“We need luxury rental housing. That is the one thing we are missing,” said Skokie mayor George Van Dusen as the Village Board voted December 18 to approve a new 153-unit development in the heart of downtown.
But what’s really needed – and increasingly missing – in Skokie is affordable housing. The over-scaled 8000 North project, to be built on land currently owned and controlled by the village, will offer not one single unit priced below exorbitant market rates. Its 500-square-foot studios will rent for $1,400 per month, while its handful of three-bedroom units will go for $4,000.
The question is why village leadership is exercising its power to subsidize this niche, when its own Consolidated Plan notes that both rental and owner-occupied housing prices have soared in recent years. Skokie lost 688 affordable units between 2000 and 2010, while the number of units renting for $1,000 or more increased by over 70 percent from 2008 to 2012. Less than 15 percent of the village’s housing stock is now considered affordable to the average family. Over 3,700 Skokie families, including both renters and homeowners, shell out more than 50 percent their incomes for shelter. [According to data compiled from the Illinois Housing Development Authority.]
The mayor tells us that “the goal of the Village has always been to have a diverse and healthy mix of housing” and “to stimulate the downtown.” But incentivizing this kind of purely profit-driven development is not the way to do it. The village should be promoting development that embodies diversity, offering apartments that run the gamut of price points and welcome single people, families with children and people with disabilities.
In a community forum three years ago, Skokie citizens voiced consensus for scattered, integrated housing options across the income spectrum. Let’s not lose any more opportunities to accomplish this.
Gail Schechter and Hugh Iglarsh
Skokie