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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first affordable housing development is costing $700,000 per apartment unit in a neighborhood where existing units sell for $126,583, according to public records.
It also compares to the $500,000 cost of building a luxury apartment downtown.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Yes, Chicago government is efficient and there is no corruption. Just curious, how much of your life and wealth has to be stolen from you before you care? It would be interesting to see how low humans can go.
Cost of corrupt government spending goes up and up, faster than inflation. Here’s an idea: City of Chicago could BUY existing housing units at capped price/unit, require recipient of subsidized housing unit to perform “sweat-equity”, just as Housing for Humanity requires of their recipients, as well as require recipient to maintain and repair unit to defined standards so as to qualify for new 12-month lease. City of Chicago has proven to be unable to procure new construction without significant cost premiums, sweetheart contracts, and poor construction quality results, regardless of city agency, regardless of procurement process, regardless of mayor in… Read more »
CARE = Corruptions Are Really Expensive
With these procurement programs Chicago has to use politically approved (read: union) labor to perform work on these. No card selling is permitted on these job sites. Chicago purchasing agents also have to set aside a chunk of work for friends and pals who weren’t the low bidder, but have the ‘correct’ ‘personal plumbing’ or heritage. Add to that all the palm grease that puts the ‘works’ in ‘The City that Works’ and keeps Chicago friends and pals knee deep in cash. The payments to the union bosses are mere icing on the cake at this point, but will ensure… Read more »
I smell an investment opportunity — buy houses on the cheap, sell them to the city at a markup as “affordable housing”, pocket the difference and invest the proceeds outside Illinois.
Chicago would do much better to hand illegals 20K when crossing back into Mexico.
Chicago’s BILLION spent with untold damages in crime and they all would be GONE, not a continued problem.
Maybe JB’s new housing expert should talk to the Mayor and see why the cost is so high. What a pathetic waste while tens of thousands are on the Section 8 waiting list, and hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans can’t afford houses.
Gosh, and to think Old Joe had to scrimp and save to live in a rehab in Bowmanville……