City officials said they were encouraged by the response to the program, which was designed to combat the city’s affordable housing crisis.
Daniel Kay Hertz
An effort to test whether the city’s affordable housing crisis can be eased by permitting basement, attic and coach house dwellings in five areas of the city will start Saturday, ending a 64-year ban on tiny homes in Chicago.
The 42-8 vote was a victory for Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who promised during the campaign to overhaul the city’s laws to reduce the affordable housing gap of nearly 120,000 homes in Chicago.
Aldermen on Tuesday advanced a plan designed to boost the number of affordable homes across Chicago by requiring developers that get special permission from the city or a subsidy to build more units and pay higher fees.
The plan is designed to give developers incentives to build in parts of the city where there is little affordable housing or where longtime residents are vulnerable to displacement, officials said.
