Once Low-Income Homes Now Out of Reach

• Author: Jeffrey Simmons
• Posted: 2024-04-23

News came pouring out of Chicago earlier this week, with a lot of the city's officials complaining about not having enough money to build new affordable housing for many of Chicago's poorest citizens. When pressed on the issue, the city's officials finally admitted the problem, at least as in what happened. All of the thousands of homes that were supposed to be low income housing for the poorest people in the area were sold off for above-market-value prices to people from outside the city looking to move in. The people responsible in Chicago for handling low income housing, even HUD itself, claim no responsibility here. Instead, they're claiming poverty and want more tax money to build new homes, and they refuse to address what caused these houses to be sold outside of the low income market in the first place.

No one is quite sure exactly how many affordable housing units were available in Chicago, but some news reports have the number at over 3,000. According to the latest reports out of the city, none of those units are available now. Some have been given to poorer residents as expected, but in terms of actual standalone single family homes, it would appear as if most of those have been sold off to younger, wealthier people for inflated rates, who are now in the process of fixing the homes and the neighborhoods up.

This is what a lot of people refer to as "gentrification," and the city does not have any policies against this. Every time these poor urban cities claim to set aside homes for the poor, they always seem to be sold to outside wealthier residents. The poorest people in these cities are shoved into housing projects - small apartments without any yards, in poor school districts. Actual homes, which would help people become legitimate homeowners, always end up in the hands of people who can afford homes elsewhere yet end up in these neighborhoods in houses that were supposed to go to the poor.

No Restrictions Buying

Many experts in the housing market, and a lot of different poverty and racial justice advocacy groups, point out the fact that while these cities set aside these homes for poor people, they never restrict who's actually able to buy them. In other words, the government will use taxpayer money to fix up and even build properties that are supposed to go to people who cannot afford traditional housing. Though instead of restricting who's allowed to purchase these homes, the government just leaves them on the open market; and if people aren't moved into these homes, they go up for sale and end up taken.

A lot of people are starting to point out that this really seems intentional. Of course, corruption on this level is a mighty big charge. Though to hear the people tell it, really all does fit as a model of how the government works. The government claims that they're going to build affordable housing for the poorest people in the city. This gives hope to the poor and is a pretty good media story for a few days. Though when it comes time to get poor people in these houses, the government seems to opt for selling them for above market value to people who are wealthier and from outside of these urban areas. One time might be a fluke, but this seems to be the way it happens every single time government mentions low income housing. Advocates and activists are sick of this, though their message does not spread at all on mainstream media.

A Vibrant Tax Base

Just looking at this factually and practically, what we see is wealth privilege in Chicago, just like every other city. Wealthier, younger people fix these houses up, and the neighborhoods improve. Property values rise, taxes rise, businesses move in, schools improve, and the city gets a much larger tax base and also a lot of new tourism money. The city, in the aggregate, does much better financially this way. Poor people, however, are once again overlooked in favor of those with money. Cities talk a big game but seem to do very little for their poor residents.

No one really expects this to change. Though what's really disturbing about stories in Chicago is that the people in charge of messing up affordable housing then go and tell the public that they have no idea how it happens and that the public might have to pay higher taxes in order to fund more affordable houses being built. It seems far too much like a scam for many, especially the poor.