After receiving the year-end report from Illinois' Affordable Housing Task Force, the Governor's Office issues "Building for Success: Illinois' Comprehensive Housing Plan."
On Monday, Jan. 24, the Governor's Office issued
an advance release of
the historic document, "Building for Success: Illinois' Comprehensive
Housing Plan," wrapping up the first year’s work of the Housing
Task Force
. Building on Gov. Rod Blagojevich's September 2003
"Executive Order to Establish Comprehensive Housing Initiative," the plan kicks-off a
multi-year agenda to promote affordability and choice for all Illinois households,
create and preserve the state’s supply of affordable and workforce
housing, and engage more local and state leaders in advancing housing
solutions.
It provides an over-arching message on the value of affordable and workforce
housing to communities throughout Illinois, as well as detailed assignments,
timelines, and accountability mechanisms for a variety of state departments and
other key stakeholders.
The plan bridges the historic divide between the agencies
providing capital and service dollars for housing, a problem that has interfered
with needed development in recent years, clearly
favoring rent subsidies,
in-home supports and supportive housing over other more institutional
environments.
Although "Building for Success" falls short
of identifying new resources and incentives for planning, it does strengthen the
coordination between the state agencies that plan and fund new development that
will impact the housing arena, including the Illinois Department of
Transportation and Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. In
addition to pursuing these interdepartmental efficiencies, "Building for
Success" directs a variety of activities for leveraging the investment of
private sector business, financial institutions, and the federal government. It
also outlines a number of initiatives to pursue and pilot, such as
property tax relief, land trusts and shared-risk property insurance pools.
MPC was well represented on the Task Force, which was
chaired by Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) Executive Director Kelly
King Dibble, and had ambitious goals for this first comprehensive plan. Our
priorities were to (a) identify incentives for municipalities that are
forwarding the governor's new housing policy, (b) scale up the state’s
employer-assisted housing initiative statewide, (c) promote better regional
coordination, best practices, and accountability among public housing
authorities, (d) pursue more financial resources for housing, and (e) promote
legislation codifying the governor's Executive Order.
While all of
these objectives are advanced in "Building for Success," much work remains. MPC
is particularly pleased about the state's increasing embrace of employer-assisted housing, as
demonstrated by the IHDA's recent decision to expand MPC's pilot matching
fund program statewide. The plan also makes some meaningful steps
to engage public housing authorities in state and local planning
and production. Perhaps the single greatest concern about this first
comprehensive housing plan is the lack of financial incentives currently available
to municipalities working to advance the governor’s housing agenda. The plan
offers capacity building assistance, calls for an exploration of such incentives,
and outlines a number of areas where this could occur, but it falls short
of providing a competitive edge to towns that are helping the state save money
and enhance quality of life by linking housing, jobs and transportation. With
the governor's leadership and the engagement of appropriate state agencies, as
well as the plan’s current goal of codifying the Executive Order in fiscal year
2006, more tangible municipal support is an appropriate next step.
Workforce
stability. Traffic gridlock. Homelessness. Segregation. These are not the kinds of challenges we
can tackle in a moment’s time, or with a pithy declaration Little is more important to
families and communities than the quality, location and affordability of their
homes. “Building for
Success” is a meaningful work-in-progress, and the State’s leadership is
essential if we are to make headway on this most fundamental of
issues.