are living in tents, who we have been in touch with,
along with DFSS and,
and all the other departments who are trying to keep all
of our neighbors safe to try
to move them from those encampments into something better.
Um, and so they, there it takes a long time.
We have to build the trust
and we have to help them understand
that there's something better than
what they're, they're living in today.
And it could be shelter, um, and it could be this model.
I, I was glad to have visited the, uh, Northside Housing,
um, men's non congregate shelter, which is was, um, they,
they were very proud of the trauma-informed design
that they, um, that they were able to,
to produce together with the community.
Um, and I was able to, to speak to many of the staff,
I was very impressed with, with, um, the holistic approach
to making sure that, um, everyone gets what they need.
And, and also it's, it's a step towards, um,
a more dignified life.
Um, in addition to the tents, we have, um, several SROs
that are under, um, receivership
or going to be under receivership right now,
and very worried about what happens to those folks
if they have to vacate those buildings.
And, and we don't need more people living on our,
on our CTA redline, um, right now.
We need, we need to get people into
to better housing situations with supportive
services as much as possible.
So while, while it's not exactly what you had hoped
for in the beginning, I'm glad to know
that you're also gonna provide those, those supports.
So, um, thank you for your work
and thanks for this presentation.
Thank you. Older women. Just to, to,
to follow up on your point.
When we started this program, the non-con shelter program,
we, uh, worked to, um, meet with people
who experiencing homelessness,
both people staying in shelters
and people staying unsheltered.
And a data point we heard over
and over was that many people who choose
to stay unsheltered make that choice
because of prior experiences they've had in,
in congregate settings where they have no privacy,
where they have no place to keep their belongings, um,
being poor and therefore not wanting to go back to shelter.
And so this non congregate model gives people
that private space, a place to keep their things.
And, um, we, we think has,
has shown better uptake from people who've been staying un
sheltered into shelter.
Thank you. Are there any questions otherwise?
So, uh, uh, so move by all the women, uh, Angela Clay,
all those in favor say aye.
Aye. Those opposed nay in the
opinion of the chair, the ayes have it.
The due pass recommendation
of this ordinance will be reported out at the next City
Council meeting on September 25th, 2025.
I also like to recognize Alderman Yancy, Alman Coleman
and Alderman Hall, alderman Hall
and Alman Irving as known members.
Um, also we have a request by Alderman Robinson.
He had to leave the chambers.
Uh, he's, uh, requested Rule 59.
Can I have a motion to allow Alderman Robinson to move?
So move by Alderman Casara. All those in favor say aye.
All those opposed na in the
opinion of the chair, the ayes have it.
Alderman Robinson has now joined us via remote means.
Um, next we have item number three,
ordinance 20 25 8 7 amendment
of municipal code sections two dash four four dash zero
eight, and two dash four four dash 0 85,
and two dash 44 1 35 dash 1 35
to dissolve the Chicago Community Land Trust,
a KAA Chicago Community Housing Trust
and allow formation as bureau
within the Department of Housing.
James, we turn from the primary housing is here
to testify on behalf of this ordinance.
Thank you, James.
Good afternoon. Uh, Mr.
Chairman and members of the committee.
So I am here to speak to this, uh, ordinance, uh,
which is essentially, uh, a change of the original ordinance
that established a Chicago Community Land Trust back in
2000, uh, six.
And, uh, we were asking for approval to dissolve that, uh,
organization, which was created
as a not-for-profit corporation, uh, within
the Department of Housing.
So it kind of existed within, its within the department
as its, uh, own entity.
Um, how do I, okay. Oh, I can use that one. Okay,
here we go.
Okay. So, quick history.
Uh, back in, uh, actually in 2004, the then, uh,
commissioner of Housing Jack Markowski convened a task group
of about 40 people to look at the idea of creating a,
a community land trust in Chicago.
And they brought together, uh, lenders,
representatives from Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac, nonprofit organizations, housing
advocates, uh, many others.
And they worked on this for about a year.
And in January of 2006, the city council passed an ordinance
to establish the Chicago Community Land Trust
as a nonprofit 5 0 1 C3 organization.
The intent being that as a nonprofit,
it would be in the position to go out
and fundraise to support itself.
Uh, currently the, um, the Land Trust has, uh,
over 200 units, uh, in 19 different wards around the city.
And the, in the last few years, they've been doing business
as the Chicago Housing Trust.
So, um, it's the Chicago Community Land Trust doing business
as Chicago Housing Trust.
From the very beginning, the, uh, city of Chicago
through the Department of Housing, has supported the
operation of this land trust, uh, paid for staff,
provided benefits, the, you know,
the staff were on the city payroll.
Um, they also, the city also
provided in-kind services, office space in the Department
of Housing, computers, copiers, all those sorts of things
that you need to run an operation.
Um, over the years, the, the Land Trust
was unable to become financially self-sufficient.
Uh, it did some fundraising, it did get some modest
contributions or grants from foundations.
But quite frankly, the fact that it was supported in whole
by the Department of Housing
and the City of Chicago made it very difficult
to make a case that foundations should support this effort.
Um, I should also note that, uh, the, uh,
properties that were in the Land Trust
and still are, are for the most part condominium units.
So the model of a traditional community Land trust,
whereby you have single family homes owned by homeowners on
with ground leases,
99 year ground leases supporting the long-term affordability
did not happen in Chicago.
'cause the majority of these units were of,
um, condominium units.
And they were created as a result of terms
of the Affordable Requirements ordinance that said
that developers had to provide a certain number
of affordable units.
Um, however, the Land Trust over the last several years had
acquired four individual properties, two
of them in the Humboldt Park area, which have been,
uh, rehabbed and sold.
And one in Woodlawn, which is a two unit building
that is rehabbed and is up for sale
and one in the little village area
or little village community, which has not been rehabbed
and is currently, uh, available.
Let's see. So several months ago, uh, the board
of directors of the Land Trust, the Chicago Housing Trust,
uh, whom are all appointed by the mayor, uh,
decided in conjunction with the Department of Housing
and the Department of Law to pursue dissolution
of the, uh, Chicago Housing Trust, to
uh, basically end the nonprofit corporation
to dissolve the operation
and to transfer all of the assets
of the Chicago Housing Trust over to the city.
Of Chicago, uh, which would include those properties
that it was still holding as well as its cash on hand.
Um, the, the properties that it's still holding, uh,
the two flat in Woodlawn,
the single family home in Little Village,
and also two vacant lots in Woodlawn across the street
from the two flats.
So those would be transferred to a developer to, uh,
to build new construction on the vacant lots in Woodlawn
to perhaps, um, modify the rehab of the two flat,
and then of course to rehab the,
the single family in, uh, little Village.
So the question of what is the impact here?
So for the homeowners whose homes are in the Land Trust
portfolio, and just to be clear,
the Land Trust does not own those homes.
Those are owned by the individual owners
who purchase them at an affordable price.
They are subject to a affordability agreement
and a restrictive covenant that puts limits on
what they can sell it for when they go to sell it,
and, uh, what their level of profit was.
So basically the equity that is built up, some
of it is, uh, uh, taken by the,
the owner when they sell the property.
The rest essentially remains in the property
and a new affordable price for, uh, uh,
an income eligible owner is established.
So those homeowners will see no change.
They will still be, uh, responsible for responding
to an annual certification that they're living in the units
when they sell the units.
The affordable, uh, affordability agreement requires them
to, uh, notify the, the housing trust,
which will then determine a new sales price.
They have to sell it to, uh, uh, a new buyer.
That a certain income level as determined
by the affordability agreement.
That will not change.
Uh, the Department of Housing's,
neighborhood Preservation Bureau will subsume this operation
within its walls,
even though they're basically all sitting right there in the
same cube farm with everybody else.
And we will, uh, be dealing with the ongoing operation
of those units, the resales, the certifications, et cetera.
Uh, the current board of directors, who again,
are all volunteers appointed by the mayor, uh,
will be affected insofar as they will no longer be
a board of directors.
There has been conversation, uh, about whether
or not some of them would continue on
as an advisory council, but that has not yet been finalized.
Uh, there is no additional funding required from the city.
The city has been a, uh,
supporting this operation all along.
Uh, paying for the staff, paying for the, uh, benefits,
providing the, the office space
and the in-kind, uh, services that will continue.
It'll be the same people working in the same place.
Uh, right now, the Chicago Housing Trust
has three employees.
Uh, they were budgeted for four one recently, uh,
left the city's employment.
Uh, the properties will continue to be held, uh, according
to the terms of the affordability agreements.
And, uh, they, the operation will be handled
by the Department of Housing.
That is the conclusion of my presentation.
I'll be happy to answer questions.
I do one Hadden. Thank you chair.
Um, thank you for the presentation.
I am gonna try and not rapid fire all these questions at
you, but chair, I want you to know, just off the top,
I think we should hold this item.
Um, so I'm putting that out there.
I think we should hold this item 'cause this is huge.
This is significant. I've got a million questions.
So starting with this is a,
this model is a model
that has been used successfully in many other places.
Shocking to me that the city of Chicago
has failed in this way.
And I wanna report on why this isn't working.
Like I wanna a report on what happened.
And I imagine it's, 'cause we probably didn't fund it.
I imagine it's like we started this.
So like, I would love through the chair,
I want a detailed report.
Where's the legislation that created this?
When was it created? What was
the mission when it was started?
I want a complete outline of
what the funding mechanisms were for this,
their initial plan.
'cause we need to know why this didn't work.
Um, I also want to know,
and this might be something you can answer now, um, is this
work or some version of this work going to be done by the,
um, green social housing, um, entity
that we created instead?
Well, the 200 plus units
that are in the portfolio at the present time, uh, again,
they're all under affordability agreements, which have, uh,
terms and conditions that state when the property is sold,
that affordability agreement renews.
So even though, uh, we don't have ground leases,
we don't have 99 year ground leases and condominiums,
but we do have these affordability agreements that state
that, uh, when the property is sold,
a new agreement goes into effect and a new term begins.
So essentially it rolls over in, in essence,
these will be affordable in perpetuity
because of the way the, the agreements are structured.
So that's the first thing with regard to when this started,
the ordinance that established this was passed in January
of 2006,
and within the ordinance, it stated that it, uh,
that the Land Trust would be funded
and supported by the city's Department of Housing,
or maybe at the time it was the Department of Development
or whatever they called it.
