ALDERMEN, HOUSING ADVOCATES TOUT AFFORDABILITY PROPOSALS

Progressive aldermen and community groups Wednesday urged the mayor to support specific changes to improve housing affordability, protecting lowincome families and stopping the city’s population loss.

The group, organized as the Chicago Housing Initiative, included participants in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Inclusionary Housing Task Force, which on Monday released general recommendations for the city’s Affordable Requirements Ordinance. But the task force failed to settle on specifics and did not provide a draft of a new ordinance.

If anything, the progressive coalition’s follow-up proposals highlighted the divisions on the mayor’s task force and shows that she’ll have a challenge in building broad support on a housing ordinance.

“We had a consensus that this ordinance needed to change,” said Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th), who served on the task force. He’s advocating proposals from the progressive wing.

Sigcho-Lopez said housing advocates are trying to counter the influence of developers in past policies involving housing. “It seemed like developers had a heavyweight in the conversations and they were driving the conversations,” he said.

The alderman praised Lightfoot for her willingness to tackle the problem.