New City Housing Strategy Lacks Plan for the Poor

By: Curtis LawrenceA proposed Daley administration plan for spending millions of dollars in federal housing funds remains vague and noncommittal less than a month before it must be submitted to the federal government, housing activists say.

The city's Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS), which must be filed with the federal government by Oct. 31, requires that localities identify their housing needs and provide a strategy to utilize federal resources.

But housing activists and community-based developers said the city's proposal doesn't go far enough. "The city is not interested in having a substantial CHAS plan," said Michael Rohrbeck, who is president of the Chicago Rehab Network and serves on a 20-member CHAS advisory committee appointed by Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Jean Butzen, executive director of Lakefront SRO Corp., an Uptown-based developer of housing for single adults, said the city has not been aggressive enough on affordable housing issues.

"Despite the documented need that thousands of Chicagoans are not being served by existing housing programs, the city refuses to make very low-income people a priority in the CHAS," said Butzen, who also serves on that committee.

"We have been working very closely with the CHAS advisory committee," said acting Housing Commissioner Hugh Murphy. "We are listening and will try to incorporate their needs," he said.

One key issue is the city's proposal for determining who will receive affordable housing benefits.

Millions in community development block grants and about $30 million in housing funds for rehabilitation and tenant assistance for low- and moderate-income people may be available to Chicago in 1992.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines mandate that very low-income housing subsidies go to families earning less than 50 percent of the median family income of a designated region. But there is a big gap between the median incomes of the city's outlying areas and those within the Chicago city limits.

In 1987 the median household income for the nine-county Chicago area was $30,396, compared to $21,608 for Chicago, according to the 1987 American Housing Survey, compiled by HUD and the U.S. Department of Commerce, the most recent comparison available.

In 1992, HUD's housing subsidies will be based on the $46,900 median family income of three counties—Cook, DuPage and McHenry, according to HUD officials.

William Peterman, an associate professor of Urban Planning and Policy and a consultant to the Rehab Network, said city officials should use Chicago's median income rather than that of a larger area to determine eligibility. "By being too inclusive, money goes to people who are a lot less in need of subsidies," he said.

The city's proposed draft of the CHAS appears to agree in principle with Peterman. The draft states that "it would be more equitable" to look at either 50 percent of the Chicago median income or 35 percent of the median income for the larger regional area. But the proposed CHAS does not commit the city to any formula, housing officials admitted.

Murphy said the city can't choose a city formula over a regional one until necessary income information becomes available from the 1990 census. He added the city was complying with HUD's guidelines.

But while HUD sets an upper limit, it doesn't prohibit cities from targeting their own low-income populations, HUD officials said.

"We are saying that the whole (affordable housing) fund should be used to assist households in the very low-income context as defined by the city," said Bernard Lacour, a spokesman for the Rehab Network.

Some anti-administration aldermen charged that city officials are only concerned with meeting the minimum federal requirements rather than developing a serious housing strategy.

At a Sept. 17 City Council hearing on the CHAS, Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) criticized Daley for choosing mayoral assistant Rosanna Marquez rather than a housing specialist to coordinate the plan.

"What concerns me is that the person coordinating the CHAS process has no experience in that area," Shiller said.

The city is merely meeting HUD guidelines, not trying to develop a housing strategy, she said.

"This is an opportunity not only to respond to a federal requirement, but an opportunity to ... come up with some innovative decisions and prioritize the (housing) needs," Shiller added.

Shut Out
Ald. Rickey Hendon (27th) complained that the CHAS advisory board has no blacks from the West Side.

"I think that all communities should be represented," Hendon said. "If you haven't lived in our shoes, you really don't know how we feel."

Three more public hearings on the CHAS have been scheduled in October.

But some housing activists are pessimistic about the future of CHAS. "This could be the best CHAS in the country if the city wants it that way," Rohrbeck said. "But I have no reason to believe the city is serious about changing the way they produce affordable housing, and the way they produce affordable housing right now is a disaster."