Um, and it's, there has actually been six amendments to
that ordinance renewing that, that, uh, ordinance
and that operation over time
because each, each, uh,
amendment was for a set period of time.
So it has been around for about close to 20 years.
Um, and, you know, when it was established during the time
of that task force back in 2004, 2005, you know,
there was a lot of discussion.
We brought in, uh, experts from Burlington, Vermont.
The Burlington Housing Trust, which is very successful,
I think goes back to the time when Bernie Sanders was mayor.
And, uh, you know, we talked through all of the operations,
but it was clear at the time that if we were going
to take advantage of the Affordable Requirements Ordinance,
which happened to get passed about the same time, that
what was going to happen with terms in terms of development
and in neighborhoods where, uh,
affordability would not normally be available,
it was gonna be because of condominiums.
And so, uh, we decided, you know,
that there would not be ground leases
unless there were single family homes developed.
Now, there are a few single family homes in this portfolio.
There were some developed by, uh, Hispanic housing.
There's a town home development up on, in on Cadie,
right near the, the Bloomington Trail.
The Bloomingdale Trail.
There were some homes developed by, uh,
I think Resurrection projects, certainly some by, um,
oh God, Spanish Coalition.
So there are some single family homes that are part of this,
uh, uh, portfolio.
But for the most part, I would say 90% of them,
maybe a little bit over 90% are condominium units.
Sure. And I, and I, I don't wanna interrupt you,
but I, we're not getting to the answer to my question.
So my question is, um, and I,
and I'll root this in an example for my colleagues.
I had, um, an individual reach out
to my office earlier this year,
and I think we, uh, had a conversation about this.
Ultimately, the department
that I didn't find much help from the city at all, um,
they have, um, like a 12 unit building.
It was passed on to them
by a family member who was deceased.
It was paid off, it was in good condition,
and they wanted to, they wanted to give it to the city.
They wanted to pass it on to the city.
Um, they were willing to kind of sell it below market rate.
They wanted it to remain affordable housing.
We have this amazing land trust.
So I contacted the City, city, Hey, look, we've got 12 units
of housing that wants to remain affordable.
We didn't have our, uh, green social housing piece passed
yet, but it was like, this is exactly what we need, right?
We need to acquire properties where available
with willing people in high density areas
where we're losing affordability, where the city can have
this in a land trust, where then we're able
to do kind of other things with it.
The model works, as you mentioned in other places.
Um, I was told by the city that we can't do that.
We don't really have a program for that.
There's not really anything around for that.
And honestly, I had to go to a private developer.
Um, this program
dissolving a program for no particular reason,
because we failed to use it adequately, is unacceptable.
What a waste of public resources and time.
And the last thing I'll say is I know there's only a
couple single family homes.
I know one of the owners of one of those single family homes
that's part of the Land Trust,
and they haven't been notified.
I just texted them, Hey, did you know
that they're dissolving, that the city's moving
to dissolve the Chicago Housing Trust?
And they say, apparently it won't have any impact on you.
And, and the response I got was, no, I had no idea.
So I moved to hold this item
until we can get more information at a time when we are
dying to create more affordable housing
and dealing with issues.
Like, I need a tool like this
to help stop displacement in my neighborhood, to be able
to talk to some of my neighbors who own their houses,
who own their condo buildings, who want
to leave these in a land trust.
We've got people who want to do this.
I don't see a current effort.
Maybe there was initially when this was
created to, to do that.
I'm not sure at which time the move was
made to condominiums.
But to have this tool available to us
and to be moving, to dissolve it instead of figuring out how
to use what's available, knowing how much work it takes
for us to create another tool.
And, and I don't believe that the green social housing piece
that we put together and that entity,
it's not meant to do the same thing.
Chicago needs a housing trust. We need a land trust.
We need to act on this.
Otherwise, in a time of increasing, um, um,
um, uh, whatchamacallit, capital, um, um,
money being increasingly held by a smaller group of people,
land and property being held by a smaller group of people,
we are losing the diversity and ownership.
And with the lack of access to capital
that most people have,
like we all know what's happening through the city.
I want an explanation in writing
before we move forward on
how this recommendation was made, why we're doing it.
And, um, again, chair, I move to hold this item.
We can't get rid of this tool without any discussion.
It's wild.
Thank you. Excuse me. So, yeah, and that's what we hear.
So I will allow first
before we consider the motion to have the departments
to, to answer.
And also there's also questions from other aldermans.
So first, the department you want, you know,
say your name and title for the record.
And then we have Al Dao.
This is Lisa Misher, and I'm from the law department,
and there is a big misunderstanding.
This tool is not being dissolved.
This tool is not going away.
The Chicago Community Land Trust, uh, had
that independent status,
but everything was done by the city.
The only advantage really,
of the Land Trust was an amazing board.
There were members, um, on that board
who were grassroots community members, uh,
who were real housing advocates and experts.
And that board hopefully will continue in
an advisory capacity.
I was, one of the first projects I did when I got it here
to the city was work on the Chicago Community Land Trust.
I am a huge supporter, a huge advocate,
and it has been especially lately, um,
an amazing, amazing tool.
Nothing is changing all of the homes
that go into the Land Trust, all of them,
except maybe the four that Jim mentioned,
which were also purchased, I think with City funds, all
of them come from the Affordable Requirements ordinance.
So there is a staff in the Department of Housing
that works on affordable, uh, a RO covenants
that are recorded against, uh, rental buildings.
And then the Community Land Trust, which is staffed
by Department of Housing employees, works on the
for sale component.
Nothing about that is changing.
A RO units will continue to be subject
to restrictive covenants.
Um, the rental buildings
and the for sale buildings, both of those are going forward.
The only difference is that the board will not meet
and basically approve those units going
into the Land Trust.
But as I say, the board is fantastic.
I hope they remain as an advisory committee.
They want to remain as an advisory committee.
But all of the work has been
done by the Department of Housing.
Having a separate land trust was actually a problem
because they had no independence yet.
They were a 5 0 1 C3 other, I should say,
other than having their board.
Um, and so it created a problem.
The law department couldn't represent them
because we can only represent the city of Chicago.
We can't represent, uh, even city created nonprofits.
So, uh, DOH wanted to increase the staff of the,
of the for sale, um, program.
So they were going from one executive director
to four employees.
And the law department felt like we had reached a point
where this was no longer feasible to be viewing this
as an independent group.
It, it actually, as I said, just created hurdles.
Um, so the, the program remains intact,
will continue intact, um,
and hopefully the advisory board will be there.
Now, the, the issue you said about accepting new buildings
from people who wanna contribute, that's different.
And I understand what what you're saying there.
I can address that and yeah, so that's, and,
and maybe the role will, there's still gonna,
it's still gonna be called the Chicago Housing Trust.
Um, and, uh, the, um,
restrictive covenants on these property actually have the
City of Chicago as a third party beneficiary,
because we've always been concerned about the
viability of the land trust.
There was a hope back in 2006 that this would become, uh,
a self-funding entity.
I think we were naive that was not gonna happen.
The land trusts that exist all over the country
mainly are small land trusts that deal with, uh,
small amounts of land, not citywide.
Burlington is, is a, is a exception.
Baltimore has a, has a good,
but I don't even know if those are operated as nonprofits.
They're basically city, city programs. So it hasn't failed.
Um, it's getting more and more successful all the time.
And, uh, the, the, the, the,
other than getting annual compliance forms, um,
the residents I don't think have much interaction
with the land trust unless there's a
problem, or unless they're selling.
Now, maybe that can be improved.
Not saying that things can't be improved,
but there is no failure here.
And all the women had, uh, will Edwards, uh,
deputy Commissioner, department of Housing,
neighborhood Development, um, you brought up a really,
really good point and issue,
and that is accepting buildings, being able to work
with those buildings, getting them turned
over, rehabilitated.
Those things don't happen without subsidy.
They don't happen without a whole line of support
that doesn't exist as the Land Trust currently exists.
It does exist under neighborhood development.
It does exist as a component of, uh,
acquisition and rehabilitation.
And that's kind of the support that we're going to be able
to give them going forward as they come into the new bureau.
So the idea that we will be able to take buildings
and turn them around, we're, we are taking
that into consideration in writing new contracts.
We're looking at those opportunities to be able
to turn those buildings around
and working with, uh, yourself
and other, uh, aldermen, aldermen
and all the women to be able to take care of the issues
of vacancy and blight in communities
and neighborhoods and disinvestment.
And so in this particular issue, specifically
with the Land Trust, there's a benefit
and value add with them coming in house.
Um, thank you for, thank you for the explanations.
That makes you feel a bit better.
Um, I still feel like, okay,
it's a law department recommendations.
I hear you guys saying, Hey, the program's gonna continue.
Chicago Housing Trust is not going away.
We're dissolving a legal entity
that was separate and outside.
This work is gonna continue within the Department
of Housing, um, chair.
I would still like to see something from the Department
of Housing then to tell us about what we're doing
with Chicago Housing Trust.
Um, so it, it's still, it's still like, I, I get it.
You guys maybe have been working on this right,
for a while to make this move.
It's, it's been a year, right?
And we're not, we're not making any changes.
It's gonna continue as it has continued in the past.
The big issue as, as, uh, Lisa pointed out is funding
a RO funding has been dwindling over time,
and it has come to almost a standstill.
And we're figuring out how to better support it in a way
that makes sense and bring it in house with the, uh, support
that's necessary to keep it moving.
I still think we should see something from the Department
of Housing really in writing.
So I, I appreciate and I have more understanding now.
The way this was presented was very confusing.
Um, and that in
and of itself tells me that maybe you guys need to come back
with something that, that more clearly gives us an idea
of a plan of what the future of this work looks like.
Um, even, even
before I'm, I'm comfortable on this.
Thanks Chair. Yeah,
Al followed by Al Fuentes.
Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Uh, I too am somewhat, well,
not somewhat, I'm dismayed about the lack of transparency
around this, uh, move.
Um, and I didn't even know
until we started doing some research that I have five units
in my own ward about that are part of this, uh, land Trust.
Um, we should have
had some briefings on this.
This is a major, uh, decision
that should not just be coming to us
for the first time today.
