Affordable housing is important not only from a humanitarian standpoint, but it affects the larger economy as well, according to a speaker at a recent La Grange Area League of Women Voters forum on the subject.
“It strengthens our local economy because it brings more people,” said Tina Rounds, CEO of BEDS Plus, the La Grange-based nonprofit that has been working since 1988 to help people in suburban Cook County facing housing crisis. “People who work here can live here … and they can be lifelong community members, which we all strive to be.”
About 35 people gathered at the La Grange Public Library Nov. 19 to learn more about the subject.
Rounds said BEDS Plus distributed an average of $3,500 to clients for housing last year.
“I always think that of all of the things someone might spend $3,500 on, that keeps a family from becoming homeless in our community,” she said. “That kind of brings it into perspective.”
Rounds said affordable housing is often difficult to define. Many experts considered it affordable if persons could afford rental payments at 30% of their income. If rent was 50% of income, that person would be considered house/cost burdened; 80% would be considered extremely cost burdened.
Rounds said that of people living in the lowest levels of poverty, 70% are paying 80% or more for housing.
“Which leaves no room for crisis, it leaves no room for food and extra support that they might need for their children or family members for medical costs,” she said. “We might grumble about the price of eggs but this (housing costs) is directly affecting their ability to live.”
Rounds stressed the Chicago area was particularly troublesome for low-income people seeking affordable housing.
“It’s a tough place for us to live,” she said. “It’s expensive.”
Rounds noted that in La Grange, it would be difficult for a renter to find affordable housing, since the average rent in the village is $2,339, which would require an income of $95,000 to live affordably.
To illustrate the point further, Rounds pointed out that a minimum wage job would only be able to afford an apartment for $875 in La Grange; even someone with a white collar job making $70,000 could only comfortably afford to pay $1,750 for rent in the village.
According to figures from the state, La Grange’s share of affordable housing stands at 13.22%, with 399 affordable homes and 355 affordable rental units.
“So they’re meeting their minimum standard,” Rounds said, citing a 2003 Illinois state law setting goals for affordable housing.
Western Springs, which falls under the area served by BEDS Plus, is much worse, with only 2.8% affordable units of housing, leaving the village 298 units short of the state’s goal.
Rounds listed several reasons for the lack of affordable housing in recent years, including stagnant wages, what she described as the “financialization” of housing stock — where housing units are increasingly seen as investment opportunities for corporations — and barriers to greater production of housing. Those barriers include rising construction costs, regulatory burdens and local zoning control.
“It’s really complex, a multifaceted issue,” she said, stressing the supply of housing is not meeting demand. “The demand for housing is high, and there’s not enough housing being built.
“Construction costs are increasing. We’re trying to renovate a 55-room hotel and we’ve had to increase the costs three times just to keep up with current labor as well as other costs related to that building.”
As for solutions to the housing crisis, Rounds pointed to the BEDS Plus facility on Ogden and East avenues as an example of one way to meet demand, but said that there were several other options.
She referenced a newspaper article containing a quote from the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island.
”Our approach is robust and comprehensive. We are not just doing one thing. We’re making sure we don’t lose any existing units, promoting new construction and providing tenant protections for those who need it.”
Rounds mentioned an approach created by housing activists in the Netherlands that was another approach to affordable housing. “Social housing,” represents 29% of the housing stock in that country, begun by that country’s 284 housing associations.
“Many of them started with government investments, but now they’re sort of moved on from that,” she said. “And they’re asking a more benevolent investor than a corporate investor.”
To highlight the possibility that similar approaches could work in this country, Rounds noted that such approaches were taken in Highland Park and Winnetka.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
