Stop Giveaways in Lieu of Affordable Housing Units

November 17, 2017November 13, 2020 jeffaxelrod

Another Wilmette building is going up without including affordable housing units, paying a fraction of what they might elsewhere to escape this responsibility. The village allowed the 611 Green Bay Road 75-unit building’s developers to avoid including affordable units in exchange for a one-time $80,000 payment. In other nearby suburbs as well as in Chicago, they would have been required to contribute at least $750,000 towards affordable housing programs.

We can do better. Rather than relying on unenforceable “goals” Wilmette should join its upstanding neighbors by enacting an inclusionary housing ordinance so that 10% of new residential multi-unit developments include affordable housing units.