So I just want to put that on the record, um, to the lawyer.
I want to know, are we,
I I know you talked about transferring assets, Jim,
and, uh, uh, transferring, I guess
whatever money is left here,
are we transferring any liabilities?
I will defer to Ms. Mitchell?
That's a good question. And the answer is that, uh,
because these units are all generated by the city, um,
the city would always, uh,
in some sense have liability.
The, the Land Trust, I sup, we've never had,
there's never been a lawsuit against the Land Trust.
Uh, but because again,
the city actually views the Land Trust as its own program,
um, the, the, the city would be having likely be responding
to any lawsuit that would arise.
There's no ongoing litigation.
Um, uh, the Land Trust has very few contracts of its own.
Um, you know, it has a website contract.
There's, there's actually very little to be transferred.
Okay, uh, through the chair.
If I could get a sense of what our potent,
what potential liabilities we could potentially see when we
become full, fully responsible for this program.
Um, this is a not-for-profit, correct?
That is correct. All right.
So every not-for-profit has to generate annual reports.
So I'd like to see the annual reports
for the last two years,
and I would like to receive through the chair a list
of the current board of directors, um, their appointment,
uh, periods, when their appointments end,
when they were appointed.
What's the, we have any vacancies,
who's the board president?
I mean, I don't think we have a lot of information about
how this entity functions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Wan we have al the person Fuentes followed by
RA and then Alderman Taylor.
Uh, thank you Chair. I also support the Alder Women's
Motions to hold this item.
Look, I, I have a lot of, uh,
housing in the Land Trust in my ward.
The one on Zi near the 6 0 6 that you alluded
to is in the 26th Ward.
It's how we were able to get homeowners to own adjacent
to the 6 0 6 was
because of the Land trust and the affordability.
And we have been in conversation with DOH,
and you know, we have posted, uh, a lot of our city,
lots on Shy Block builder with the agreement
that we're gonna build single family homes
and condos to go into the Land trust.
Um, and so I, I wanna understand sort of the practice.
I hear that we're saying it's going
to be exactly the same just under the city
rather than the nonprofit.
My concern is we take on the program as the city
and at risk being cut through a budget deficit
and creating efficiencies.
Right? And I don't have any assurances that if we take it on
as the city, that it'll be protected from budget cuts
and that we can continue to have the programming
that homeowners need.
My first question is, as we taking take it on as the city,
are we going to still take on voluntary units into the trust
the way we have historically with the nonprofit?
Not only are we gonna, are we gonna take on units
as they would be donated or,
or in that nature given to the city,
will also be actively seeking out opportunities
for acquisition
and rehabilitation so that we can add to the Land Trust?
And as Jim alluded to, we don't have a lot
of single family homes.
Our responsibility within neighborhood development
and preservation is primarily single family homes.
So our hope is to establish more single family homes
as a part of the mission of the larger bureau,
and use the Land Trust for their protection action to ensure
that we have these home ownership
opportunities in perpetuate.
I'll address the first part of your question,
taking this on as a city,
the Land Trust is providing zero funding as a nonprofit,
zero, everything is funded
by the city right now, everything.
So there again, is a, there's, there's going to,
there's going to be no difference in funding, um, between
what exists now and
what will exist when the Land Trust is dissolved.
Absolutely none. Um, the, uh,
the only thing will be that this nonprofit
that has basically worked, uh, in an advisory capacity
because of the board, again, I can't state enough
how wonderful the board is.
And Joyer Getty of Bicker D**e is currently the,
the president of the board.
Um, so when we say la,
when we say units are put into the trust,
that's really just, uh, um,
there's nothing going into the trust.
What we do is we record a restrictive covenant
against the condo units
or the homes, um,
which we determined early on was better than, uh, even
with the case of single family homes than owning the land,
uh, for liability purposes.
And it accomplishes the same goal.
So nothing is really put into, in any kind of, uh,
actual way, the trust.
It's just a restrictive covenant, um,
that maintains the affordability of the unit
and, uh,
the Chicago Community Land Trust is a party to that contract.
Again, I think every single one of those has the City
of Chicago as a third party beneficiary.
I appreciate that. And then for clarity, uh, who asked
for the Chicago Land Trust to be dissolved?
Which department? Well, I don't, I mean, I guess that's a,
I, the Department of Law was definitely involved in it
because we felt that, uh, with,
there used to be one employee, um,
and that, again, was housed in DOH funded
by D-O-H-A-D-O-H employee.
Um, and then the program was getting more units
and needed more staff.
And so the law department felt that
there was not any independence between the, the Chicago
Community Land Trust and the city of Chicago.
And that was not, um, really sustainable.
It was, it was a, a problem that there was no
distance between the two.
Um, the Land Trust has also been paying
outside counsel bills, uh,
because we couldn't represent them, um, in some
of their, uh, work.
I don't, I don't know if I, I'm, I'm perfectly happy
to say the law department, uh,
probably drove the decision, but I'm not sure.
It was just the law department.
I think the, the Department of Housing also felt
that having four DOH employees that were staff of
and also staff of a nonprofit was not, was not ideal.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you, RA. Thank you so much. Chair.
The, the four staff of
the Chicago Housing Trust.
How many of them are with us here today?
I'm sorry, could you
Repeat that? How, how many of
the staff
of the Chicago Housing Trust are with us here today?
There's currently three staff.
There's an assistant commissioner,
So I, I two others.
I miscommunicated my question of the staff member
of the housing trust, how many of them are in the box
or participating in this meeting today?
I'm sorry, I, I'm not sure.
Okay. So the answer then, the, are you
Asking Alderman risk Of, uh, losing their jobs?
I'm not quite sure I understand. No,
I feel like I'm being un I'm either being unclear
or my question is being misunderstood.
Uh, I hear you Alderman. Uh, there are no current
CHT staff in the box. Okay.
Are any of their board members in the room with us today?
Uh, I don't believe so. So that's problematic to me.
That's a problem to me.
Like, if I know how much pain we take when it comes
to the creation of new organizations
or bodies to be dissolving a body with none
of their board in the room with none
of their staff in the room,
even just the optics of that is bad to me.
So I, I wanna affirm everything that we're saying right now,
in my opinion, should have been
and could have been its own subject matter hearing.
So I, I want to reaffirm when we get around to it,
and I think we've heard from enough,
enough folks at this point that it's gonna happen.
But I want to reaffirm, uh, Alderwoman Hadden's call
for this to be held in committee.
Thank you, sir. Thank
You all. Ms. Pat, we
have Alderwoman Taylor, and then Alderman Moore.
Thank you Chairman. Um,
feels very disingenuous that y'all would do this
and not have conversations with people this actually afford.
We are literally fighting to make sure that low income
and working families can stay in the
communities that they love.
And for you all to kind of dissolve this
and throw it in with a bunch of other stuff is not cool.
It's, it's not okay.
Y'all claim that y'all love people in our city,
in our community, but you all do the bare minimum
of the least to make sure that things that we put in place
and that we fought to have stay in place.
Um, the explanation that you gave earlier versus
what is being said now is two different conversations.
And if I was a person who was listening, I'll be just
as confused as we are as aldermen,
and we are the people who are, who are elected.
We are elected to make these decisions
and have fruitful conversations where we do things
that make sense and nothing about this makes sense.
You say it's an amazing board.
We don't got a lot of amazing boards.
We got a bunch of people we put on to make decisions,
and they do what's best for them,
and that's what's best for our community.
And so I'm going to third and fourth and,
and fifth it what Alder on Manhattan said, thanks,
chair. Thank
You. We are gonna have
Alderman Moores the last person,
and then we'll take the motion
of Aldo Manhattan. Aldo Moore.
Yes. Um, chairman, um, I, I respect you highly
and definitely we always get along,
but what, what's cha what's I'm challenged by here is that,
and I don't know if you did it or who did it purposely,
but it's in your committee
and you set this agenda, uh, agenda.
This is not a 40th ward thing.
This is a citywide thing or a Department of Housing thing.
And, and, and to put this down as a 40th ward issue, uh,
it is very, um, misleading.
It's mis we are, we are, we are dealing with a lot as, um,
alderman, we have to do homework.
We gotta read a lot of things.
There's a lot of things that we have to do consistently.
If I see something that say 40th ward is, I, I read it.
I, I decide for myself if I need to go into more detail,
and it's usually, uh, um,
Yeah, it is Alma Moore three, right?
Yeah. It is a spacing issue. So Alder Ma Moore is right.
I think it's, it looks like the, it look like it's part
of the, but so to clarify, Al Moore,
it is just a spacing issue that was part
of the previous item, but it does
appear like it was okay. You know,
That's what Al McDowell was pointing
At. Clarify. Alman Dowell,
uh, Alma Moore mentions about it.
Looks like it. Yeah. Let's, let's, let's clarify.
Let it was from the previous
Item previous. I got you.
I got you. Yeah, let's make sure that's clear
and, and see, and let us,
because there's things that we put down
that's a mayoral issue, things Department
of Housing submitting,
and that triggers us to go into detail
before we get to this point
to have those type of conversations.
So, um, thank you for clarifying that.
And, um, uh, I, I, I, and I think this is a situation
or something we should, uh, at least have briefings on
and say, Hey, this is why we're doing this,
and let us have, uh, give some, um, ask some questions
around it and even, you know, a, a possible hearing
before it goes away to understand this impact.
Um, so to avoid, you know, voting No, I,
I, I agree with my colleagues.
We should definitely hold this items
for further discussion. Yeah.
Thank you. Alderman Moore.
Um, so we'll take the, the motion of all the Manhattan to,
to hold if we have a second,
but all other person submits, uh,
we'll call a hold this item.
And our committee is committed to make sure
that we have briefings and, you know,
if the committee members so decide,
we will have a subject matter hearing so
that we can all have with full transparency
what the intent is here.
So we'll hold this item at the request of al the Manhattan
and aluminum mets,
and we'll come back with holding briefings
before we reconsider this item in the future.
Thank you to the committee members for, for your feedback.
Uh, now we're gonna, um, we're gonna, just
because we departments have been waiting, we are gonna go
to, uh, item number seven, um, department of Transportation.
So we're gonna skip, and then we're gonna come back to, um,
two items of Alderman, uh, Yancy,
who's is So allow him to come back.
