Politics
Chicago Housing Commissioner on Green Social Housing Initiative, Department Spending
Amid rising costs and threats to federal housing grants, Chicago is facing a shortfall of nearly 120,000 affordable housing units.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s new Green Social Housing initiative aims to address that shortage by creating a city-owned nonprofit housing developer. The Chicago Department of Housing is now tasked with carrying out the mayor’s vision to expand housing opportunities for residents.
Commissioner Lissette Castañeda joined “Chicago Tonight” to talk more about their efforts.
On creating affordable housing:
“For a lot of people, … the idea of, like, ‘What does it mean to have affordable housing? Who is affordable housing for?’ is one of those things that is often seen as for poor people or for others,” Castañeda said. “But at its core, affordable housing is just about, ‘Can you afford your rent or your mortgage and utilities without being rent-burdened?’”
Nearly half of Chicagoans spend at least 30% of their income on rent and utilities, which is the standard for determining whether someone is rent-burdened.
“What we’re looking for is a Chicago in which it is affordable for everyone to rent or own a home,” Castañeda said.
On the Green Social Housing initiative:
The Chicago City Council approved the new ordinance after some initial skepticism from alderpeople. Chicago is now the first major city to take on the task of creating a city-owned nonprofit housing developer.
“This is an innovative but proven model,” Castañeda said. “It is true that Chicago is the biggest city to take this on, but at the end of the day, other cities have taken this on, and we’re just doing it at a larger scale. We fully believe that there is a desire out there for low-cost capital that can really create not just the affordable units, but the market units that the city also needs.”
On department spending:
Castañeda said much of the Department of Housing’s work is looking at how to balance the desire to maintain proper living standards in units while keeping spending in check.
“So part of our work through the Cut the Tape initiative has been an update of the architectural and technical standards manual, which will have some updated ways in which we will be looking at cost controls and also at continuing to be able to move faster,” Castañeda said. “Because ultimately, one of the biggest things that are a challenge to projects that makes them more expensive is time. And so we’re really trying to address: How do we make these things move faster?”
