[remote or in person] Joint Committee: Finance; Housing & Real Estate

Chicago City Council

Housing

Finance

Politics

Wednesday, April 16, 2025
9:30 a.m. — 11:30 a.m. CDT

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121 N LaSalle St Chicago 60602 (Directions)

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Reporting

Edited and summarized by the Chicago - IL Documenters Team

Live reporting by Samuel Lisec

Joint City Council committees on Housing & Real Estate and Finance reconvened from April 14th. The committees discussed and voted to keep the Green Social Housing ordinance in committee.

Samuel Lisec

Good morning! I’ll be live-reporting today’s joint session between Chicago City Council’s finance & housing committees for #CHIdocumenters @CHIdocumenters, an org created by the Chicago nonprofit newsroom City Bureau: citybureau.org/documenters

citybureau.org/documenters

10:22 AM Apr 16, 2025 CDT

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 2/15

@CHIdocumenters This meeting is now the third time the committees have met to vote on sending the Green Social Housing ordinance (GSH)—a new proposal aimed at creating more affordable housing in Chicago—to City Council for final approval. For info on those meetings, check my last two threads.

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 3/15

@CHIdocumenters If approved, the GSH ordinance will establish what’s known as a Residential Investment Corp (RIC) to operate as a nonprofit developer of permanent mixed-income housing units in Chicago. This corporation will be tied to city staff, but ultimately be an independent legal entity.

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 4/15

@CHIdocumenters The joint committees’ vote has been delayed twice now as many alderpeople voiced reservations on the city’s ability to hold oversight of the RIC and whether its funding model is realistic. But many were also adamant Chicago needs to address its housing shortage.

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 5/15

@CHIdocumenters GSH would create 400 additional housing units a year (to Chicago’s current shortage of 119k units) with 70% market rate and 30% deemed affordable. The project would be funded by $135 million from the city but become self-sustaining by 2030, city staff claimed.

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 6/15

@CHIdocumenters Today’s joint committee meeting started around 10:15 p.m. on April 16, 2025, in the City Hall Chamber on North LaSalle Street. A city staff member is running through amendments that have been added to the drafted GSH ordinance since their Monday meeting.

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 7/15

@CHIdocumenters The latest revisions to the GSH ordinance (which alderpeople are saying they received just this morning) include ethics provisions guiding how RIC directors can receive gifts and mandates that the corporation must cooperate with the state’s Office of the Inspector General.

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 8/15

@CHIdocumenters Yet three alderpeople so far have voiced they are not comfortable voting for the GSH today. Alderman Lopez (Ward 15) said “there’s a lot of issues still unresolved” and he doesn’t understand the “artificial rush" to pass it. Alders Lee (11) and Reilly (42) echoed that.

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 9/15

@CHIdocumenters Deborah Witzburg, Chicago’s Inspector General, said the provision mandating the RIC’s “cooperation” with her office falls short of handing her “legal authority” to investigate the RIC. She also questioned whether it's clear who the RIC has a fiduciary duty to.

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 10/15

@CHIdocumenters Alderwoman Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth pushed back on the request to delay today’s vote on the GSH, saying “we have to move forward now… we can’t wait” to address affordable housing in Chicago. Her Ward 42 is 62% renters and 51% are cost challenged, she said.

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 11/15

@CHIdocumenters Earlier, Alderwoman Lee issued a motion hold the GSH ordinance in committee. That motion just now narrowly passed with 19 committee members voting in favor and 17 voting against it. Once again, the joint session has elected not to vote on the GSH ordinance.

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 12/15

@CHIdocumenters To be clear, Lee said she doesn’t want to be on record voting against the GSH and is only asking for a few more weeks. Despite some testy exchanges with city staff, Reilly qualified his support in that “the good news is this ordinance can work if we put the proper time into it.”

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 13/15

@CHIdocumenters To recap: several alders have remained steadfast in their concern about GSH’s fine print over the course of three joint session meetings now, with even the Chicago Inspector General weighing in unfavorably, despite city staff offering two rounds of revisions to the ordinance.

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 14/15

@CHIdocumenters The meeting adjourned abruptly at 11 a.m. after the motion to table the GSH vote passed, concluding this April 16 joint session between Chicago City Council’s finance and housing committees. It was unclear when the next meeting or vote on the GSH will take place.

Samuel Lisec @smllisec 15/15

@CHIdocumenters In any case, you can be sure that #CHIdocumenters will be there to issue live and detailed notes when/if GSH ever makes it out of committee and before the Chicago City Council. For more public meeting coverage, check out . Thanks for reading! documenters.org

documenters.org

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Attachments

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Agenda

April 16th, 2025

April 16 reconvene notice

By Rachel Birkhahn-Rommelfanger ⋅ April 14th, 2025

Summary

April 16th, 2025

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.

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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.

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