Then, uh, alderman, uh, alderman Manhattan's.
Item number six has been, uh, a hold as well.
So we have item number seven.
We have been with Department of Transportation.
Been waiting for a minute. So this is a substitute, um,
ordinance, the substitute ordinance, um, from DPD.
Both departments have agreed on the change of this item
and is appropriate to handle a transaction relating
to a state highway project.
Copies of the substitute have been in your,
sent to your packets id.
Number seven is a substitute, uh,
ordinance 20 20 25 dash 0 0 15 9 83 sale
of city owned property at 39 0 1 South Hal City Street
to the Idino Department of Transportation
for Persian Road Highway and improvement in the 11th ward.
Um, can I get a motion to approve their substitute?
So moved by Alderman Casara. All those in favor say aye.
All those opposed name in the PD of the chair.
The ayes have, bill Higgins from Department
of Transportation is here to testify on this ordinance.
Thank you again. Bill Higgins, uh,
assistant Commissioner at the Department of Transportation.
Um, uh, we're here today to get your support
for the sale of this city lot.
We have been working with, uh, department
of Planning and Development.
Um, this is located at 39 0 1
South Halstead
and is related to an Illinois Department
of Transportation Highway Improvement
Project on Pershing Road.
Um, the IDOT requires this corner of the lot,
uh, highlighted in yellow.
It is a city owned lot that is, um, currently
improved with a parking lot
and fence that are illegally being encroached upon
by a neighboring development.
Um, as part of this ordinance,
it will sell the highlighted portion
to the Illinois Department of Transportation for them
to open as public way as part of the Pershing Road Project.
The remainder of the lot would be opened
as public way under, uh, seat out jurisdiction.
And here's a image of the intersection
and the lot as it is today.
Um, opening the remainder of the lot will also, uh,
let us resolve some issues in
that there is an existing public alley
that is inaccessible currently.
Uh, we can mobilize our public way inspectors to enforce
that being opened.
And, uh, we'll go on from there.
Um, if you have any questions, uh, I also have, uh,
Brad Topol from our complete street section
who has been working with the idot on their project
and can speak to any details on that.
Thank you. Any question?
Just a quick question. What are the limits of the
Persian Road Project Improvement Project
and what is it designed to do?
Sure. Uh, Brad, could you speak to that? Yeah.
Uh, the Pershing Road is an IDOT led project on Pershing
from Ashland to, uh, Wentworth.
So basically up to the Dan Ryan.
So I believe the last few blocks would
be within the third ward
Time. Uh,
it's primarily a street reconstruction project.
IDOT has been proposing.
They're gonna rebuild the whole street basically from
property line to property line.
It will include accommodations for, uh, trucks.
That's what this specific piece is, is
for truck turnings there, incorporate pedestrian
improvements and some trail and bike improvements.
Bike improvements, meaning bike lanes.
Uh, what IDOT is proposing,
I believe within the third ward, they've been part
of this was contingent on some of the design,
but what they have most recently released
to us in the last week
or two was a, uh, shared trail on the sidewalk.
So providing a wide sidewalk on, uh, the area
between Halstead
and Wentworth as a kind of shared trail type design.
So bike lanes, but more so just providing, uh, access
for people walking and biking as well as, uh, transit
and, um, normal vehicular activity. Taking bikes off.
That sounds, sounds like a bunch of gobbly look,
I just want to know, can, can you send me the drawings
and just point out to me, I don't understand the difference
between trail and bike lanes?
Bike lanes on the street.
A trail would be at, on the sidewalk, the sidewalk level.
So it's a bike lane on the sidewalk.
A shared, yeah, a, a shared bike
and ped trail for a portion of it.
All right. I'll talk to you. Yeah,
We'll, we'll get that information to you.
Thank My question, what's the sale?
The, um, the city owned lot?
Yes, it is a city owned lot. I said, what's the price?
Oh, um, I'm sorry, what was the question? The price?
Yes. I'm not, we're,
we believe it'll be sold at market value, but we don't know.
Yeah, I'm not familiar with what the price will be.
You don't know what it is? No.
Um, Lisa, do you happen
to know the, the value of the
Not off hand. I don't,
No. Okay.
Um,
John McDonough from the law department's been working
with us on this and I believe he's off today.
Let me wait. Yeah, they should.
Um, we should be able to do that through the
Chair. Yeah, we'll get that through the
chair. You
Got it. Yeah. We'll,
we'll, we should be able to provide
that information through. We can share,
I mean, we are selling city land to IO
and we don't know what we're selling it for.
Hmm. That's the general question I would think. Hmm.
Okay. I'm not sure if anybody in the department can,
um, share the pro the, that information.
Do you have? Yeah, I think we have it on.
Yeah, they should be able to have it.
Hi Alderman Taylor Thompson, the department planning.
Okay. The market rate value is actually $97,681
for the, uh, 39 0 1 south to it.
Okay. That's all, all I need to know.
We looking at a $1.2 billion budget, I need to know
what we're selling stuff for. Understood.
Absolutely no, we should be able to provide that. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you, chairwoman. Any additional questions?
Other, it's gonna get a motion to move on this item
to move alpa.
All those in favor, sir? Aye.
So all those will place the name. Any opinion of the chair?
The ayes have it. The do pass recommendation
of these ordinance will be reported out at the next city
council meeting on September 25th, 2025.
Um, in the last, uh,
the last three items are from the Department
of Planning and Development.
Item eight is an ordinance 2025 dash 0 0 18 8 3 6
sale of VAC City owned property at 50 56 West Washington
Boulevard to Catholic Bishop of Chicago for benefit of San,
uh, San Simon of Serene under chai block builder platform
for landscaping, parking lot
with remote operator gate entry in the 28th ward.
Rael Vega from the panel planning is here to testify.
On behalf of this ordinance, thank you again.
Good afternoon. Afternoon.
So we're gonna solve, uh, 50 56 West Washington Boulevard.
Um, it, it was part of the October, 2024
shy block builder land sale.
And so it is located in the 28th ward in the Austin
community area, in the west planning region.
Um, so the applicant, the Catholic Bishops of Chicago, has
offered to pay the market value
of $38,084, um,
for to develop a non-access surface parking lot
with 17 parking spaces.
And the land is category B.
Um, here's a street view, an A view.
It's approximately 9,000 square feet, um,
with the lot dimensions of 180 by 50 feet.
So, uh, in red is the, the church
which is located across the street from the city land.
Um, so yes, um, currently some
of the background of the city land is,
it has been used informally as overflow parking
from events at the church
and, um, as well as their tenants.
Currently the church, um, is a community anchor
and provides, uh, a list of resources
that I will outline in this presentation as well as, um,
they rent out space to KIPP Academy, an early
education program part of CPS.
So the total project cost is approximately
$400,012.
Um, so this project will also have to go through ZBA,
which is the zoning board of appeals process
because, um, surface non-accessible parking
is not allowed by, right.
So they will have to, um, go through
the special use permit process.
Here is the bird's eye view and the zoning is RT four.
Here is the proposed side plan.
So the applicants had to, had to apply, uh,
the applicant reached out to the Aldermanic office
to get an alley access ordinance,
which was approved earlier this year for reference.
Here's the budget. So the
a hundred percent of the project will be funded
by the applicant, by the developer.
And then here are some of the community impact items.
Um, this church serves 326 registered families,
and they have a growing group of Hispanic families,
which are currently not registered.
They serve 130 families for food pantry twice a week,
and 800 individuals are participate in
their Christmas giveaway program.
And they also provide, um, a variety
of financial services like Bill Pay
and, um, with where they help, um,
parishioners with, uh, utility bills
and mortgage payments and rent payments.
And there are 365 students who attend KI KIPP Academy.
Are there any questions? The applicant is here
to answer any questions as well as their architect.
Are there any questions by committee members? No.
Alderman Irving was here earlier, moved to pass
by Alder person, Dowell, any, uh,
all those in favor say aye.
Those nay the opinion of the chair. The ayes have it.
The due pass recommendation
of this ordinance will be reported out
of the next City council meeting on September 25th, 2025.
Um, item number nine is, um,
thank you and thank you very much.
Raquel Sale of City, um,
vacant city owned property at 67 10 South Roads Avenue,
ordinance 20 25 0 0 18 8 3 2 2
or market exchange LLC by quit claim deed
with open space use restriction in the sixth ward.
Taylor Thompson from the Department of Planning
and Development is present to testify on this
ordinance. Thank you, Taylor
Tyler. Good
afternoon chairman. Members
of the Committee for the record.
My name is Taylor Thompson and I'm representing the
Department of Planning and Development.
This project is the proposed market rate sale
of 67 10 South Roads to Urban Market Exchange.
This slide provides an overview of the Land Sale project
located at 67 10 South Roads Avenue in the West
Woodlawn community area.
But then the Sixth Ward Artman Hall supports the project.
The parcel is a standard size lot at 25 by 1 25.
The market value of the city lot is $6,250,
which is the agreed purchase price.
This slide shows the zoning context of the site.
The city parcel is zoned B three dash two,
which permits the project.
The aerial map shows the location of the property
and where the proposed improvements will take place.
This slide shows additional context on the purchaser.
UME owns the commercial commercial storefront at five 17
East 67th Street, which has no alley access.
The purchaser proposed to secure alley access
for their new tenants
and to create an outdoor plaza area
to compliment their full gut rehab,
which is currently 60% complete.
This slide gives background of the purchaser, UME proposes
to create a work coworking space
for community artisans, makers, and creators.
They are partnering with Sunshine, YWCA,
Chicago Urban League,
and other entrepreneurial organizations.
Their current waiting list
for prospective tenants is 40 plus.
This is their proposed site plan.
The architect of record at seek design
and architecture plan improvements include Outdoor Plaza
and two parking spaces for two affordable residential units.
This slide shows their proposed budget totaling at $140,000.
This Slide highlights the community impact
and future services provided by UME,
which include on demand consulting
and legal services, events, workshops,
and training studio spaces, work benches,
and two affordable residential units,
training on specialized equipment including podcasting,
photography, videography and printing, and a cafe lounge.
This slide provides an additional rendering,
which will be incorporated with the city owned lot.
In summary, the Department of Planning
and Development has thoroughly reviewed the pro proposal
for the sale of the city property,
located at 67 10 South Roads to Urban Market Exchange,
and recommends approval of this project.
