City looks to boost affordable housing by changing how it doles out $60M in tax credits

August 6, 2019                                 By: Fran Spielman

The new “Qualified Application Plan” targets the greatest areas of need in the city while giving developers clear ground rules, officials said.

Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara talks to a housing advocate after Novara's confirmation hearing in June.

 | Fran Spielman for the Sun-Times

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is changing the rules for how the city allocates federal low-income housing tax credits to confront an affordable housing crisis that has left Chicago 120,000 units short.

Homeless advocates and their City Council allies have been pressuring Lightfoot to deliver on her campaign promise to raise Chicago’s real estate transfer tax on high-end home sales by a whopping 160% to reduce homelessness and bankroll affordable housing.

Instead, Lightfoot wants to reserve that potential windfall — as high as $150 million — for reducing Chicago’s massive budget shortfall.

The new “Qualified Application Plan” for up to $60 million in low-income-housing tax credits does not include any additional revenue to solve an affordable housing crisis that has contributed to Chicago’s shrinking population.

The rules target the money to the greatest areas of need and income while giving developers clear ground rules for the awarding of tax credits that represent roughly two-thirds of city spending on affordable housing...................Read More