{"id":93693,"date":"2020-11-30T13:27:19","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T19:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=93693&preview=true&preview_id=93693"},"modified":"2020-12-04T11:40:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T17:40:00","slug":"chicago-developers-remain-pessimistic-about-post-trump-affordable-housing-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-developers-remain-pessimistic-about-post-trump-affordable-housing-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago developers remain pessimistic about post-Trump affordable housing policies"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yilun Cheng<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

President-elect Joe Biden has outlined his plans to advance affordable housing nationwide, but with little progress in the past two decades and rising construction costs, Chicago developers remain pessimistic about his proposed affordable housing initiatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Biden has made an ambitious proposal to invest $640 billion into affordable and quality housing over the next 10 years.<\/span> The money would come from corporate tax raises for large companies and financial institutions, according to Biden\u2019s housing platform<\/a>. $100 billion of the investment would go into an \u201cAffordable Housing Fund,\u201d most of which will be used to incentivize the development and rehabilitation of low-income housing.<\/span><\/p>\n

But developers are skeptical that the Biden administration will move the needle in creating affordable housing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last 20 years, I can\u2019t think of an instance where I have felt that there has been a national conversation on housing that reflected what was happening in my community,\u201d said Lissette Castaneda, executive director at Chicago-based nonprofit developer LUCHA. Her organization owns and manages close to 200 affordable housing units in Humboldt Park and Logan Square.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAffordable housing is in crisis,\u201d Castaneda said. \u201cThe effort and money that we have aren\u2019t producing enough affordable housing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With 333,000 low-income households but only 217,000 affordable housing units, Chicago has a rental affordability gap of approximately 116,000 units, according to the latest report<\/a> by DePaul\u2019s Institute for Housing Studies, based on the most recently available census data.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, solving the affordable housing shortage comes down to money, Castaneda said. It takes approximately $400,000 for LUCHA to build one affordable housing unit in the city. Construction costs are on the rise and they now have to spend extra money on personal protective equipment to keep workers safe amid COVID-19.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To finance these projects, Castaneda said, developers need to employ multiple layers of financing, including the benefits under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), which allows developers to invest in the nation\u2019s most distressed communities with reduced tax rates on capital gains. But it is still not enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a problem at this scale, you also need solutions at this scale,\u201d she said. \u201cThe national efforts all feel very piecemeal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Christopher Ptomey, executive director at Terwilliger Center for Housing at the Urban Land Institute, agrees with Castaneda\u2019s assessment. He has spent over two decades as a federal housing lobbyist. After witnessing a low commitment to housing from both parties, he said he cannot imagine the new administration making affordable housing a priority.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t mattered which party is in charge of Congress or the White House,\u201d Ptomey said, adding that the ongoing pandemic has created more competing needs for the federal government to invest financial resources into. \u201cThe record over the last 20 years is that housing doesn\u2019t compete very well against many of these other issues like transportation, infrastructure, and healthcare.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do everything in the Biden platform, it would solve a lot of housing needs,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s realistic to have even substantial parts of it go through Congress.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bill Eager, senior vice president at nonprofit developer Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), said he expects a higher likelihood of expanded investment in affordable housing now that the presidency has fallen into Democrats\u2019 hands. But the \u201cdevil\u2019s in the details,\u201d he said, highlighting the question of how that increased investment will be deployed on the local level. POAH owns and manages about 2,000 units of affordable and market-rate units in Chicago.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that people are struggling financially, it would be appropriate for a rent subsidy to help depressed people stay in their homes,\u201d Eager said. But it remains to be seen if the Biden administration could deliver all it has promised.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yilun Cheng is a social justice and investigative reporter at Medill. You can follow her on Twitter at <\/i>@ChengYilun.<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yilun Cheng Medill Reports President-elect Joe Biden has outlined his plans to advance affordable housing nationwide, but with little progress in the past two decades and rising construction costs, Chicago developers remain pessimistic about his proposed affordable housing initiatives. Biden has made an ambitious proposal to invest $640 billion into affordable and quality housing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":722,"featured_media":93705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5045,675],"tags":[658,482,5065],"class_list":["post-93693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2020","category-social-justice","tag-affordable-housing","tag-election","tag-joe-biden"],"yoast_head":"\nChicago developers remain pessimistic about post-Trump affordable housing policies - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President-elect Joe Biden has outlined his plans to advance affordable housing nationwide, but with little national progress in the past two decades and rising construction costs, Chicago developers remain pessimistic about his proposed affordable housing initiatives.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-developers-remain-pessimistic-about-post-trump-affordable-housing-policies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chicago developers remain pessimistic about post-Trump affordable housing policies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President-elect Joe Biden has outlined his plans to advance affordable housing nationwide, but with little national progress in the past two decades and rising construction costs, Chicago developers remain pessimistic about his proposed affordable housing initiatives.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-developers-remain-pessimistic-about-post-trump-affordable-housing-policies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-30T19:27:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-04T17:40:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/11\/WechatIMG636.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"825\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"yiluncheng2021\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Chicago developers remain pessimistic about post-Trump affordable housing policies\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"yiluncheng2021\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-developers-remain-pessimistic-about-post-trump-affordable-housing-policies\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-developers-remain-pessimistic-about-post-trump-affordable-housing-policies\/\",\"name\":\"Chicago developers remain pessimistic about post-Trump affordable housing policies - 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