Illinois advocates say successful stimulus package must include affordable housing

Jan. 14, 2009 – With the still-growing housing crisis at the core of the sharpest economic downturn since the Great Depression, advocates called for affordable housing to be a key component of stimulus and recovery plans.

"Housing is infrastructure," said Jack Markowski of the Chicago-based Community Investment Corporation, alluding to massive infrastructure investments planned in the forthcoming stimulus program. "It employs people. It provides the foundation to allow people to be part of the workforce." And with a growing need for energy conservation, "it's part of the green economy.

"We have proposals that are shovel-ready," he added, speaking at a gathering of over 200 community housing practitioners convened by the Chicago Rehab Network at Roosevelt University Monday.

Markowski called for tripling expenditures for the federal HOME Investment Partnership Program, which finances affordable housing production — at $2 billion a year, its budget has not been increased since 1990, he said — as well as for the $4 billion Community Development Block Grant Program.

U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) described efforts by congressional leadership to include $23 billion for affordable housing development in the stimulus package, including $10 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund to build or save 100,000 low-income rental homes over two years, as well as funds for more low-income rental subsidies, upgrading public housing units to green standards, and helping cities redevelop foreclosed properties.

Together the proposed spending would assist 800,000 hard-hit households and create 200,000 new jobs, she said.

Schakowsky also discussed efforts to require any further spending under the TARP financial bailout program to include at least $40 billion for foreclosure mitigation.

Participants in two panels expressed high hopes for the incoming Obama administration. "We need a HUD that wants to do housing," said Andrew Geer of Heartland Housing.

Community Media Workshop president Thom Clark moderated the panel discussions.

Joy Aruguete of Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation emphasized the connection between affordable housing and a green jobs program, and Ted Wysocki of the LEED Council stressed the need for immediate training for green jobs.

Housing consultant Teresa Prim discussed the economic recovery plan proposed by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Steven McCullough of Bethel New Life called for "holding financial institutions accountable and making sure capital is flowing to the people who really need it…. We're at the point where a large number of multifamily buildings are in trouble because of [lack of] capital flow."

McCullough said the worker sit-in at Republic Windows last month could be replicated in multifamily rental buildings, with families refusing to move when buildings go into foreclosure.

"In Chicago we've seen overinvestment in high-end housing causing displacement, and in Washington we've seen that a top-down housing policy allows the bottom to fall out," said Pat Abrams of The Renaissance Collaborative. "But we who work at the community level have an alternative to the top-down approach.

"Affordable housing is a community anchor," Abrams said. "We must ensure that affordable housing, and especially rental housing, is the centerpiece of any economy recovery."