Study reveals Illinois needs improvement in affordable housing

The National Low Income Housing Coalition and Housing Action Illinois released a study, The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes, related to affordable housing in Illinois on Tuesday. According to the study, 100 extremely low renters in Illinois only have 36 affordable housing units. Moreover, 71% of the poorest renter households have been facing the burden of housing-cost.

The study revealed that most of the Illinoisans had been spending more than half of their income on housing. Sharon Legenza, the executive director of the Housing Action Illinois, said, “Far too many families in Illinois are spending more than 50% of their income on housing.” According to Legenza, these families are living on the brink.

Most of the Illinoisans are enforced to choose between paying the rent of their house and medicines and other daily utensils. Legenza said that there was a huge risk of homelessness in Illinois. The study revealed that there were 450000 extremely low-income (ELI) across the state. The ELI renters are defined in the study as those with incomes at or below the poverty line.

The affordable housing condition is more terrible in the Chicago metropolitan area. According to the study, 100 ELI renters in this area have only 31 affordable units. At the state level, 100 ELI renters have only 30 to 40 affordable units available. Bob Palmer, the policy director of the Housing Action Illinois, said that they were working on the betterment of the affordable housing in Illinois.

The Housing Revenue and Finance Committee of Illinois will have a meeting on Wednesday in which a couple of proposals will be taken up related to affordable housing. Palmer said that one proposal would give developers and private realty firms a break on their property tax assessments. Palmer also criticized the inaccurate last Census data. He said, “During the last census, one in every four Illinoisans went uncounted.”