Daywatch: Cook County housing authority facing potential multimillion-dollar budget shortfall
Good morning, Chicago.
The Housing Authority of Cook County is facing a potential multimillion-dollar funding shortfall that could have broad repercussions throughout the real estate market as the struggling agency looks to cut costs, possibly leading to greater expenses for its housing voucher holders and a decline in the number of the people it serves.
The agency attributes the shortfall to an increase in its voucher usage rate and rising rents, which eat into its limited dollars allocated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Read the full story from the Tribune's Lizzie Kane.
Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including Illinois becoming one of the first states to protect medical records regarding autism, a plan to appoint Mayor Brandon Johnson's chief of staff as the interim head of CPS and Chicago Stars strike Mallory Swanson shares why she's been out so far this season.
Today's eNewspaper edition | Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History
The Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate unchanged yesterday, brushing off President Donald Trump's demands to lower borrowing costs, and said that the risks of both higher unemployment and higher inflation have risen, an unusual combination that puts the central bank in a difficult spot.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order yesterday that formally restricts the unauthorized collection of autism-related data by state agencies.
Pritzker's order responds to federal efforts under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to create databases of personal information for those with autism 'without clear legal safeguards or accountability,' according to a news release from Pritzker's office.
Board members say Mayor Brandon Johnson's handpicked school board president Sean Harden is leading an effort to vote down a resolution that requires the next interim leader of Chicago Public Schools to have a superintendent licensure in order to install the mayor's chief of staff, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, to serve in the temporary role.
If approved, the appointment would be a major shift in Johnson's administration and elicit strong reaction from critics of the mayor and his strongest ally, the Chicago Teachers Union.
The passage of the mayor's ambitious 'Green Social Housing' plan marks one of his first major legislative wins of the year, one he will certainly point out to his progressive base as evidence he is delivering on his agenda.
The novel policy that will use a revolving pool of city cash to help finance housing construction could serve as an example for other locales seeking to build affordable homes amid waning federal support, even as some aldermen worried that it doesn't go nearly far enough.
Understaffing, inconsistency in how to enforce rules and insufficient de-escalation training are just some of the issues staff at Harold Washington contend they are facing, some of which staff say are part of broader issues in the Chicago Public Library system. As a result, some staff say they are taking on a heavier-than-usual mental load as they struggle to attend to the needs of their patrons while fulfilling their duties and making the library a welcoming space.
While waiting on a plume of smoke to rise from the old Wrigley Field scoreboard to announce whether a decision on Cade Horton had been made, Paul Sullivan has eight things to ponder after the Chicago Cubs' 3-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants.
Chicago Stars striker Mallory Swanson and her husband, Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson, announced that they're expecting their first child.
Mallory Swanson hasn't played this season after the Stars released a statement Jan. 27 that she wouldn't be participating in training camp for 'personal reasons.' In that same statement, Swanson thanked the National Women's Soccer League club and its fans 'for their understanding during this time.'
Dear NFL schedule makers: We know at this point you're pretty deep into piecing together the 272-game roadmap for the 2025 regular season. But that shouldn't mean we can't offer suggestions ahead of the official schedule release.
As it applies to the Chicago Bears specifically, we see a golden opportunity to make the schedule really sing, to sequence it in a way that creates maximum excitement, intrigue and theater.
Judy Blume's 1975 novel 'Forever …,' about a New Jersey high schooler's first love — and first experiences with sex — is a book Tribune TV and film critic Nina Metz initially encountered with a childhood friend who got her hands on a copy. They snuck off to read the more explicit portions, giggling about them afterwards; the boy has named his penis Ralph and, come on, you have to laugh!
Blume has always been able to capture the inner lives of teenagers as they struggle to figure out how to move through the world in that awkward limbo between child and adult, and it makes sense that Mara Brock Akil (creator of the sitcom 'Girlfriends' and the drama 'Being Mary Jane') would want to rethink some of those themes for the 21st century with her TV adaptation for Netflix.
No American theater professional has had a spring like David Cromer, the longtime Chicago theater director who opened two Broadway shows in New York in a matter of weeks, 'Good Night, and Good Luck' starring George Clooney and based on the 2005 movie, and the musical 'Dead Outlaw.'
