Think outside the box on affordable housing, Mayor-elect Lightfoot

A chorus of voices is calling for the incoming mayoral administration to invest in more affordable housing. Those voices include well-meaning people, committed to “inclusion and equity,” who argue that low-income people would benefit from “moving to opportunity” in new, high-end developments in the densely populated, amenity-rich North Side

But should a poor person be forced to move to Lincoln Park or Lakeview to find a good apartment, an excellent school, a job, or a grocery store with fresh food?

The answer should be, and can be, no. The focus on getting more affordable housing in rich neighborhoods shouldn’t overshadow the need to improve communities where low-income people already live — and where they might want to stay

Investment and community renewal, without gentrification, can occur even in neighborhoods that were written off as hopeless not long ago.

Take the Pullman/Lake Calumet neighborhood, declared “dead” after Ryerson Steel and the Pullman Wheelworks closed, leading to an exodus of jobs and people. In recent years, hundreds of new jobs have been created in manufacturing and retail facilities once occupied by Ryerson. Pullman is now a new tourist attraction. Hundreds of apartments have been restored, homes have been rehabbed and resold, and schools have been renewed, with some now among the top performers in Illinois. Income levels, employment rates and home prices are up. Crime is down.

In Woodlawn, filled with vacant buildings and lots just a decade ago, a 2012 federal grant of $31 million for affordable housing has jumpstarted $440 million in neighborhood investment. In addition to hundreds of mixed-income rental apartments, the neighborhood has new homeowners, a slew of new businesses, new schools, new recreation facilities and the first full-service grocery store to be built in the area since the mid-1950s. The

population has increased for the first time in 50 years.

And in seven communities once dominated by Chicago Housing Authority high-rises — communities that were once among the nation’s poorest — there has been a total turnaround. Segregated, all-low-income housing has been replaced by attractive, mixed-income housing, bringing more people to schools, parks and stores. CHA residents now enjoy higher incomes, employment, and college attendance, and less crime.

What do these optimistic tales teach us? Each story had common elements: leadership willing to challenge the common wisdom, a community-vetted plan for change, a public entity or institution committed to kick-starting private investment, and individuals with the tenacity to see everything through.

In Pullman, it was community planning led by citizens’ groups, the tenacity of the local alderman (Anthony Beale) and the resources and extraordinary commitment of U.S. Bank that formed a partnership to realize a vision that once seemed a pipe dream.

And in Woodlawn, a federal Choice Neighborhood Grant (an Obama-era program) allowed Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) to partner with the city to bring to reality the community-created “Woodlawn Quality of Life Plan.”

The Lightfoot administration has a mandate to enhance inclusiveness and equity as a foundation for this city’s future. More affordable housing in higher-income North Side neighborhoods is nice. But real change will come from strengthening all the city’s neighborhoods – not leaving some of them behind.

Real change for the South and West Side requires investment, to create housing for people across the income spectrum. Communities need housing that will attract a large enough population to support the schools, shops, and amenities that create jobs, culture and a sense of place.

Real change will take a strategy that recognizes the need to subsidize homeownership and support the middle class, as well as the poor, if we are to rebuild neighborhoods and give businesses an economic incentive to move into a community.

Most of all, real change takes a commitment to stay the course.

These are not pipe dreams, but realistic expectations if the new administration takes the lessons from past successes.

The new mayor-elect has a mandate for change. We cannot afford to miss the opportunity.

Eugene Jones is the CEO of the Chicago Housing Authority. David Doig is president of Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives.

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