Ill.’s Capital
Needs? $9B. Knowing the Money Will Be Spent Wisely? Priceless
The Illinois Works Coalition is
headed to metropolitan
Chicago
to get the
public’s take on how
Illinois
should fund a long-overdue state
capital plan to build and maintain roads, bridges, transit, schools and housing.
MPC will provide the coalition with funding recommendations– and a proposal for
how
Illinois
can ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely on capital
needs.
It may seem hard to believe, but
Illinois
does
not have a process for rating all transportation projects to determine which
make the best use of taxpayers’ dollars. Such a process is sorely needed, if for
no other reason than that the state does not have enough money to fund all of
the projects on its wish list. According to a 2007 study by the American
Economics Group,
Illinois
has almost $9 billion in surface
transportation capital needs per year over the next five years; however, only $2
billion a year is spent for surface transportation projects.
The
Illinois
Works Coalition
– named for the governor’s proposed capital plan – has been touring the state
since February, led by Southern Illinois University President and former
congressman Glenn Poshard, and former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert. In a
recent article in the
Southern Illinoisan
, Poshard
was quoted as stating, “If we want a capital bill, then somebody’s got to say,
‘Here are the tough choices and here’s what we recommend.’” MPC couldn’t agree
more and will only support a capital investment package with an objective,
criteria-driven system for making those difficult, but necessary decisions about
which
Illinois
transportation projects deserve taxpayer
dollars.
The Illinois Works Coalition will host a listening
session in Geneva , Ill. , on Monday, April 28, from 5 to
6:30 p.m. For more information, visit the Illinois Works
Coalition Web site, or contact Michael McLaughlin, MPC Director of Regional
Policy & Transportation, at 312-863-6022 or mmclaughlin@metroplanning.org
.
Near West Communities Invited to Help Plan Retail, Transportation Access
The Near West Task Force of Reconnecting Neighborhoods,
a community planning process that will result in recommendations for enhanced
transit services, retail, and improved public infrastructure in three Chicago
neighborhoods, invites Near West Side community members to a public meeting on
Monday, April 28
, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., at the “Major” Adams Community
Committee Center, 125 N. Hoyne Ave., Chicago, to learn more about transportation
and retail amenities in and around the Westhaven Park neighborhood, and to voice
their opinions about how to make their neighborhood more convenient and vibrant.
The project is being led by the City of Chicago Dept. of
Planning and Development, with support from the Regional Transportation
Authority, MPC, and HNTB, a firm handling the project’s technical work and
research. For more information, visit the Reconnecting
Neighborhoods Web site, or contact MPC Reconnecting Neighborhoods Manager
Brandon Johnson, 312-863-6046 or bjohnson@metroplanning.org
.
Suburban Mayors Exploring Potential for Joint Affordable Housing Trust Fund
At a recent City Council meeting, the City of Lake
Forest gave Mayor Mike Rummel the go-ahead to explore the creation of a joint
affordable housing trust fund with the four neighboring towns of Deerfield,
Highland Park , Highwood, and Northbrook. The proposal also was discussed at a
recent Northbrook City Council meeting; and is up for consideration by Highland
Park’s City Council on Monday, May 12
, and
by the other cities in the coming weeks. Mayors of Arlington Heights,
Buffalo Grove,
Palatine
and
Rolling Meadows are leading a similar effort. While
the concept is in its
infancy
in
Illinois, Lake
Forest's City Council is enthusiastic about the
potential benefits of the ARCH (A Regional Coalition for Housing) model, which
in
Washington
state has created a partnership between 15 communities ensuring all of them have
the staff capacity and funding needed to build and preserve workforce
housing.
With gas prices and foreclosure rates skyrocketing, and
poverty on the rise in suburban Chicago (as evidenced by a recent Heartland
Alliance report), local leaders are recognizing they can relieve some of the
economic burden on families by ensuring a range of homes at all price points are
available, particularly in job-rich and transit-friendly communities. Mayors
from the north and northwest suburbs have already seen the benefits of working
collectively to solve local workforce housing shortages through the Charter One
Workforce Housing Initiative, which is engaging employers in these towns in
investing in employer-assisted housing and other workforce housing solutions. An
interjurisdictional affordable housing trust fund could be the next step to
helping even more people save money on housing, gas and other rapidly rising
costs in metropolitan Chicago. For more information, contact MPC Vice President
of Community Development Robin Snyderman, at 312-863-6007, or rsnyderman@metroplanning.org
.
CPS Homebuyer Assistance Helps Chicago Teachers Defy Weak Housing Market
As foreclosure rates
reach all-time highs
in
Chicago and across
the
U.S., the Chicago Public Schools
(CPS) Teacher Homebuyer Assistance Program is helping hundreds of teachers
afford homes and avoid common pitfalls that can lead to foreclosure. CPS has
confirmed that, despite the local and national downturn in the housing market,
the number of teachers who have purchased homes through the program remained
consistent in 2006 and 2007.
With support from the City
of
Chicago’s Dept.
of Housing, and Partnership for New Communities, the program helps teachers
become stable homebuyers to achieve its main goal of improving teacher
retention. According to CPS Teacher Housing Director Diana Johnson, “When
launching this program in April of 2005, the Board of Education had found that
if we could bridge teachers through their fifth year at CPS, then we’d have
likely secured a career teacher.”
To date, the program, available to
some 24,400 teachers system wide, has helped 524 teachers better prepare for
homeownership through downpayment assistance and homeownership counseling
provided by Rogers Park Community Development Corporation (CDC). Consistent with
the broader REACH Illinois employer-assisted housing initiative, this counseling
“ensures that teachers not only understand the [homebuying] process, but also
know how to protect themselves and their investment once they make a purchase,”
according to Caleb Sjoblom of Rogers Park
CDC.
For more information on the CPS Teacher Homebuyer
Assistance Program, or other REACH Illinois Employer-Assisted Housing (EAH)
programs like it, please contact Jane Hornstein, MPC EAH consultant, at jhornstein@metroplanning.org
or
312.863.6040.