An Entitlement Program for Rogers Park Landlords: How Will the 49th Ward RIF Benefit Property Owners and Help Solve Chicago's Financial Problems

Follow the link to the fact sheet for the proposed 49th Ward Rental Improvement Fund, the TIF that will cover the entire 49th Ward, and divert up to $54 Million in property taxes paid in the ward to landlords in the area to rehabilitate their properties, on the condition that they reserve a percentage of their units for low-income tenants.

Many people believe that this plan is an "improved" TIF, but the closer I look at this plan, the more difficult I find it to believe that it will benefit anyone other than owners of rental properties who are to receive the grants. 

The RIF (Rental Improvement Fund), a variation on a traditional TIF created to improve rental property, is being promoted by Marilyn Pagan-Banks of North Side P.O.W.E.R. and 49th Ward candidate for Alderman, Brian White. The RIF is projected to generate up to $54 Million over its 23-year lifespan, which is to assist (i.e. subsidize) more than 1,500 rental property owners in the ward in repairing and rehabilitating their properties on the condition that they keep their rentals affordable.

According to the promoters, we need the RIF to "improve the quality of life for all Rogers Park residents by preserving the unique diversity of Rogers Park as a community of choice", to "address the current situation- that much of the housing stock in Rogers Park is aged and could be improved with rehabilitation-while creating a future source of dedicated revenue for continued housing market stabilization and improvement"; and "Protect many of the smaller landlords who may be compelled to exist the rental market or raise rents to unaffordable levels, due to the costs to make repairs." 

The RIF will exist "solely to fund multifamily rental property repair and rehabilitation", and funding would be available to landlords in the form of grants, in return for which the landlord would agree to keep rents affordable, as defined in the guidelines, for ten years.

Taxpayers should have a lot of questions to ask about a plan that will take an "increment" of local property taxes amounting to as much as $54 Million over the next 23 years to subsidize some property owners to improve their properties while maintain rents at reduced levels. For starters,  the grants will be offset by additional property taxes to make up for taxes being diverted away from essential city services, which means that the rents in the area will trend higher and there will be no net gain for the renters on properties that benefit from these grants.

And does Rogers Park really need more cheap housing, in an era of falling house and condo prices, and downward pressure on rentals as failed condo conversions revert to rental?

Will this TIF overlap some of the areas covered by the Loyola-Devon TIF, which still has several years to run? What effect will being in two TIF districts have on the taxes for affected properties? Will it matter? 

But the most important questions are these: What gives a public agency the right to to divert public money to private property owners, whether for the benefit of renters or anyone else? And how is "continuing housing stabilization" the function of a government?

Will the RIF do more to aggravate blight than mitigate it? 

Worse, could it be that the RIF will make lower-income renters worse off, not better, and that they will end up paying more rent, not less? Will the RIF be just another factor in driving up property taxes, and rents, thus not only canceling the benefits to landlords and tenants, while increasing the load on all property owners?

Most of all, how will Chicago solve its financial problems and continue to provide essential civil services such as police and fire protection, public transportation, schools, as well as desirable amenities that make the city an attractive place to live and work, and still keep taxes at levels where Chicago can compete with other cities for businesses and residents, if we continue to divert hundreds of millions of dollars in the aggregate of all the city's 160-plus TIF districts, not to mention a multitude of other massive subsidies named differently, from city coffers to private purposes?

None of our candidates for the alderman in the 49th have addressed the city's mounting financial problems, which mirror those of the state of Illinois, now one of the most financially challenged states in the country. Much less do they seem concerned with how we will be able to fund essential services, and critical infrastructure repairs and improvements in the coming era of rising fuel prices and increasing shortages, and falling tax revenues due to the continued shrinkage of our tax base and the deteriorating incomes of the population.

Two public meetings concerning the RIF have been held so far, with only a day's notice given for each, resulting in low attendance for each. The first I attended, at which Tom Tresser spoke, had only a sprinkling of attendees. It would be beneficial and only appropriate to have another meeting for the public with more publicity and advance notice, and attended by our candidates for Alderman, Joe Moore and Brian White, especially since the latter is one of its promoters; as well as Marilyn Pagan-Banks, and the members of the ZULAC zoning committee. The public is entitled to a more solidly grounded justification for yet another massive diversion of public money for private purposes.