That concludes the project open
to any questions or concerns. Thank
You. Any questions? Illumina?
Taylor? Thank
You. You chair. Um,
I don't know if Qura is still here or left.
She's running behind, so, oh, yeah.
Hey, you see you because I got this hat on.
Um, I just wanna say that this started off in 20
and I'm incredibly proud of Qura
for coming up with this concept.
You're talking about a corner
that had another liquor store corner store,
and it's going to change the dynamics, um, of
that part of the ward.
It is a growing part of the community.
And why six, six is across the street, six is on one side
of the street, 20 is on the other.
This started off in, um, 20.
I'm incredibly proud that it is going to
really be a coworking space in our community.
There's only one other coworking space
that we have kinda in this area,
and it's university Coworks,
and so excited to see this happen.
Hope everybody is supportive.
Definitely have my support on this. Thank you chair.
Thank you. Allmond Moore.
Uh, thank you. I just want to echo what, um,
alderman Taylor said, but here's the exciting
parts of this for me.
Um, this is a young lady.
Um, sometimes we see these projects.
You think there's people got big money
and all of that, right?
It's somebody from the community, from the neighborhood
that just had a vision, but she worked her butt off.
I want to use another word, but, um, she worked it off and,
and, and she didn't come in just with an empty hand.
Sometimes you get people come in and, and,
and I wish we could help everybody.
Um, everybody got a dream,
but don't nobody have anything to back that dream up with.
And and I commend her for this
and I commend the city, uh, for helping her
and being a part of this.
This is what it's about when we're talking about building
up our community.
And so, um, I'm excited about this project
and it's definitely a place, uh,
I'll be supporting and visiting.
And so, um, I moved to pass on this item.
Um, you know, by the most favorable roll call,
if we took a roll call, we did, um,
that everybody's here, so, mm-hmm. Great job.
Thank you a little more. All those in favor say aye.
All those opposed and a in the opinion
of the chair guys have it.
Thank you all Aldo. More for, for the motion.
Um, now we got the, um, last item on the agenda
and then we'll go back to the items.
Hopefully alderman yancy's back.
Um, for the, for the last i last few items.
Uh, item 10 is, um, uh,
ordinance
20 25 0 0 18 8 5 1
First amendment, two, redevelopment agreement
with center court development LLC for phase development
of city par parcels at 54 0 8 54, 10 54 40 South
Duron Street, 54 0 7 54 19 5400 South
Federal Street and developer parcels at
5454, 54 0 2, 54, 0 4 54, 12 54, 26, 54, 34,
and fifty four forty South Dearborn Street
with relief from certain city requirements for construction
of various dwelling units in the 20th ward.
Justin, Justin Peterson from the Department of Planning
and Development is gonna test
testify on behalf of this ordinance.
Good afternoon. Thank you Chairwoman, uh,
Citro Lopez and members of the committee.
My name is Justin Peterson.
I'm the supervising planner for the Southeast region, uh,
for the planning Department of Planning and Development.
And I'm here today seeking city council approval
to amend a redevelopment agreement
for a market rate land sale of six city owned parcels.
Uh, previously mentioned, uh,
on South Dearborn and South Federal streets.
Uh, this was a land sale that was originally passed
by city council in April, 2023, uh,
to center court development, LLC, the developer,
Kamal Murray, I believe is here in attendance, uh,
is now ready to close and proceed with construction.
This project includes several proposed buildings located at
fifty four oh eight fifty four, ten fifty forty South
Dearborn, and fifty four oh seven
through 54 37 South Federal.
The developments in the Washington Park community
and the 20th Ward represented by Alder Woman Taylor.
The project is immediately south
of the excess tennis facility,
and of course, Kamal Murray is the founder
of both excess tennis and center court development, LLC.
The land sale, as I noted,
was originally passed on April 19th in 2023.
Center court development is proposing a total of 35
infill housing units with 23
of those being constructed on city owned land.
Two unit duplexes will be built on South Dearborn Street,
and 17 town homes will be constructed on federal.
The project meets the city's a RO requirements
with two owner occupied units, which is important to note.
That's, that's rare that we get owner occupied units, uh,
from the a RO and then one rental unit
and an in lie fee for one unit.
The total project is, uh, cost is 14 million with, uh,
10.8 million of that occurring on city owned land.
The 2023 market value of the land is 302,000,
which the developers agreed to pay.
Uh, and again, the developer's proceeding
with a phase closing and construction.
So we're here today seeking city council approvement
to amend the redevelopment agreement
and correct errors that were in the original RDA.
The previous RDA had template language requiring the project
to meet WMBE, uh, requirements.
Prevailing wage local hiring targets, uh, as a matter
of DPD policy.
These are not, these targets are not required
for market rate land sale deals, uh,
that receive no city councilors, no city,
uh, financial incentives.
The revised RDA will also update the closing schedule
to reflect further negotiations with the Department
of Housing for a RO compliance
development team is noted.
Kamal Murray, lead center court development NLC is attorneys
Nicholas ku, uh, and of simul FP banks.
Um, the first phase of construction is designed
by AP architects
and crown construction companies acting
as general contractors.
This is a complex site with multiple phases,
five phases over the next four years.
Uh, those phases occur in a mixture of private
and city owned land, again,
with the duplex buildings located on the
infill parcels on Dearborn.
And then, uh, town homes on the larger, uh, city owned land,
uh, piece on federal, which is again the,
the orange hatch here.
These are the elevations of
and plans of the duplex buildings
with brick facades and metal detailing.
This is a rendered elevation of six of the 17 town homes,
uh, designed by Axios architects and consultants.
Project benefits include bringing 14 million of do dollars
of investment to an historically disinvested community,
redeveloping six city owned vacant parcels
and returning to the tax roll,
creating approximately 15 construction jobs,
bringing 35 units of infill housing to a location
that's well served by public transit.
This is within walking distance
to the number 29 State Street bus
and the number 55 Garfield, uh, Boulevard Bus, as well
as the green line at Garfield Boulevard.
The project meets the city's affordable required
requirements ordinance
for low moderate income area providing
by providing four affordable units at 60% a MI for,
and again two for sale units.
Uh, the project also facilitates the growth
and improvement of the excess tennis campus
as a neighborhood anchor and a catalyst
for further redevelopment.
All the woman Taylor has provided a letter of support
for the RDA re revision dated June 24th, 2025.
As such, DPD recommends city council approve, uh, to proceed
with the RD amendment and facilitate housing construction in
Washington Park in the 20th ward.
Um, we're here to answer any questions.
As I mentioned, Kamal is here as well. Uh, so
Thank you. Thank you.
No Alman Taylor is here for any questions
as well, as well as the a, the applicant.
Are there any questions otherwise,
Al Alman Taylor or Alman Moore?
No questions. Ask again.
Uh, it's, it's just, um,
really rewarding when you, uh, a part of something,
if you will, um, in the beginning.
And when I say that everything just sprout from an idea
and you hear somebody talking about something like, man,
that's gonna be you, you don't discourage them,
but you realize it's gonna be a heavy lift.
But for someone to be take a a I always say bet on yourself
and when somebody bet on themselves, um,
and that's what, um, Kamal and this team has have done.
Um, it's, it's, it's great.
And just like I talked about with, um,
all Alderman Chairman Dow's, uh, project, um, yesterday
to see this type of, uh, world class development, um,
going on the south side
and it, it, it is just, it's just great.
And so, um, I'm excited, um, about this, um, opportunity
and I look forward to, you know, voting for this in the,
for city council as well.
Thank you. A more Aman
Taylor, do you want anything to add?
The applicant is also here for any questions,
So I can't take credit for this.
This is actually, uh, one of all the Women's Dows babies
'cause I got it at a reap.
Uh, she said take credit for it.
What I will say is when you think of tennis X,
and I've had this conversation with Kamal
and I'm like this little bougie place
that don't nobody go in,
that there can't nobody afford to go to.
And then I went in there
and realized that young people
who have CHA vouchers could actually go for free.
I realized that he has a program
for seniors in the building.
I realized that the young lady,
Taylor Townsend comes from 68th Street, actually, you know,
was at this facility.
And so you, you want to make sure
that we're supporting housing that's around that area so
that we can support young people
who wanna play 10 tennis and make money.
It's, it's money to be made.
And so thinking about that there,
and Justin, I'm looking at you, it's all that CHA land
that's back there as well that we're gonna have to decide
to build housing on and sooner than later, I'm hoping.
And so, um, appreciate the project.
This was our era, correct? Was this our era?
Who era was this? 'cause this got passed.
It, it was passed, uh, like
during the redistricting process, right? It
Interviews. Absolutely. So this
was already done, just doing some, some
our public duty, uh, do it legally, which makes sense.
And so definitely asking for the support, um, of this,
this committee and then city council. Thanks chairman.
Thank you. Um, Alman Taylor.
So we have a motion to move by, by al Duwell.
Of those in favor say aye.
Those opposed nay in the opinion of the chair.
The ayes have it. The due pass recommendation
of this item will be reported out
of the next city council meeting on September 25th, 2025.
Congratulations Allmen, both Allmen Taylor
and wo dao together.
Thank you so much for your efforts.
Now we're gonna go back, uh, to the last two items.
We are going to take a, a small, uh, quick break
because we need to put people on the box.
So we're gonna take a few, a few minutes
as we set up the the box
so we people can take a small break.
So we'll take a, a, um, few moments,
a few moments until we get ready.
We are going back to order.
Uh, we we're, um, back on, uh,
the agenda on item number four
before we resume a like to, um, request a motion
to recommend approval of rule 40 59 that has been requested
by Aldi women, Manhattan Alder person, Fuentes
and Alder person, Rosana Rodriguez Sanchez can have a motion
to accept the remote participation.
So move Alman Taylor. All those in favor say aye.
All those opposed na in the opinion of the chair.
The ayes have it. We got now Alder person, Fuentes, pat
and Sanchez.
Can you hear us? Yes, yes.
Thank you. Yes, thank you.
Um, we are going back in order to the agenda.
Item number four is ordinance 20 25 0 0 18 7 3, 3
designation of 67 56
and 67 58 8 South Chapel Avenue
as low affordability community in the fifth ward.
