As an aldermanic candidate who won office in 2007 in part on an anti-developer campaign, 2nd Ward leader Robert Fioretti last week missed the mark with his Homebuyers Bill of Rights as a balanced answer to hundreds of his now-displaced constituents, who have lost access to affordable housing as gentrification ran through his ward.

As Fioretti gears up for his still unofficial mayoral campaign, Fioretti for Chicago, his machine is selling the first-term alderman as no friend to developers. That selling point flies in the face of his ward record, which suffers the second-highest foreclosure rate in the city during his time in office. The vast majority of those condos were converted rentals, and now they sit empty of their former tenants, cut out of affordable housing.

Fioretti does publicly support Sweet Home Chicago, a proposed ordinance coming out of the 27th Ward that calls for 20 percent of tax increment financing district (TIF) funds collected to be spent on affordable housing. But there he joins a majority aldermanic view, while his own proposed ordinance seeks to protect future homebuyers from poor craftsmanship and deceitful developers, leaving low-income renters to market forces.

Fioretti boasted five supporters as of late last week for his ordinance, which calls for nothing more than another study and puts that onus on others to carry it out.

Recently, the Chicago Rehab Network, a consortium of 40 neighborhood organizations, reported its findings on the recent Mayor’s Condo Task Force to city hall. Fioretti was not present, though in his ward 608 units were foreclosed on since his taking office — topped only by the 50th Ward and the gentrification of Rogers Park. The number equates to nearly 2,000 people losing access to affordable places to live in the 2nd Ward, based on the average Chicago household size of 2.61.

Executive director of CRN, Kenin Jackson, during his presentation called for the city to consider redevelopment and its effect on renters before the permitting process is complete and before displacement occurs.

A recently displaced resident of West Haven Apartments on West Lake Street, the northern border of the 2nd Ward, broke the situation down in real terms. Developers want blacks to move out of the city and then convert the affordable apartments for sale to white condo buyers. The 2nd Ward is prime real estate 10 minutes from the Loop and they know we [low-income and Section 8 renters] cannot afford condos, Rosemary Pigram said.

Data supports Pigram’s view. From 2000 through the height of the housing bubble in 2008, Chicago’s African American population as a whole dropped by 10.9 percent, nearly matching the 10.6 percent drop in available renter-occupied housing over the same period, which saw a 174-percent increase in rentals drawing $1,500 or more.

While Fioretti cannot be blamed for 10 years of gentrification and its effect in the 2nd Ward, he can and should take heat for a record that has done little to nothing to stem the tide for those who put him in office. Affordable housing in the 2nd Ward has taken a huge hit from developers, and Fioretti shows himself to be out of touch with the daily reality of many in his ward.

It’s a problem that will take more than a free breakfast and a friendly slap on the back to fix.

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By No Tif For Housing from SLOOP
Posted: 10/14/2010 3:28 AM

What a crock - affordable housing is a scam and using TIF money for it is even worse. * Affordable housing funds already come out of developer zoning bonuses * There are swaths of vacant land and cheap housing to the South, some better than the new stuff. * Why do you liberals insist affordable housing must be built in expensive buildings or neighborhoods? * Much of the non-sold stuff is already being sacrificed and used in the section 8 scams dragging down building values