CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Housing advocates said Chicago’s moves to increase affordable housing in the city are still bypassing many low-income people.
Don Washington, director of the Chicago Housing Initiative, applauded Mayor Lori Lightfoot's administration’s billion-dollar commitment to fund two dozen affordable housing developments across the city.
But he said the definition of who’s eligible for that housing leaves out more than half the people who need it.
For example, Beverly Fagans with the Lugenia Burns Hope Center in Bronzeville, said she couldn’t stay in housing she wanted because her income was just too high.
Cathleen O’Brien, a housing organizer with Access Living, was among activists who said Chicago’s set the income eligibility bar too low for people trying to find truly affordable housing. And, her group has joined the Chicago Housing Initiative’s efforts backing an ordinance trying to keep residents in low-income housing from being displaced.
Still, the advocates applaud the Lightfoot administration for making the billion-dollar commitment to increase affordable housing in Chicago.
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