Candidates for the Skokie Village Board in the April 1 consolidated Cook County election discussed affordable housing and how to attract business to Skokie at forums organized by the League of Women Voters of Evanston on Feb. 26 and 27.
At the forums, hosted at the Skokie Public Library and hosted by the League and the library, candidates vied for the seats of district trustee and at-large trustee. This reflects the first time the new Skokie governmental structure is being put into effect after Skokie voters approved it in the November 2022 election.
That new structure divides the village into four geographic districts and allows for one trustee to be elected from each. Also, two trustees are to be elected at large by all the voters in the village, for a total of six trustees.
Skokie voters will also elect a village clerk and a mayor.
All but one of the six seats on the Village Board is contested. Candidates gave their opinions on a host of topics at the forum.
Nearly all trustee candidates attended the forum to speak publicly, except Samantha Abraham, who is a candidate for the 1st District, and Keith Robinson, who is a candidate for an at-large trustee position.
Affordable housing
Nearly all of the candidates at the forum listed affordable housing as a priority, with some candidates wanting to hike the village’s demands in its affordable housing ordinance to require real estate developers to increase the percentage of affordable units in their planned developments.
Incumbent Trustee Khem Khoeun, who is running for an at-large trustee seat, spoke about her votes on the drafts of the affordable housing ordinance, which she rejected at the third draft but ultimately supported in its final draft.
“I stand behind my vote, as far as supporting (the) inclusionary housing ordinance in Skokie,” Khoeun said. “I understand that for some folks it’s too much, and for some folks it’s not enough. But it’s a place that we (can) start and where we draw the line in the sand to show our commitment to making sure that we have affordable housing in Skokie.”
Gail Schechter, the leader of the grassroots organization Skokie Neighbors for Housing Justice, said the village’s existing ordinance “needs to be completely rewritten” and advocated for the village to do a comprehensive housing study on the village’s affordable housing stock.
On how to protect the existing affordable housing in the village, several candidates said they were interested in the village assisting mom-and-pop landlords with smaller apartment buildings.
Patrick Blackwell, a first-time candidate in District 1, which covers much of northwestern Skokie, said one of his priorities as a trustee would be to hold absentee landlords with building violations accountable.
“We need to have some sort of regulatory process for landlords,” said Kimani Levy, a candidate for the 1st District, in agreement with Blackwell. “There needs to be something similar to CHA, where someone’s going in there and inspecting and making sure that these conditions are livable.”
Incumber Trustee Alison Pure Slovin, who is running for 2nd District trustee, said Skokie already has more than 20% of its housing stock considered to be affordable, more than the 10% required by the Illinois Housing Development Authority.
Slovin said she is a strong supporter of the ordinance’s hold out which allows developers to pay a fee in lieu of providing affordable housing units, which she said the village could use to help mom-and-pop landlords who want to improve the conditions of their apartment buildings.
Candidate Joe Nowik, who has served on the Niles Township High School District 219 school board and is running for an at-large trustee position in village government, said he was in favor of a land trust option.
“But we need to be smart about it. I don’t believe a one-size-fits-all mandate to any new development is really the answer, and I think we have to be more nuanced about it, more creative about it, to make sure that we focus on where development is taking place.”
Lissa Levy, who is running in the 3rd District and is the only candidate in an uncontested race, called the current ordinance “draconian.” She said the village’s current requirement for apartment developments with more than 150 units to have 7% of them marketed as affordable is “not really even enough for what Skokie needs.”
The 3rd District covers much of Southeastern Skokie.
Nathan Norman, a newcomer running in the 2nd District, said “The Skokie (Village) Board needs to do its best to ensure that all Skokie neighbors can afford to stay here, and that’s including our elders… we need to ensure that our elders, working families, people with disabilities, immigrants, young professionals, are able to continue to afford to live and play and stay in Skokie.”
In District 4, newcomers Edward Oliveri and Jim Iverson are running for the village board seat. The two were asked what housing policies they would consider changing.
Oliveri said while he doesn’t have anything in particular in mind, “I’m always open to people bringing new suggestions and new ideas.”
Iverson said he is proud of the village’s current rate of affordable housing, but “the need and the demand is actually quite a lot more than what we’re providing.”
Attracting businesses
Candidates also gave their opinions on what the village can do to entice economic development in Skokie.
Khoeun acknowledged milestones the village has achieved, which included more businesses opening in downtown Skokie.
“Partnership is going to be really important, being able to develop a vision of what we want that area to be like. We’ve seen a lot of community support and collaboration.”
Nowik, said he would have wanted the village to walk away with more benefits from designating Westfield Old Orchard Shopping Center as a blighted area. In 2022, the village voted to designate the mall as a business district to allow the collection of a 1% tax that would funnel back to the mall for improvements.
“We should have gotten a portion of it back that we could then use as seed money for our other economic areas of the community,” Nowik said. “The fact that we put all our eggs in one basket and they will end up having all of the resources accumulated from that sales tax really didn’t help the rest of Skokie as much as I believe it could have if we negotiated a better deal on behalf of the residents of the entire village.”