Both have been successes. Cromer was nominated for a Tony Award for his work on 'Dead Outlaw' and, last week, 'Good Night, and Good Luck' became the first play in the history of Broadway to gross more than $4 million in a single week. On Monday, Cromer opens yet another show, 'The Antiquities' at Chicago's Goodman Theatre.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Officials: Valparaiso's recent housing symposium is the start of the process
A recent symposium on housing in Valparaiso is only the start of the process, city officials said, as the community addresses a need for what Mayor Jon Costas called 'more attainable housing units.' The May 29 symposium, with the consultant Capital Stacker founder Heather Presley-Cowen, made a broad suggestion for adding housing over the next five years for the market potential for what one chart called 'affordable/workforce and market-rate' housing. The figures call for a mix of rental apartments, condominiums, townhomes and single-family residences. Rental apartments, followed by detached homes, take up the brunt of the units, with up to 195 units and 149 units, respectively, in each of the next five years. The rest of the units are condominiums and townhomes. 'I'm glad we're having these conversations because housing is a complex issue and every community is different,' said Costas, who was part of a 19-member committee put together by Councilman Robert Cotton, D-2nd, who is spearheading the effort. 'What as a city can we do?' Costas said, adding the city has a balance of housing and is a growing community. 'We have a couple challenges, including affordability all around, but particularly in more attainable housing units.' Because the city is a desirable place to live, that's driving up the cost of housing, Costas said. Zoning and unified development ordinance changes can help. 'We're also looking to increase density where it's appropriate,' which could include a mix of types of housing units within a development, he added. Existing mixed housing can be found in the Aberdeen and Keystone subdivisions. 'Attainable single-family homes is probably the greatest need for our community because the market has everything over $350,000 covered,' Costas said. Over the past decade, the city has undertaken several traditional housing studies to better understand the dynamics of the local housing market, Cotton said in a statement provided to the Post-Tribune, but the recent effort is a departure from past approaches. 'This time, we set out not just to study existing conditions, but to assess our city's market potential for new housing development — specifically in the income range that has been largely abandoned by the private market: 60% to 120% of Area Median Income (AMI),' Cotton said in the statement. The approach, said Council President Ellen Kapitan, D-At-large, who also is serving on the committee, isn't focused just on rentals. 'We're talking about house ownership, the 'missing middle,'' she said. 'For home ownership, there aren't a lot of options' for would-be homeowners whose earnings fall within the AMI cited by Cotton. For a four-person household in Porter County, that range would be from $48,650 to $76,500, according to market analysis information compiled by Zimmerman/Volk Associates, Inc. presented at the symposium. 'I believe in what we're doing and it's important to address, and we can only really do that by having a broad understanding of what's going on,' Kapitan said. Councilman Peter Anderson, R-5th, who attended the symposium, has an assortment of concerns about the process by which council members received the market analysis, among other details. 'This information was received by Councilman Cotton and then he met with citizens in private before the information was released to the rest of the council,' Anderson said. 'That's a transparency issue.' The market analysis, he said, has implications for public safety, the school system and property values. 'What the study suggests, that's a big deal,' he said. Council members often take on projects and he's comfortable with Cotton taking the lead on housing, but things seem to have moved beyond that scope and into secrecy, Anderson said, questioning who is on the steering committee and what they have discussed in their meetings. 'It doesn't instill confidence in me that we're going to have broad public discussion' which is needed, he said. Sitting in on the symposium, Anderson said, it was 'very clear' what direction the city was moving in, and he doesn't know whether the council as a whole will talk about it. He's also concerned that two of the drivers of affordable housing are density and land donated by the city. 'That's ultimately going to be the point. It's a government-subsidized thing,' he said. Cotton said Costas, through the board of works, contracted with Zimmerman/Volk for the housing market analysis, for $35,000. That included additional consulting services, like public outreach and housing symposiums. An initial review of the findings was presented to an informal steering committee composed of approximately 19 individuals, Cotton said, which included Costas; nonprofits, a member from the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission; board members from the nonprofit Paradise Homes; and three members from the council — Cotton, Kapitan, D-At-large, and Councilwoman Barbara Domer, D-3rd. Access to the market potential analysis, Cotton said, was made available to any interested council members, and 'in compliance with Indiana's Open Door Law, no more than three council members participated in the initial due diligence phase.' Valparaiso doesn't have a formal housing policy, Cotton said, nor is the city in the business of building homes. 