A Drop in the Bucket: An Analysis of Resources to Address Home Foreclosures in Chicago
Sweet Home Chicago Coalition, Julie Dworkin, & Casey Wittekind, 2010
The Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) is Chicago’s primary source of funds to redevelop neighborhoods devastated by the home foreclosure crisis. Yet NSP is able to fund a minute fraction of the resources needed to effectively address the crisis. The city of Chicago has another available resource, Tax Increment Financing (TIF), which could be used in a similar way to the way NSP dollars are used.
Julie Dworkin, 2009
TIF districts were created to promote revitalization of blighted or struggling neighborhoods, and the availability of affordable housing is instrumental to a neighborhood’s stability. Unfortunately, the city of Chicago’s policy on the use of TIF funds for housing has not gone far enough to adequately address the fundamental need for affordable housing in developing neighborhoods. Expenditures on affordable housing have accounted for too small of a percentage of TIF funds. An even smaller percentage of TIF funds have supported housing affordable to people in the neighborhoods in which it is built and for those with the greatest housing needs.
Who’s Getting Your Tax Dollars?
Sweet Home Chicago Coalition, 2009
This report profiles the corporations that received TIF funds from downtown TIF districts between 2000 and 2009. Where public data is available, it shows the profits for these corporations as well as CEO compensation.