Editorial: Spend more TIF cash on affordable housing

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

For two years, a band of advocates has been pushing for a Chicago ordinance that would increase the percentage of tax-increment financing dollars spent on affordable housing.

It’s time to give them an up-or-down vote.

Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) tells us they’ll finally get their chance at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

Chicago will be a better city if this passes; quality affordable housing gives struggling Chicagoans the stability that is crucial to building a better life. It also helps to preserve this city’s rich diversity.

We urge the Council to vote yes.

The ordinance, dubbed Sweet Home Chicago, would dedicate 20 percent of annual TIF dollars toward building and preserving affordable housing, including renovation of foreclosed properties. Now, just a fraction of the city’s TIF funds go toward affordable housing, though it can improve a blighted area or keep a gentrifying area from pricing out existing families.

The ordinance has flaws, and its backers want to amend it after passage. They have an amended version ready, the product of negotiations with Mayor Daley’s administration, which has long supported affordable housing but opposes this particular ordinance. The amended version addresses many of the legitimate concerns the mayor’s office and aldermen have raised.

City Hall is pushing a dueling ordinance, also up for a vote Wednesday. It would set only a goal, not a requirement, of spending 20 percent of TIF dollars on affordable housing.

A goal doesn’t cut it. Good intentions get you only so far.