'Rather, our objective is to stimulate the market — to spark private and nonprofit activity in segments where housing production has stalled,' he said. 'By identifying where potential exists and forging partnerships with mission-driven organizations, we believe we can lay the groundwork for a sustainable, community-based housing delivery system.' The city's plans, Costas said, are still 'amorphous,' with a lot of questions that still need to be answered, including who a developer might be and whether they would work with a nonprofit. Paradise Community Homes, with city administrator Bill Oeding as its president, formed last year to build small homes for under $300,000, Costas said. Housing efforts also are being tackled by longstanding nonprofit Project Neighbors, among others. 'These are not competing groups but it boils down to the specifics and with the symposium, the specifics are just coming together,' Costas said. alavalley@
Chicago Tribune
8 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Officials: Valparaiso's recent housing symposium is the start of the process
A recent symposium on housing in Valparaiso is only the start of the process, city officials said, as the community addresses a need for what Mayor Jon Costas called 'more attainable housing units.' The May 29 symposium, with the consultant Capital Stacker founder Heather Presley-Cowen, made a broad suggestion for adding housing over the next five years for the market potential for what one chart called 'affordable/workforce and market-rate' housing. The figures call for a mix of rental apartments, condominiums, townhomes and single-family residences. Rental apartments, followed by detached homes, take up the brunt of the units, with up to 195 units and 149 units, respectively, in each of the next five years. The rest of the units are condominiums and townhomes. 'I'm glad we're having these conversations because housing is a complex issue and every community is different,' said Costas, who was part of a 19-member committee put together by Councilman Robert Cotton, D-2nd, who is spearheading the effort. 'What as a city can we do?' Costas said, adding the city has a balance of housing and is a growing community. 'We have a couple challenges, including affordability all around, but particularly in more attainable housing units.' Because the city is a desirable place to live, that's driving up the cost of housing, Costas said. Zoning and unified development ordinance changes can help. 'We're also looking to increase density where it's appropriate,' which could include a mix of types of housing units within a development, he added. Existing mixed housing can be found in the Aberdeen and Keystone subdivisions. 'Attainable single-family homes is probably the greatest need for our community because the market has everything over $350,000 covered,' Costas said. Over the past decade, the city has undertaken several traditional housing studies to better understand the dynamics of the local housing market, Cotton said in a statement provided to the Post-Tribune, but the recent effort is a departure from past approaches. 'This time, we set out not just to study existing conditions, but to assess our city's market potential for new housing development — specifically in the income range that has been largely abandoned by the private market: 60% to 120% of Area Median Income (AMI),' Cotton said in the statement. The approach, said Council President Ellen Kapitan, D-At-large, who also is serving on the committee, isn't focused just on rentals. 'We're talking about house ownership, the 'missing middle,'' she said. 'For home ownership, there aren't a lot of options' for would-be homeowners whose earnings fall within the AMI cited by Cotton. For a four-person household in Porter County, that range would be from $48,650 to $76,500, according to market analysis information compiled by Zimmerman/Volk Associates, Inc. presented at the symposium. 'I believe in what we're doing and it's important to address, and we can only really do that by having a broad understanding of what's going on,' Kapitan said. Councilman Peter Anderson, R-5th, who attended the symposium, has an assortment of concerns about the process by which council members received the market analysis, among other details. 'This information was received by Councilman Cotton and then he met with citizens in private before the information was released to the rest of the council,' Anderson said. 'That's a transparency issue.' The market analysis, he said, has implications for public safety, the school system and property values. 'What the study suggests, that's a big deal,' he said. Council members often take on projects and he's comfortable with Cotton taking the lead on housing, but things seem to have moved beyond that scope and into secrecy, Anderson said, questioning who is on the steering committee and what they have discussed in their meetings. 'It doesn't instill confidence in me that we're going to have broad public discussion' which is needed, he said. Sitting in on the symposium, Anderson said, it was 'very clear' what direction the city was moving in, and he doesn't know whether the council as a whole will talk about it. He's also concerned that two of the drivers of affordable housing are density and land donated by the city. 