Alder Mendes. Yancy is here
to present on behalf of this ordinance.
Alderman Yancy, we are, I think he's in the back still.
Alderman Yancy
is, is working, he is working the room heavy.
So Alderman is gonna present the designation of law,
affordability community in his ward in the fifth ward.
Mm-hmm. This is item number four is the law affordability.
Yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah. 67, 56 and 67. 58. Yes.
Mm-hmm. So just like, uh, gonna make the,
Yeah, just a very brief statement.
I'm a full support of, uh, this low income, um,
parcel being, um, established in the ward.
Mm-hmm. Alderman, um, alderman, uh, Yancy moves forward
with the law, affordability being done
in other communities as well.
So there's president can have a motion,
um, to move on this item.
So move by Alderman Casada. All those in favor say aye. Aye.
All those opposed? Aye. Thank you. Aye. Opposed?
Na In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it.
The due pass recommendation
of this ordinance will be reported out at the next city
council meeting on September 25th, 2025.
Now we are, um, on item number five,
there's a substitute ordinance
that was handed out earlier to committee members.
Um, there's some changes
that are included in your packets under the one pager
for the ordinance, and copies
of the substitute have been shared
with you earlier on today.
Um, the latest version, so the substitute ordinance in front
of you is ordinance, uh,
substitute 20 23 0 0 40 85, establishment
of South Shore Housing Opportunity Ordinance
and Amendment of Municipal Code Title five
by adding new chapter five through 17, entitled Office
of the Tenant Advocate Pilot Program, um,
with in the Fifth Ward.
Can I get a motion to accept the substitute?
So move Alderman Casada. All those in favor say aye.
All those opposed a underpinning of the chair.
The ayes have it. The substitute is in front of us.
Alderman Desi, the chief of policy for the mayor's office.
Young y director of policy and planning for DOH.
Edwin Ortiz Reyes, policy Analyst from DOH Fallon Young
and Executive Director for the south side.
Together, Dixon Romeo, are here
to present on behalf of this ordinance.
They are all in the, um, in the box.
Um, so now we, we start maybe with, oh,
I'm sorry, alderman Mets.
So we accepting the substitute,
but we already had a substitute.
Now we got another substitute on top of the substitute.
Can we clarify that so we know?
Correct. This was the, this is the latest,
the latest version that have been conversations happening
between the local alderman, especially around,
you know, jurisdiction.
So this is, this is the latest to make, uh, to make sure
that we have the latest language.
That was the one that was sent out
to you earlier today. Okay.
No, the one we just got now. The
One just got now that they just
Made copies of and gave to us. Correct?
Correct. We just, you just received those copies. Okay.
Thank you. Yeah.
Oh, maybe we start with a, with a panel.
Maybe introduce a name
and title so we introduce with the, with the panel.
Uh, so do I start or just introduce myself? You can start.
Uh, all right. Uh, thank you Chairman.
Al Al. Is it the subject matter hearing or is we could,
or are we considering ordinance?
We are considering the, the, the substitute.
And they're gonna be, they're,
they're presenting themselves any questions that you have.
Okay. 'cause normally they already testified, right? Or,
Uh, no, I don't think they have testified yet.
Okay. Mm-hmm. Al do,
No, No.
I confused. No, I don't think, yeah,
we haven't talked about this issue committee,
so please go ahead.
Those to our staff. Yeah, the city staff. Okay. Yeah.
And Dixon is the committee. So you can start Dixon.
Okay. Uh, thank you Chairman. Ccho Lopez. Thank you.
Uh, vice Chair Mitchell, thank you.
All housing and real estate committee members.
Um, everybody from the community here,
folks from the coalition,
south side together, et cetera, et cetera.
Um, my name's Dixon Romeo.
Um, I'm a member of South Side Together
and the Obama CBA coalition.
Um, and we've been working in
the Jackson Park housing pilot area, um,
over the last almost 10 years as an organization,
me personally, for the last seven years around, um,
what has become, right this version of the ordinance, um,
really, I'll make brief remarks
and then of course, past our subject matter experts.
And of course you'll hear from the alderman today.
Um, but ultimately we believe that this work
and this ordinance is about, um, opportunity, right?
Um, the reality of it is, is that in the pilot area,
when you look at, uh, the portion
of South Shore covers the portion
of greater grand crossing it covers in Woodlawn, um,
the overwhelming majority of folks, uh,
are struggling, right?
Um, to be able to do what they need to do
to create opportunity for themselves and their lives, right?
And we know that that's connected to, uh, gentrification,
displacement and issues around housing.
Um, for me personally, this issue came to light when, um,
you know, my mother who lives in the pilot area, um, had,
you know, my grandmother got sick, she had cancer.
She, you know, was stressing and dealing with some things.
And ultimately our house was put up for a lean.
Um, unlike, you know, a lot of folks in our pilot area,
I received an award, right?
For some of my, uh, at the time work organizing, um,
from the Field Foundation, right?
I got like a $25,000 award.
Um, and so I was able to, you know,
borrow another thousand dollars on top of that,
but take that and give it to my mom
and make sure we could keep our family home, um,
and keep that wealth and that stock in the family, right?
Something my grandmother did work to keep.
But the reality of it is, right?
Like all the folks in the area are not gonna get an award
for what they're doing, right?
Um, and won't have that expendable income.
And when you look at what we do as an organization, right?
Working with our elders, going door to door, talking
to people, the reality is,
is most folks want an opportunity to do right?
Whether they're renters, homeowners, um, or condo owners.
And the reality of it is that due
to the increase in prices, right?
The gentrification, right? The rent ends up eating first.
Um, if you're a home
or condo owner, uh, you're essentially a bank tenant, right?
And so the bank, you know, their mortgage is eating first.
Um, and that takes away from parents, families, individuals
to be able to do what they need to do to give their kids
and their families opportunity, right?
To, to be successful.
Um, a couple things I'll name is that over the last,
since 2021, um, we have done a lot
of things in the pilot area
to engage residents of the community.
Um, we've actually done in that time period,
four different referendums, right?
Um, and the average percentage in terms
of folks in the community voting in favor of these demands.
And each piece of that referendum is represented in this
ordinance was 88%.
Um, we have had, uh, up
until this point now coming on four large scale community
meetings, we call them like summits
or forums, where we've had each time over 300 people attend.
Um, and folks have named
and been incredibly in support of that.
We've looked at and worked with, um,
other partners in community groups of, around the data,
around what is needed in this area.
We know that, um, the fifth Ward in particular had
the highest eviction filings in 2019, um,
and still leads to city in eviction filings.
Um, we know that both Woodlawn
and South Shore of the fifth Ward in particular are heavily,
uh, tenant wards, right?
Um, almost 84% of folks in Woodlawn.
And in the fifth ward, close to 75% of folks are renters.
Um, we also know that the goal
of this ordinance when talking to folks across the broader
community was to ensure that this did not, you know,
our tagline has been development
without displacement, right?
Um, so even in our quest to make sure we have affordable
rental housing built, we're also looking at
how do we create opportunities for tenants to be homeowners?
How do we create opportunities for there
to be more affordable homes, right?
Um, built inward and built in a pilot area,
and that's all represented here in this ordinance.
In addition to that, um, we know that, again,
'cause as someone who lives in the area, um,
we still need commercial development, right?
So not to prevent commercial development,
but to ensure that, um,
in mixed use developments on city owned land,
there's some affordability for folks, right?
Um, in the ordinance, there is money for local developers,
uh, local preference for job hiring, um, things so
that we can add employment opportunities
for folks in our neighborhood too, right?
Um, a lot of effort and time
and thought has gone into this on the community end.
Um, we've worked with folks who disagree with us, folks
who agree with us, um, we've taken all suggestions
and tried our best to include them all in here.
Um, and we're really excited for you all
to review this today and look forward to your support.
Thank you. Now we have, uh, the chief of policy
for the mayor's office, young Yu.
Thank you chairman. Thank you, vice chair
and members of the committee, pleased
to present the Jackson Park Housing Pilot
and answer any questions you might have.
This is an important ordinance to ensure
that we are curbing gentrification in the pilot area.
Since 2015, rents have risen in the Jackson Park pilot area
by approximately 43%.
And home values have risen by 130%.
What that's resulting in is 53.2%
of households in the pilot area are rent burdened,
meaning they are paying more than 30%
of their income on rent and utilities.
The Jackson Park pilot area also experience the highest rate
of eviction filings in 2019,
and was the second highest number
of tenants receiving assistance through our right
to council pilot program.
What you have before you in our most recent substitute
of the Jackson Park Housing Pilot program,
includes the reservation of city owned land
for the development of affordable home ownership
opportunities through our city, lots
for working families program, as well
as setting aside larger parcels for the development
of affordable rental units.
Residents who have been displaced since 2015 will have a 30
day preference, uh, in leasing up so
that they have that right to return.
We are setting up a Chicago rebuild pilot program in the
pilot area so that developers can get grants to rehab vacant
and abandoned properties.
And so those back to community members
with some affordability and resale restrictions.
We've included a tenant opportunity to purchase
Woodlawn already has a tenant opportunity to purchase, but
because of how, you know, lessons we've learned since
that was first implemented, it has not worked very well.
And so what this seeks to do is bring that program in line
with the northwest side,
which has the tenant opportunity to purchase.
We've expanded the fair notice
and created a pilot program in the pilot area, as well
as launching a property tax debt relief pilot program
for three community areas, the South Shore community,
the Englewood community, and the Lower West Side community.
And so, I'll go over the details for all of these items
here on your screen.
You'll see the map of the pilot area boundaries with
that blue dotted line.
Um, it encompasses Woodlawn, a northern part
of South Shore, as well as a tiny bit
of greater grand crossing.
So again, on the reservation of city owned land
for the development of affordable home ownership
and rental units, we are setting aside 25 city owned lots
for city lots for working families.
This will allow the development of single family town home,
two flat three
and four unit homes, as well as condos
with an affordability split.
A 50% market rate, 50% affordable,
and the buyer income is capped at 150% of the a MI.
And then rentals, uh, again,
we're setting aside five city owned lots, one
of which was already set aside in the Woodlawn Housing
Preservation Ordinance to, uh, for 20 years
for the development of affordable rental units.
The cross streets are listed here on the screen.
