The Chicago City Council once again delayed an affordable housing ordinance. The Sweet Home Chicago ordinance wants to use 20 percent of special tax funds known as TIFs for affordable housing. Some of the money would go toward fighting foreclosures in neighborhoods that have been crippled with blight.
The measure has ping ponged between city council and Mayor Richard Daley’s administration. Now, it’s on hold until more kinks are worked out.
“So they were reasonable compromises and I think we’re there 99 percent,” said Alderman Walter Burnett.
One of the issues is whether the 20 percent earmarked for affordable housing should be a goal or an obligation. An obligation might open the city to lawsuits. City housing officials want the legal language to be fixed.
Despite the delay, housing activists say they feel confident that the measure will eventually pass. Burnett said the new plan is for the measure to go for a vote in December.
