As Skokie considers adding more affordable housing, one trustee lauded the work being done, even though it may appear to be moving slowly. On Sept. 5, the village’s Board of Trustees discussed a proposed affordable housing ordinance, and after Trustee Keith Robinson requested tabling the vote, his fellow trustees approved that move unanimously.
While Robinson wants more information before undergoing an official vote, he said he is proud of the affordable housing work. Affordable housing issues have gained a lot of traction since he initially proposed studying the topic in December, he commented.
“We’re not where a lot of people want to be, but I’m so glad that there’s so much traction and conversations about where we need to be,” Robinson said at the Sept. 5 meeting.
Affordable housing units are units marketed at either 60% or 80% of area median income, according to the ordinance. The proposed ordinance would require developments with 11 to 150 units to offer 5% of their units as affordable housing. For developments with more than 150 units, 10% of units would have to be marketed at affordable rates.
Of those units, half would be required to cost 60% of area median income, while the other half would be at 80%. Developers can opt out of offering affordable housing units by paying a fee in lieu to help fund Skokie’s proposed Affordable Housing Renovation Grant Program.
Affordable housing activists from the Skokie Neighbors for Housing Justice group on Sept. 4 emailed trustees and Mayor George Van Dusen urging them to not approve the ordinance at the village’s Sept. 5 meeting. The activists want an ordinance that will help create new affordable housing options and are frustrated with a fee in lieu, according to the Sept. 4 email.
“We come before you of two minds: grateful that you have spent the year considering how to address the housing crisis in Skokie and concerned that the drafted inclusionary housing ordinance presented … does little to ensure that new multifamily residences serve individuals and families at the full rate of incomes,” the Skokie Neighbors for Housing Justice’s Steering Committee wrote in an email.
The Steering Committee consists of JJ Ivaska, Shelli Patt, Charlie Saxe and Gail Schechter, according to the email signature.
Skokie’s proposed renovation grant program would go toward two- or four-unit buildings that haven’t recently been renovated to improve livability, the ordinance states. These grants could be up to $50,000 and would require affordable housing rental rates for 10 years starting on the grant receipt date.
Activists instead want the money to go toward a community land trust — an entity providing affordable housing to low-to-moderate-income households with a written agreement and managed by a nonprofit organization or board. Land trusts often impose limits on how much a property can increase in price to ensure it remains affordable. Activists believe this would be a better way to increase Skokie’s affordable housing stock versus renovating existing properties as outlined in the ordinance’s proposed Affordable Housing Renovation Grant Program.
“(This) ordinance was meant to increase the supply of modern affordable, accessible housing,” the SNHJ steering committee wrote. “A community land trust (should) be established so that developers … (can) pay a reasonable fee-in-lieu (of affordable housing units) to help fund the purchase, construction or conversion of additional affordable, accessible housing.”
Corporation Counsel Michael Lorge said the grant program will help increase the standard of living in affordable housing dwellings and bring a greater sense of dignity.
“We view this as a unique provision … because of its potential to improve the dignity of the living conditions of many people who find themselves in affordable housing owned by people with limited income … and unable to make improvements,” Lorge said.
Officials like Lorge say an initial ordinance should be approved to establish the affordable housing rate so developments going up in the near future must adhere to it. He says an ordinance of this magnitude will need to be adjusted and revisited on a semi-regular basis.
“We should recognize that this entire process will need revisions over time,” Lorge said. “There should be an atmosphere here that we’re taking first steps and looking for input. Whatever we pass isn’t the end of the road.”
The proposed affordable housing ordinance will go before the Board of Trustees for a third reading and potential vote in the coming months.