The affordability targets will be 75% of the units at
or below 60% a MI
and the Department of Housing shall strive
to maximize the number of units affordable
to residents making 30% area median income or below.
Um, again, uh, a right to return leasing preference
for residents who have been displaced from the pilot area
due to gentrification pressures for the first 30 days.
And both of these will have a neighborhood developer
and neighborhood hiring preference.
On the screen here, you'll see the parcels set aside
for the development of the affordable rental units.
Again, we're also launching the Chicago Rebuild,
Jackson Park Pilot
and setting aside $3 million of funds
that the city has already received through various state,
federal, and philanthropic sources to provide grants
for the rehabilitation of vacant
and abandoned properties within the, uh, pilot area.
And these grants will allow developers to redevelop one
to four unit buildings.
And as those are resold back to the market, the,
uh, it will be capped
and ensure that it will go to income eligible households at
or below 120% a MI
with a 10 year sale resale price restriction,
again, the tenant opportunity
to purchase updates the Woodlawn Topa that currently exists
and expands it to the Jackson Park Pilot area,
and the provisions of which are aligned
with the Northwest side Topa.
This will provide tenants the opportunity
to purchase the building that they live in when the
owner wants to sell.
And this will also allow the Department of Housing
to administer a single set of rules
and clarify any confusion
and discrepancies that currently exist
between the two programs.
The Property Tax Debt Relief Pilot program, the Department
of Housing will raise $3 million to,
from philanthropic sources
to start a property tax debt relief program with grants up
to $5,000.
The eligibility requirements include that the
resident must reside as their principal resident within the
eligible building in which there is, um, property tax debt,
annual gross income, not
to exceed a hundred percent area median income.
This is in line with the Cook County Property Tax Relief
Program, and proceeds of course must be used
to be paid directly to Cook County
for those delinquent taxes.
And, and, um, you know, not for any other purposes.
Finally, the grantees must reside in that building
as their principal residence
for at least three years following the payment of this grant
to Cook County.
And this program will be in effect until the end of 2030.
So the city conducted a citywide analysis to determine
that these three community areas have some
of the highest need across the city in property tax
burden and delinquency.
And that, that's why we chose these three to ensure
that we are delivering the highest level of impact
for our residents.
So you'll see in South Shore, this community is one
of the highest in the city for tax delinquencies,
for owner occupied one to six unit properties.
And homeowners are really experiencing the pressure of
that rising property tax rate driven by reassessments
and market pressures.
On the lower West side, you'll see, um,
that the community has faced an increase
of 46% in property taxes from 2018
to 2023, which is the highest in this city.
And as that neighborhood gentrifies residents are
increasingly vulnerable to displacement due
to those escalating property taxes in Englewood.
The 2024 reassessment data shows a 94% growth in media
and sale price of homes from 2024 to 2020,
or I'm sorry, 2020 to 2024.
And this rapid property value increase, um,
is driving up taxes despite no increase in the levy
and cost of living, again,
heightening the displacement risks for residents.
So we're really hopeful that this will bring some relief
and make sure that people can stay in their homes.
The expanded fair notice pilot program will require
that landlords within the Jackson Park pilot area provide
additional notice to tenants around the termination date
of their rental agreements.
So if you've lived in your unit for more than three years,
you would get a 180 days notice
that your lease is being terminated and not renewed.
If you've lived in your unit for one to three years,
you would get a 120 days notice
and less than one year, a 30 days notice.
And that concludes my presentation. Thank you.
Thank you. Um, are there any que any questions
by committee members?
Questions? Alman Robinson?
And before the question, I do wanna
recognize Ali Woman Clay.
I think he, she rule, she request at Rule 59,
she had to go to her ward.
So can I get a motion to approve her participation?
So move Alman, Casada. All those in favor say aye.
All those opposed nay. The opinion of the chair.
The ayes ab uh, al Lumen Clay now has been allowed
to use remote means to participate.
Alman Robinson.
Chairman, thank you very much. Um,
I'm pausing for a moment to collect my thoughts.
Um, when you, uh,
mentor a young person,
you never know when they'll be sitting in front of you.
Um, Mr. Dixon, who is in the box, was a young man
that I mentored in high school pool and I had hair
and no gray beard.
And now for him to sit in a box
and be able to articulate his personal experience,
um, his family dynamic,
and to be able to paint a clear picture
of why we are doing the work, we're doing this work to
stabilize communities, create opportunities for folks to
live in a safe environment, keep people in their homes
that have been there for 20, 30 plus years,
and to be able to have young people like Mr. Dixon
to be able to articulate this.
And so, Mr. Dixon, I am, uh, extremely proud of you.
And
Sometimes when we do this work, um, we don't know
how these people will move things forward.
I, I see Chairman Dow to my left,
and I think about her giving me an opportunity, uh,
to be able to be here and to give back to my community.
And the same, we, we pay it forward and pay it forward.
And folks like, uh, you, Mr. Dixon.
And so thank you very much. I am again proud of you, uh,
and keep up the amazing work
and, uh, to Ottoman Yancy, I know that
you have been trying to push this for some time,
uh, prior to you being in this seat.
Um, you understand the pressure points that
are going on in the South Shore community.
And I know that, uh, this is a big challenge
and there's a lot of issues surrounding this,
but I know that your heart's in the right place
and you are trying to do the right thing for a community
that if we don't keep our eye out on South
Shore, we will lose it.
And if we don't keep our eye on South Shore,
we will lose Bronzeville.
And so, uh, alderman Yancy, um, kudos
to you and the work that you're doing.
Um, I know there are some folks that are here
that really need to understand this even more.
So, the work that you're doing to, again, hold on
to South Shore.
So chairman, thank you very much.
And Alderman Yancy, uh, thank you.
Thank you Alderman Robin. So Alderman Derman,
Thank you so much, chair.
I really appreciate this ordinance.
I appreciate Dixon, you and the coalition's continuous
and persistent work on this, uh, ordinance Alderman,
YI, uh, beyond impressed by your persistence
and your colleagues' persistence here.
I think that this is a really unique
and effective combination of tools
for combating displacement.
And it makes me think of,
and honestly it makes me think about the,
the 6 0 6, the Bloomingdale Trail.
We just celebrated the 10th anniversary of that trail.
And two things are like very true.
One is that it's an incredible blessing
and resource to our community.
And, and the other thing that's completely true is
that it exacerbated in ways
that we could not have perceived the gentrification
and displacement of thousands of residents
of Logan Square and Humble Park.
And I wish in a way that those
who had been our leaders in the community 10 years ago
had been prescient enough to
put these tools in place
before a cataly catalytic investment happened rather than
after, because it's then left to the rest of us to cope
with the repercussions.
I'm really glad that you are doing this
before the OPC is completed
and open rather than after.
Because once the train has left the station,
it's incredibly difficult to slow it down.
So thank you so much for the work on this night.
I know that your residents are gonna feel
the benefit of all of these efforts.
Thank you, chair. Thank you
Al. We
have Alderman followed
by Alderwoman Taylor and Alderman Sala.
And thank you Mr. Chairman.
Uh, just a couple of questions.
First, I want to, uh, acknowledge Alderman Yancy.
I know you've been working on this for a good little minute.
Um, and so, uh,
I know it's never easy bringing forward major
ordinances like this.
I just would like, uh, some clarity on some things on the,
um, affordable home ownership component.
Uh, let's say I'm an individual who participates in this.
I purchase a property, one
of the market rate properties.
Um, am I able to build equity in my property
or is this land, uh, put
or is my home put into a land trust?
Thank you for that question, chairwoman.
I'm gonna pass it to Edwin from the Department of Housing.
Uh, good afternoon chair. Good afternoon.
Wo uh, Edwin, director of Policy
and planning for the Department of Housing.
Um, so if you are buying the property
directly from the Rebuild developer,
there is an income eligibility restriction.
So that price, that home has to be sold affordably
and to an income eligible household up to 120%
of the area median income.
Then once you own that property,
the resale restriction would only apply
for the first 10 years
after those that first, those 10 years, uh,
there is no resale restriction
and the homeowner would be able to sell at market value.
If they sell within those first 10 years,
then the department would apply a modest resale restriction
that would still allow the homeowner to take out the equity,
um, but would not, um, it would not be
sold fully at, uh, at market value.
We would be, we would put, um, a resale formula on
that similar to, uh, what we do
through say the housing trust, which you heard earlier from.
And that house, that resale formula has
been, is established.
Uh, the resale formula has not been established.
Uh, we have within the ordinance the authority
to promulgate rules and
that will be established through those rules.
Thank you. On the tenant
opportunity to purchase program,
are there any qualifications for, uh, the tenant
being able to notify the owner that they intend
to exercise their right to purchase?
And then once they, that's one question.
And then once they, uh, exercise that right,
or they tell the owner that they want
to purchase the building, how much time do they have
to not just sit on their hands?
Uh, so there are no restrictions on the tenant.
If the tenant is a resident of that property, uh,
within, with an active lease.
Um, as long as they meet the requirements
for a tenant association and all the other requirements in
the ordinance and they register an association
with the department, they would be able
to exercise the route of first refusal.
Um, depending on the size of the property, uh,
it depends on, it varies how much time tenant would have.
So for a single unit
or a two flight would be 15 days for a three
or four flight would be 30.
And for, uh,
I I see that, yes, that that's the time
that they have 15 days from the time.
Let's say an owner decides he wants to sell a property.
I'm looking at the one
or two dwelling units that tenant has 15 days
to tell the owner that they want to purchase,
Right? Yes. So they
would, once the tenant exercised the right
of first refusal, they would have either 30
or 90 days to prove that they can purchase that building,
um, and come up with the earnest money
and put down a deposit in order to exercise
that. Right? Okay.
And there's no qualifications on a tenant.
So I could have a bonafide lease,
but maybe I don't pay my rent on time
or I've skipped some a month or,
Yeah, nothing per, nothing in this ordinance prevents from
a landlord from going through the eviction process
and removing a tenant from the property if
they're in violation of their lease.
Um, there are no strict restrictions on having
to be current on, on rent to exercise the right,
but that is all at the discretion of the landlord.
If they wish to file an eviction for a tenant that is out
of compliance, um, the
department does not take a stance on that.