'That's ultimately going to be the point. It's a government-subsidized thing,' he said. Cotton said Costas, through the board of works, contracted with Zimmerman/Volk for the housing market analysis, for $35,000. That included additional consulting services, like public outreach and housing symposiums. An initial review of the findings was presented to an informal steering committee composed of approximately 19 individuals, Cotton said, which included Costas; nonprofits, a member from the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission; board members from the nonprofit Paradise Homes; and three members from the council — Cotton, Kapitan, D-At-large, and Councilwoman Barbara Domer, D-3rd. Access to the market potential analysis, Cotton said, was made available to any interested council members, and 'in compliance with Indiana's Open Door Law, no more than three council members participated in the initial due diligence phase.' Valparaiso doesn't have a formal housing policy, Cotton said, nor is the city in the business of building homes. 'Rather, our objective is to stimulate the market — to spark private and nonprofit activity in segments where housing production has stalled,' he said. 'By identifying where potential exists and forging partnerships with mission-driven organizations, we believe we can lay the groundwork for a sustainable, community-based housing delivery system.' The city's plans, Costas said, are still 'amorphous,' with a lot of questions that still need to be answered, including who a developer might be and whether they would work with a nonprofit. Paradise Community Homes, with city administrator Bill Oeding as its president, formed last year to build small homes for under $300,000, Costas said. Housing efforts also are being tackled by longstanding nonprofit Project Neighbors, among others. 'These are not competing groups but it boils down to the specifics and with the symposium, the specifics are just coming together,' Costas said.
Forbes
a day ago
- Forbes
Gavin Newsom And Jay Pritzker Offering Red States The Deal Of Lifetime
Government spending saps economic growth, which is no insight. It's stated routinely in my upcoming book The Deficit Delusion that the centralized and politicized allocation of goods, services and labor in sub-optimal fashion by politicians lays a wet blanket on economic growth. What makes the economically enervating nature of government spending worth mentioning is the ongoing debate about state and local taxes, also known as SALT. Governors in high-tax blue states would like to return to the old state of tax play whereby state and local taxes paid could be 100 percent deducted against federal tax bills. Red state citizens should take this gift from people with names like Newsom and Pritzker and run with it. Except that red state politicians are largely balking. So are their citizens. They see unlimited deductibility of state and local taxes as a subsidy of blue state taxpayers, and an incentive for blue states to tax and spend with abandon at a cost to federal tax collections. Their critiques speak to the undeniable good of an unlimited SALT deduction, for red states. To suggest otherwise is to imply that blue states benefit economically from excessive spending, all at the expense of the federal government's ability to spend. Actually, that's a feature of SALT, not a bug. Once again, government spending is economically harmful. The goal for red state politicians should be to localize the certain damage of government spending to the extent they can. Let California, New York, Illinois and New Jersey pursue a lot in the way of economy and freedom-sapping government so that the federal government has fewer dollars to harm the U.S. economy with. It's certainly odd, but not surprising, that blue state governors would clamor for an enhanced ability to further damage their economies with excessive spending born of high taxes. Much odder is that red states aren't taking the blue states up on an arrangement that to some degree erects a fence around economic foolishness. Red state politicians and their citizens yet again claim the SALT deduction subsidizes high-tax and high-spend blue states. More realistically, it subsidizes the red states that want neither. No doubt blue states see excessive taxing and spending in state as advantageous, and it should be obvious to red staters why: the discredited economic vision of John Maynard Keynes lives on most harmfully in blue states. Their politicians almost to a man and woman buy into the Keynesian notion that government spending grows an economy. Quite the opposite. With full deduction of state and local taxes, what an opportunity for red states to show why Keynes was wrong. Within them there's an underlying understanding that a government that does least does best. Which is yet again why red state politicians and voters should eagerly take the deal being offered from their taxing and spending opposites. The deal implies that blue states will foist more Keynes on their people, the red states quite a bit less. What a deal! Unknown is why red state politicians won't accept such a gift unless, of course, they're more wedded to discredited notions of government waste than their limited government rhetoric suggests.
