Jefferson Park’s Affordable Housing Development is a Step in the Right Direction

A rendering of a proposed mixed-income development in Jefferson Park

In recent weeks, a proposed mixed-income housing development in Jefferson Park has come up against vocal opposition from neighbors.  To his credit, Jefferson Park Alderman John Arena has backed the project and six of his fellow aldermen have joined him in pledging their support for more affordable housing on the City’s North and Northwest sides.  In an editorial published May 29, the Chicago Tribune endorsed the project . BPI added its voice in support with a the following letter to the editor, which appeared in the Tribune’s Voice of the People section:

Dear Editor:

We applaud your “The case for affordable housing in Jefferson Park” editorial.

Chicago’s — and the nation’s — ghastly, long-standing affordable housing crisis is old news. It’s also old news that Chicago’s racial segregation is “the product of decades of intentionally exclusive law, policy and action,” as seven aldermen from North and Northwest side wards recently said. What’s new and welcome news is that some Chicago aldermen are facing up to the old news and trying to do something about it.

A number have publicly supported their colleague, 45th Ward Ald. John Arena, who proposed changing the zoning to allow for an affordable housing development near the Jefferson Park CTA station in a committee hearing on May 22. Seven aldermen have reportedly signed letters pledging to add at least 50 Chicago Housing Authority-sponsored housing units in each of their wards before their terms are up in 2019.

As a nation, and as a city, we have — as a moral matter — a hundred years of housing wrongdoing to right. As an economic matter, a recent report of the Metropolitan Planning Council says racial and economic segregation cost our metro area billions of dollars a year. A single project and a signed letter from seven aldermen will not, of course, right those wrongs or recapture those dollars. But even the longest journey begins with a single step.

These Chicago aldermen are to be commended for embarking on the journey our society must, and eventually will, take. And the Tribune is to be commended for adding the important point that exclusion by race or class violates our Constitution and laws.

— Hoy McConnell, executive director, Business and Professional People for the Public Interest

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