Opposition to a plan to bring more subsidized housing to Chicago's Jefferson Park neighborhood is gaining momentum while 45th Ward Alderman John Arena continues to defend the project.
The proposed plan calls for the construction of a seven-story residential development of more than 100 apartments at the site of a vacant structure on the corner of Northwest Highway and Milwaukee Avenue.
It would nearly double the number of subsidized housing units in the middle-income neighborhood, with 80 percent of them going to residents with an income of 60 percent or less of the neighborhood's median income.
Some residents are petitioning against the plan, hoping to halt construction before it can start. A Change.org petition generated more than 2,000 signatures in less than a week, with many opponents expressing concerns about rising crime and plummeting property values. Twenty of the units will be set aside for Chicago Housing Authority voucher-holders.
The Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association also opposes the plan and has long resisted the alderman's efforts to bring more low-income housing to the neighborhood.
Despite local grassroots opposition, the alderman continues to defend the project. Arena’s office mailed a letter to constituents recently, assuring them that the project will be a mix of affordable and market-rate housing, boasting that one-fifth of the units will be market rate.
Arena reasons that more lower-income residents will be a boon to the local economy.
"The alderman supports the idea that more people in the community need more disposable income to help local businesses,” Arena's Chief of Staff Owen Brugh said. “The affordable component also plays to that because those people will be spending less of their income in rent and so more of it will be spent in the community.”
"Data and studies show that the more a community is economically diverse, the better outcome for more of its people, especially young people," Brugh said. He did not cite the data he meant.
The Jefferson Park plan is being developed by Full Circle Communities and includes 51 three-bedroom, 17 two-bedroom and 22 one-bedroom units, as well as 10 studios. The rents are set to range from $300 to $1,900 per month.
Property developers like Full Circle Communities are able to offer lower rents because of help from the state's low-income housing trust fund, which doles out tax credits to developers who reserve a portion of the units in their projects to low-income residents.
The development is the latest venture in Arena's longtime crusade to incorporate more housing into the middle of Jefferson Park’s downtown business district. The complex would also offer 62 parking spaces and a full floor of retail next to a new storage facility.
While opposition grows, the longtime alderman has come to take it all in stride, bolstered by his belief that his efforts offer opportunities to many.
"Giving people stable housing goes a long way in increasing their ability to improve their economic situation," Brugh said.
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