Thank you. Thank
You all. Alder Manal,
um, we have Alderman Taylor,
and then Alderman Yancy has the right to close.
We're gonna get the opportunity to close. Alderman Taylor.
Thank you, chairman.
So thinking about this major development
that's in our community, the Obama Presidential Center,
it's the first black president of the United States.
He's from Chicago. We want to honor them.
We didn't do this right the first time.
So they got the land for 99 years.
You all closed the major street.
Then you saw properties in Woodlawn, Hyde Park,
south Shore, Washington Park skyrocket
four blocks from my home.
They build three houses that are $964,000.
Who could afford that?
You notice none of my coworkers hands went up.
You notice my co my hand didn't go up.
Nobody could afford that.
But that is the price you pay
for having investment when you don't have the conversation
on the front end.
And so I'm actually grateful for the conversation,
but what I'm going to say to the chamber, the homeowner,
the renters, the city
and the foundation is either we gonna hang together
or we gonna hang together.
We, we, we gonna hang together or we gonna hang together.
And so what I would've wanted to see happen is more con
and this is more for the organizers
and the people of the community, for us to come
to the table on the front end us to have more conversation.
'cause honestly, all of this is triggering.
'cause it brings me back to the Woodline housing.
And we, we have no real date on it,
but there are thousands of people who've been displaced
from the 20th Ward in the Woodlawn community.
If we look at the data,
and I, I want us to do that, uh, we, we gonna have to
because there is no way that you say,
I wanna invest in a community at bringing this large scale.
And then you push out the very people you saying you
changing the community for that don't seem like
a win-win for us.
And so this, this has not been easy for Alderman Yancy,
nor myself nor any
of the other aldermen who have to weigh on this.
Because folks who, who, who stand to make money
or who wanna come to our community now
because they wanna live close to this, are willing
to push pushout everyday people.
'cause they feel like they deserve to live there.
Everybody deserves to have housing that they could afford.
They deserve to live in a safe community.
They deserve to live in a community that has the amenities
that other communities have.
But we gotta go through foolishness like this
because certain folks wanna say,
you don't deserve to live here.
Mm. Now, CHA Hud
and the state has some responsibility to help out
with some of this as well.
And I've never seen them at the table
or part of any of this conversation, which is disheartening.
And so now again, when we are just fighting just to be
everyday people, to live in a country
that hates our communities
and us anyway, now we found something else to fight about.
And so anybody who does not wanna support this
and does not want to figure out the solution,
you are part of the problem.
That part, you are part of the problem.
And at the end of the day, what I want us
to do different is to continue talking.
It does not stop at introducing and passing this ordinance.
That's not why I stopped.
The conversations continues
because there are a lot of voices
that should have been heard that weren't,
but also wait until it seems like this was gonna happen
to come and have a conversation, which we know people do
that I I make,
I make enough to afford my rent going up $500.
That's not what happens in my community.
The mu median income in the 20 ward is $25,000.
So where could you afford to stay? You can't.
And so are we looking at that?
'cause that's creating more homelessness?
And I'm gonna say something that I said the last time,
and all the woman, Taylor is a renter.
I rent by choice.
'cause I've seen the city of Chicago when they wanna change
the name of your community and make it fancy and up.
I've seen how they'll push you out
and they'll push just by that building that you live in.
'cause they wanna do what they wanna do in our community.
'cause remember, I still pay my taxes
and every time I go to the store, whether I spend $500
or $10, I'm paying my taxes.
So I should have a right to say
how those tax dollars are spent,
but I also should be able to live in the community
where no matter what I make, I'm able to afford there.
And that just needs to be citywide.
And so let's have a real conversation about a citywide CBA
'cause The problem is, y'all give 'em all our money
to develop and do what they wanna do in all the land.
And then they say to hell with us.
And that's what, that's our lived experience.
And I ain't telling you what I think,
I'm telling you what I know.
And so there's more work to be done on this.
Alder, Alder and Yancy. Thank you. This has not been easy.
It's 'cause you got two sets of folks in your ear,
some saying do, some saying don't.
And it's like, how do you come to the balance?
How do you get to the middle where everybody is satisfied?
You're not gonna satisfy everybody.
It's, it's almost impossible.
But what I can say is I'm confident enough to know
that the conversation won't end today.
I know that you're gonna keep working with it.
I know we gonna keep having conversations
and I know that we're going to make sure
that everybody is held accountable,
including the city of Chicago.
And so I'm gonna end with this.
I love my community that I live in.
I don't know what's gonna happen when I don't work
for the city, but I be damned if I allow y'all
to push us out, the city that we help build,
that we help create.
We're 77 communities for a reason
and they all look different.
And so those differences, we, we gonna have to come,
we we gonna have to talk about it.
We gonna have to come together about it.
But the city has more work to do.
I I hope y'all never do this to a community again,
never in y'all lifetime.
And if you sitting in these seats
and you think this is okay, it's something wrong with you.
It ain't something wrong with the people
that you're paid to represent.
And remember that we're all supposed to be servant leaders.
I'm here to serve and I ain't picking
and choosing who I'm serving.
I wanna serve everybody. And so we got some, I thank you.
I know this ain't been easy.
I know this has been hard
'cause you're dealing with a lot of voices,
but at the end of the day, the city
of Chicago has a responsibility to take care of.
It is citizens. It has a responsibility to take care
of the people that they claim they love.
And it has the responsibility to hold people accountable.
And so I hope that you all are holding the foundation
and the folks who are gonna benefit from this being
there accountable. Thank you.
Thank you. Alderwoman Taylor, uh, alderman
Alderman Hall has, um, was earlier on.
He also has requested a Rule 59.
He like to make a comment as a known member.
Alman Dao. All those in favor say aye.
Opposed a name depending on the chair of the aye sa. We,
Well, first of all, yes, I can.
Thank you so much. Uh, everyone
We can hear you. Go
ahead. Can, can you hear me now? Yep. Okay.
Thank you again you all for, uh, acknowledging myself
and allowing me to, uh, participate.
I want to, uh, briefly say that the work done by, uh,
my colleague and one
who I've actually called brother has benefited our ward.
Um, though the space is a small space, um,
the potential is so big beyond our own imagination.
And I want to thank, uh, your leadership, um, Autum Yancy
for the consistency
and the good news to the sixth Ward along the area in which
we will benefit from our countless abandoned apartments
and countless city owned, uh, property that for the last two
and a half years, people have constantly asked me,
what can I do to renovate?
What can I do to live in, what can I do
to make the community better in spite of the abandonments?
And so given access to quality
homes in which people will be able
to build from their own working hands is a big deal.
And so thank you for, um, the support
of those on the left and on the right.
And this is the Chicago, as my sister has just said,
that should always be for everyone
and not a tale of not only two cities,
but uh, city that excludes those
who deserve basic housing and beautiful housing.
And so thank you for adding to the role, the possibility
of new residents and ward
that really needs it, the Sixth Ward.
So thank you so much and I appreciate you all. Thank you.
Thank you Alderman Hall.
And now to close Alderman Yancy. Thank you very much.
Thank you Chairman Lopez.
Uh, vice Chair Mitchell, members
of the Committee on Housing and Real Estate.
Uh, it's my honor to be able to present it to you.
This housing pilot, the Jackson Park
Housing Pilot Ordinance.
Um, first lemme remind you that in 2020,
my colleague Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor,
passed the Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance.
And the motivation behind this ordinance was
to protect Woodlawn residents from being displaced following
the announcement of the Obama Presidential Center.
Uh, that ordinance has five main goals, uh, to protect
existing residents from displacement, create new rental
and for sale housing opportunities that are affordable, uh,
to households at a range of incomes.
Ensure that existing housing stock offers good quality
residents for residents, promote housing options
to support equitable and inclusive income diversity in
Woodlawn and support economic development opportunities.
The Jackson Park Housing Pilot ordinance just does,
does just that for residents who live south
and west of the Obama Presidential Center
who are most at risk for being displaced.
Uh, jumping ahead here, I'm proud
to have worked alongside Alder Women, Taylor
and Alderman Hall, uh, south Side together
and the Obama CBA coalition, the Mayor's Office,
the Department of Housing, and the Department of Buildings,
uh, for allowing me to keep my campaign promised
to bring legislation before this body
to prevent further destabilization of the communities
that I have been elected to represent.
While this ordinance doesn't solve for every issue,
its impact will be felt for generations
as residents within the pilot area will be encouraged
to stay in their homes age in place
and create the generational wealth
that strengthens communities.
Uh, I'd like to give a special acknowledgement to,
uh, Alderwoman Harris.
I know she's had a pretty tough week,
but her leadership has been, her leadership
and support have been invaluable
and instrumental in crafting this
ordinance and bring it to a vote.
Uh, so with that, I respect your,
um, consideration on this matter.
Thank you. So, um, can we get a motion
to produce a move Aldi Woman Taylor?
All those in favor say aye. All those opposed aye Aye, aye.
And the opinion and the opinion
of the chair, the ayes have it.
The dup PAs recommendation
of this ordinance will be reported out at the next city
council meeting on September 25th, 2025.
Um, and I wanna thank also Alderman Yancy
and all the aldermen
who participated in this important effort.
It shows the collaboration that is needed in a time
that tenants and small homeowners are struggling to,
uh, makings meet.
So I wanna thank the alderman
and all the city council members for coming
to an agreement in a time that the city council must act
to protect the most vulnerable.
When we see rents
and property taxes, uh, skyrocketing, we are glad
that we're seen similar efforts on the northwest side
and I'm glad that the city
of Chicago is acting on the south side as well.
That is what fairness and equity is supposed to be about.
So with that, we are proud to have passed that
and I congratulate all the aldermen for this effort.
Thank you so much. And, uh,
before we adjourn, um, given the short turnaround, I want
to forecast the next Council,
council on Real Estate Committee
that will be meeting on Tuesday,
October 7th at 12:30 PM In council chambers,
we will have the Chief Homelessness Officer, Sandy Soto,
presenting their five year plan on homelessness.
There'll be, uh, also the briefings on, um, some of the, uh,
chica, the Chica Housing Trust, the Housing Trust.
So without being further business in front of the committee,
can I get a motion to adjourn?
So move alpa. All those in favor say aye. All opposed nay.
The meeting on housing re estate is officially adjourned.
Thank you so much.