Kaegi, legislators, advocates unveil affordable housing initiative

From staff reports

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi was joined by state legislators and affordable housing advocates earlier this week to launch the Affordable Housing Special Assessment Program, a new form of property tax relief recently signed into law.

Kaegi worked with legislative partners who passed the law last spring, including State Sens. Sara Feigenholtz, Ann Gillespie, and Mattie Hunter and State Reps. Will Guzzardi and Delia Ramirez.

Community housing advocates Allison Clements, executive director of the Illinois Housing Council, and Stacie Young, President and CEO of Community Investment Corporation, along with other affordable housing supporters, advocated for the change to the law and worked to craft the language for it.

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi

In a press conference, Kaegi, legislators and advocates discussed how affordable housing property owners could apply for this new type of property tax relief and how they, as well as tenants, will benefit from it.

“Without this coalition of leaders and organizers, we would not have been able to take this important step toward encouraging more affordable housing in Cook County,” Kaegi said. “The implementation of this law by my office will clear the way for property tax relief for developers who create and maintain this valuable housing category, and will expand the availability of rental units for low-income households.”

The Assessor’s Office is asking potential applicants to apply by March 31. Those interested parties may visit cookcountyassessor.com/affordable-housing to see the application and read more information.

A series of webinars about the Affordable Housing Special Assessment Program will take place in February and March for those who provide and utilize affordable housing. The first webinar will focus on properties that have previously taken advantage of Cook County’s Class 9 incentive program. The date for this first webinar will be Tuesday, Feb. 15. Attendees may sign up by emailing assessor.affordablehousing@cookcountyil.gov. Future webinars will focus on institutional-grade properties, naturally occurring affordable housing and low-affordability communities.

The lack of affordable housing remains a crisis nationwide. According to a Pew Research Center 2021 survey, “about half of Americans (49%) say the availability of affordable housing in their local community is a major problem, up 10 percentage points from early 2018.”

For decades, Cook County administered an affordable housing incentive known as the Class 9 program, which encourages new construction and/or rehabilitation of affordable housing. However, participation in the program has not seen consistent growth over recent years, and the supply of affordable units continues to be outpaced by demand.