1) Campaign Email - drakewarren@drakefor10.com
2) YOUR PLATFORM: Link to your website about housing - https://drakefor10.com/
3) YOUR COMMUNITY: Is your district suffering from a housing shortage?
Yes, and the housing shortage is the biggest issue facing our city’s future. Chicago ranks among the highest US cities for rent growth and among the lowest for new housing starts. Both of those ranking positions are key indicators of a housing shortage. I have felt the housing shortage in the growth of my own rent, and in the nightmare of apartment hunting when units are getting snapped up before I can even schedule a tour. The shortage is felt in every part of the district, and rent increases have been especially bad in traditionally more affordable neighborhoods, such as Uptown and Edgewater. There are myriad reasons that make Chicago’s housing shortage an extreme threat to our city, and to the district that I’m running to serve. Housing is almost everyone’s biggest expense. When housing costs balloon, it threatens financial stability and results in increased poverty and homelessness. It has secondary impacts on other costs, such as transportation costs as people are forced into longer commutes when housing costs force them to move further from work. A housing shortage also constrains the tax base, leading to avoidable structural budget deficits, high tax bills, and avoidable conversations around fiscal austerity. Chicago should be a place where people can live their whole lives. We need to have an abundant variety of housing to accommodate people’s needs as their lives unfold.
4) YOUR RECORD: Are there pro-housing policies or specific housing developments you have supported in the past that you would like to highlight?
I’ve been part of Abundant Housing Illinois for almost my entire time in Chicago. I’ve spoken publicly in favor of new housing (1840 N Marcey), as well as in favor of broader land use frameworks (North Broadway Upzoning). As part of AHIL’s state legislative team, I’ve taken part in lobby days in Springfield, promoting legislation to widely legalize multifamily zoning by-right, ADU’s, and eliminate parking minimums near transit. I’m also a founding member of Chicago Growth Project, which strives to elect pro-housing candidates that serve the Chicago Area. During my own campaign for office, I’ve focused on including YIMBY voices. I’ve spoken at multiple YIMBY-oriented block clubs, and was a guest on “Infill”, YIMBY Action’s podcast, where I promoted YIMBY values and why young people especially should care.
5) Housing costs are increasing for everyone, but renters in particular are bearing the brunt of this crisis, with many frequently spending 30, 40, and even 50% of their income on rent.
What can the County Board do to bring down costs for both subsidized and market rate housing, and what are some actions that you support in order to achieve that?
Large parts of addressing cost burden are tied to my answers to questions 9, 10, and 11. In this answer, I want to talk about my vision for using the full power of the office I’m running for. It’s an office that many overlook as limited in power and scope. The office doesn’t have the same direct influence over zoning that city or state offices do. The county still has a big part to play in housing, and we need County Commissioners who play that part well. Playing that part well will require lots of time and effort, which is why I will serve full-time as a County Commissioner. Despite being paid a reasonable salary, full-time work has not always been the norm on the County Board, and is not currently the norm in District 10. Part of using the full power of the office means going beyond the official scope of responsibilities of the office, and using the position as a platform for advocacy and electoral activity. I’m not a “stay in my lane” public servant. The city and the state need to move much faster to address the housing shortage, and I will be pushing my city and state colleagues to do so. Electorally, I want to use my position to launch as many careers for promising public servants as possible. I will take personal risk with my own re-electability to promote the election of other candidates from our movement, and to defend the re-election of YIMBY allies that have taken political risks to advance our movement.
6) The Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act (AHPAA) is a state law that requires every Illinois municipality whose housing stock is less than 10% affordable to develop plans to increase the amount of affordable housing in the community. Fourteen of the 44 municipalities subject to the law are in Cook County and of those 14 communities, only eight submitted plans before the deadline—only three of which were deemed compliant.
Given these struggles of attaining and enforcing compliance, what would you do to ensure Cook County’s most affluent communities are planning for and building their fair share of affordable housing?
In a word, capacity. Smaller municipalities tend not to have planning departments with the resources to facilitate compliance with sweeping land-use policies. It’s not efficient to expect municipalities that may have comparable needs to each separately reinvent the wheel by producing their own plans. To the extent that compliance with the AHPAA has been hindered by capacity, I will seek to resolve this by building Cook County’s planning resources and offering those services to incorporated municipalities. This way municipalities can benefit from the capacity and economy of scale that Cook County can offer. I would also seek to simplify compliance by offering drafts of a municipal ordinance to satisfy the AHPAA requirement with sample language that has been vetted for compliance. That would avoid municipalities individually having to create plans from scratch. To the extent that municipalities are non-compliant for other reasons, including NIMBY-ism or a bias against affordable housing, I will engage in advocacy with the public and organize electorally against those who may be opposing pro-affordability policies.
7) There is significant unincorporated land, including some near transit, in which Cook County completely controls the zoning.
How would you use zoning in unincorporated Cook to address the County’s current housing shortage?
The Cook County Board controls zoning policy within unincorporated Cook County, which includes over 100,000 residents. I will support the allowance of missing middle policy reforms by right (e.g., 4 unit zoning, ADU, cottage clusters, single stair, ending parking minimums). I will especially promote homebuilding near transit, as I’m a supporter of shifting away from car-centric transportation. That would look like increased density by-right near transit, providing funding support via mechanisms like revolving loan funds, and working with NITA to coordinate homebuilding near transit as much as possible.
8) Cook County also owns land inside municipalities, much of which is vacant.
How can the County incentivize housing development on those parcels?
Most of this land is owned by the Cook County Land Bank Authority, which has been very slow to build on the land it owns, which sits off of the tax rolls while owned by Cook County, further shifting tax burden onto renters and homeowners. The developments that the land bank has made are mostly constructions or rehabs of single family homes. The land bank is also not financially self-sustaining, and in FY 2025 relies on stopgap funding from the balance of the General Fund that will not be available in FY 2026. I want to see the land bank live up to its potential. I want to do that by proactively negotiating the permitting and upzoning of batches of County owned parcels. In partnership with municipalities, I also want to offer pre-approved plans, including modular homes. My vision is to make it so that if local homebuilders want to build on and own county land, it’s almost as simple as just securing the funding. On the funding side, I support the creation of self-sustaining funding sources, such as revolving loan funds. When it comes to project bidding, I support replacing the current process (one that is reputed as being opaque and having involved insider deals), with a standardized rubric for awarding projects. I would like to see the rubric prioritize maximizing the number of units proposed, and minimizing the cost per unit.
9) A top concern for Cook County residents is high property taxes, which increase the cost of living for both homeowners and renters. Future pension obligations, among other obligations and services, will require increasing revenue for both the County and its municipalities.
How can the County responsibly mitigate individual property tax burdens?
Property taxes can be especially problematic, not just because of regressivity, but also volatility. They carry the real risk of taxing people out of their homes. I would oppose increasing the County tax levy. I think the biggest solution to our revenue woes is to grow the tax base by building housing abundantly, and I have spoken to those policies in other questions. One of the most impactful, yet simplest policies I would be thrilled to champion is ending the undervaluation of vacant land for property taxes. The Cook County Board singlehandedly sets property tax assessment levels for different property classes, with vacant land assessed at 10%, residential at 10%, and commercial at 25%. The low assessment of vacant land leads to land-speculation, depriving neighborhoods of housing, and shifting tax burden onto renters, homeowners, and business owners. With a vote and the stroke of a pen to increase the assessment level of vacant land, the Cook County Board can incentivize better land use and provide relief to everyone else, including renters, who are often left out by other relief measures.
