[remote or in person] Committee on Housing and Real Estate

Chicago City Council

Housing

Politics

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023
12:00 p.m. — 3:00 p.m. CST

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121 N LaSalle St Chicago, IL 60602 (Directions)

City Hall, 2nd floor, Council Chambers

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Reporting

Edited and summarized by the Chicago - IL Documenters Team

Live reporting by Aryssa Burton

Alders recommended approval of an ordinance which will continue Chicago’s Flexible Housing Pool (FHP).

aryssa symone @aryssadocs

Hello! Today I’ll be covering the Chicago City Council Committee on Housing & Real Estate meeting for @CHIdocumenters #chidocumenters

01:11 PM Nov 30, 2023 CST

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The meeting is called to order at 12:06p by the chair, Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez. A quorum was reached after taking attendance by roll call. Alders Harris and Clay are joining remotely.

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The agenda for the meeting can be found below

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The October 2023 Rule 45 Report was approved by council. Rule 45 is the records of proceedings of committees, by roll call. The summary of the Oct 30th 2023 meeting can be found here:

…storagev1.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/meetingattachm…

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There was only person for public comment, Mr. Blakemore. He expressed housing concerns and asked, “What about housing for the Black American.” This is in response to the committees talks about housing for migrants

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The first item on the agenda is the third amendment to lease agreement for additional City lease space at Suite 1600 to service the Community Council for Public Safety and the Office of Climate and Environmental Equity, more info can be found here:

chicityclerkelms.chicago.gov/Matter/?matter…

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Michelle Woods from the Dept of Assets, Information & Services presents on the amendment. Below is a slide from the presentation

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Woods explains that this amendment is for phase 3 of the lease to add 16,097 sq ft of rental space at $2.25/sq ft or $36,271.91 per month to house the Dept of the Environment and the Community Commission of Public Safety & Accountability

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Alderman Jeanette Taylor, 20th Ward expressed concern about the high cost of the rental space, and said it seems irresponsible to make the decision to lease now especially when lots of other initiatives need funding.

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Taylor asked why city council is centralizing all the depts in the loop as opposed to stationing them in communities and also questioned why after 3 years of expensive leasing agreements they haven’t considered ownership of the building

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Alderman Pat Dowell, Ward 3 had similar concerns and asked what the average rental price per sq ft was in the area. Dowell moved to hold the item in committee so Woods could bring them more information

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Sigcho-Lopez says they can move to hold the item but wanted to hear from others in the committee first

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Alderman La Spata, Ward 1, added that they can’t create departments without providing meaningful places for them to work and said that because they’re buying in a challenging market the high rental prices seem reasonable

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Alderman Burnett, Ward 27, said it sounded like a good deal because the rental prices in his ward are more than double the ask of $2.25/sq ft

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La Spata said that in the Q3 2023 Report the average rent price for the central loop is $42/sq ft, and for Michigan Ave is $43/sq ft so the rental agreement seems like a good deal

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Sigcho Lopez adds that the broad analysis of lease agreements including full disclosure of all the LLCs involved that the alderman are asking for are reasonable requests that they can work to answer

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Ald Pat Dowell moves to hold the item in committee so they can get the broader analysis they’re requesting. The move is seconded and the item will be held for the next committee meeting

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Item 2 on the agenda, (O2023-0005776) is a public way easement agreement to maintain and operate drainage swale of a city property at 3300 S Kedzie in Ward 22

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Chair Sigcho-Lopez moved to defer item 2 to the next council meeting when the Alderman Rodriguez will be present, the deferment is passed

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Item 3 on the agenda (O2023-0005797) is the authorization of Multi-family program funds to Lake View Landing LP for construction of permanent supportive housing at Lakeview Lutheran Church in the 44th Ward.

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Someone from the Dept of Housing presents on the project. The developer is the Over the Rainbow Association, which will develop 37 one bedroom affordable units at 30% AMI or below in the Lakeview Lutheran Church at 835 W Addison St

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The DOH request is for committee approval of up to $5.81 million in multi family loan funds. More info on the project can be seen in this article ( )

blockclubchicago.org/2022/12/15/lak…

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You can see more about the Over the Rainbow Association, the project summary, financing and pics of the existing space in the slides below

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Alderman Bennett Lawson from the 44th Ward is present at the meeting and in full support of the development

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Alderman Dowell asks to hold the item until the end of the meeting for financing

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Item 4 on the agenda, (O2023-0005948) is a license and subscription services agreement with ProLink Solutions Inc for Dept of Housing data management

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Jim Horan from Dept of Housing (DOH) says it’s an unusual request and the DOH is seeking legislative authority to contract with ProLink to modernize the departments software system with financing and monitoring functions of affordable housing. See the background and overview 👇🏾

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Alderman Taylor asks if the contract was put to bid, the length of the contract and if it’s a one time cost

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Horan says the Dept of Procurement Services already did the bid, and says the $221,835 price is for implementation but there is an ongoing annual fee for the software. Below you can see the purchase details and vendor details

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Taylor asks more clarifying questions and Aja Bonner, an analyst from DOH explains the benefits of identifying ProLink as a project management software that can produce dynamic reports and financial analysis as opposed to the antiquated software which is a repository

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Vice Chair Gregory Mitchell asked if there are any additional maintenance costs besides the implementation fee and Horan said the business flows are already accounted for with the licensing fees

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The ProLink solutions subscription services agreement passes

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Dowell says she spoke with legal and they are fine with having item 3 in this committee, item 3, the authorization of multi family program funds did construction of 37 affordable units at Lakeview Chuch passes

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Item 5 on the agenda
(O2023-0005793) is the Authorization for Flexible Housing Pool Program with initial grant funding and maximum five year extension of landlord rental subsidy program by Department of Family and Support Services as Administrator.

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Maureen McCauley, managing Deputy Director from the Dept of Family and Support Services presents on the Flexible Housing Pool Program. Slides can be seen below ⬇️

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The Flexible Housing Pool (FHP ) is designed to beak the cycle of homelessness and improve housing and health outcomes for people who are frequently users of crisis systems in Chicago and Cook County

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This new ordinance reauthorizes the FHP and for the city via DFSS to enter into a new agreement to continue the program. As of Oct 2023 FHP has placed 1,245 people into housing and 97% of households retain housing for at least one year

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Mañana-Hoppenworth, Ward 48, asks how cook county is involved. McCauley says Cook County Health helps fund the program and they track individuals as they come in for care, especially high users of their programs

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There’s a motion to recommend approval, the ayes have it, the authorization is passed

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The motion to approve adjournment moves. Vice chair Mitchell adjourns the meeting at 1:35pm

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This concludes the meeting for the Committee on Housing and Real Estate. For more coverage of city meetings check out

documenters.org

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Attachments

Meeting details

By India Daniels 11/29/2023

Agency Information

Chicago City Council

chicityclerkelms.chicago.gov

(312) 744-3166

@ChiCouncil

See Documenters reporting

The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago and consists of the Mayor and Aldermen elected from each of the City’s fifty wards. Source

If you attend a meeting in person, be prepared to go through a security checkpoint and show photo ID.

Meetings are also livestreamed at https://www.chicityclerk.com/.

At this link, scroll down to “Meeting Notices.” Look for “Watch now” and click on the link with the meeting title to go to a livestream page. If you don’t see a link for the meeting, you may be early or the meeting may be starting late. Wait a few moments and try refreshing your Internet tab.

Recordings of past City Council meetings may be found here: https://vimeo.com/user100351763/videos/sort:date.

See also: “What to Expect at a Meeting of Chicago’s City Council” via the Better Government Association.