March 14 At its meeting the Chicago Low-Income Housing Trust Fund Board approved more than $3 million in funding for Lawndale Christian Legal Center’s “K-Town Violence Prevention Project,” a hybrid low-income housing, workforce development, and violence prevention center for young men involved in the justice system, especially those with substance abuse problems. A residential program will provide three phases of intensive assistance, with a work placement to facilitate transition out of the housing project. The Board rejected Single Room Housing Assistance Corporation’s proposal for a thirty-unit, refugee-focused single room occupancy (SRO) housing pilot program with sites in Austin, Uptown, and Edgewater, due to problems with the associated landlord organization, including unsafe living conditions in its existing buildings. Board members proposed policy changes to deal with two ongoing issues, including the slowness of some participating landlords to fill their vacant units, despite a large number of qualifying tenants in need of housing.
Over objections by some providers of social services to the City, an ordinance intended to ensure that labor disputes do not disrupt essential health and social services was passed during the City Council joint committee meeting on Health and Human Relations and Workforce Development and headed to the City Council. As proposed, the ordinance requires service providers with annual budgets of more than one million dollars receiving funds from the City’s departments of public health or family and support services to enter a labor peace agreement with employees. Under such agreements, employers agree to acknowledge unions and engage with them in good faith. In return, workers waive the right to work stoppages or strikes. Hospitals are exempt. Providers argued the proposed ordinance is not necessary, would increase their costs, and would make some city contracts not worth pursuing.
The Community Development Commission approved the four resolutions it considered during its meeting, three to negotiate land sales and one to negotiate redevelopment of a site vacant for more than ten years to build a cannabis cultivation facility. Located at 4848 W. Madison St., formerly the site of a Moo and Oink grocery store, the Cadence Cannabis facility would include 24,000 renovated square feet of the existing building and 18,000 square feet of new construction. Using $4 million in TIF funds, the $11.7 million project would initially create twenty-five full-time positions with a total of seventy-five after three years. Estimated start date is the last quarter of 2023 with completion in the second quarter of 2024. The construction would allegedly generate 125 jobs. Two resolutions were to negotiate “garden” projects with NeighborSpace for Echo-Orchard Community Garden at 3024-3040 W. Fifth Ave. and for Calumet Gateway Garden at 3302-3326 E. 92nd St.
March 15
A vote to accept $20 million in state funds to resettle some five thousand migrants bused to Chicago, mainly from Texas, generated extensive debate during a meeting of the City Council. Proponents pointed out that the money was designated for assisting migrants, even though opponents supported using the money first for the needs of Chicago’s homeless population. Either way, the state’s $20 million falls far short of the $54 million the City requested. Alderperson Jeanette Taylor (4th Ward) criticized the Lightfoot administration for its lack of transparency about where migrants would be housed. A proposed ordinance to allow some social service workers to unionize passed.
March 22
The blessing of new dollars to fund more programs and the curse of running a deficit were both recognized at the Chicago Board of Education meeting. COVID relief funds of $1.7 billion are enabling Chicago Public Schools to provide new programs to support students, teachers, and schools. Wraparound support for students in need, professional development and coaching for teachers, and in-school support for underperforming schools, have been established thanks to those funds. Budget deficits of more than $600 million are expected beginning in fiscal year 2026. The issue is that CPS receives only seventy-five percent of the funds the state’s evidence-based funding formula suggests the district should receive. (The CPS budget for FY2023 is $9.4 billion.) Increases in school safety to include emotional and relational support professionals are planned with funding coming from reducing the number of school resource police officers. Board plans to codify operating procedures will, it is hoped, improve transparency. For example, staff briefings of Board members could be conducted publicly.
April 11 Approved at a meeting of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability were City support for a community arts center at 5345 S. State Street, the acquisition of land parcels on the Southeast Side for roadways to support redevelopment of a former Republic Steel site, and the sale of a City-owned lot to a former Parks Department employee who was fired in 2021. Properties for the arts center are valued at $260,000; the Commission recommended they be sold for one dollar to the non-profit Deeply Rooted Dance Theater. The sale and the resulting development together are considered an expansion of the cultural offerings of the Invest/Southwest initiative, explained Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Maurice Cox.
This information was collected and curated by the Weekly in large part using reporting from City Bureau’s Documenters at documenters.org.