Mayor Brandon Johnson reached a buzzer beater union deal Wednesday morning to clear the way for his “Green Social Housing” plan, only for aldermen to spurn his hopes for quick vote by sidelining the measure moments later.
Johnson’s team came to an agreement with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 to alter the ordinance just minutes before a committee vote was scheduled. The plan seeks to create a revolving loan fund to spur affordable housing construction, though the union feared it could privatize work.
But despite winning an agreement in the marathon union negotiations, Johnson failed to win over enough aldermen.
The Finance and Housing Committee voted 19 to 17 to delay consideration, a rejection of Johnson’s goal to send it to the full City Council later Wednesday. Many in the joint committee argued the measure was moving too quickly, echoing concerns they shared in two prior hearings in the last week.
“We just got this substitute this morning. I’m not comfortable moving forward with this currently,” Ald. Nicole Lee, 11th, said before the vote. “I’m not asking for six months, I’m asking for a few more weeks.”
The ordinance would establish a nonprofit developer arm of the city’s Department of Housing to control a $135 million fund offering developers low-cost loans during construction.
At least 30% of the units would need to be affordable, and the city would own a majority stake in the environmentally-friendly buildings, a first-of-its-kind role for Chicago. The loan repayments would be recycled back into the fund for future housing projects.
The Wednesday AFSCME deal added guarantees that the nonprofit structure created by the ordinance to administer the loan fund would use workers from the city’s Department of Housing if it created jobs similar to ones that already exist in the department.
Many aldermen had signaled they would not vote for the plan until AFSCME’s concerns were addressed. Several said they were still left with lingering concerns before voting to table the ordinance.
Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, said Johnson’s administration had given him “evasive answers” as it rushed to pass the measure. He cited issues with ethics oversight of the new nonprofit, saying Inspector General Deborah Witzburg should come to the committee to answer questions.
“This is an ordinance that can work if we put the proper time into it,” he said. “I still to this day don’t understand why we are in this sprint to get this done… Whenever this body rushes something, we get it wrong.”
But Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, 48th, argued an urgent housing affordability crisis in the city needs to be addressed.
“We can’t wait. I am not here to wait. I came to get stuff done,” she said. “This body has a responsibility to help where the market cannot fix our problems.”
After the vote, Johnson administration officials said they plan to continue advocating for the ordinance.
