1) Campaign Email - paul@paulforillinois.com
2) YOUR PLATFORM: Link to your website about housing - I mention adding housing on my home page and we are rolling out our full platform page shortly which will include detailed text below from my Plans response.
3) YOUR COMMUNITY: Is your district suffering from a housing shortage? Yes. When Lakeview's occupancy rate exceeds 90%, it becomes clear that we are not adding enough housing.
4) YOUR RECORD: Are there pro-housing policies or specific housing developments you have supported in the past that you would like to highlight? On the Park West Neighbors Association board, I am a consistent voice in favor of building housing in our area, especially on Clark where we must add more density and upzoning. I use my voice to speak in favor of projects to our alderman and community.
5) YOUR Plans: 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 State do to bring down prices for both subsidized and market rate housing, and what are some actions that you support in order to achieve that?
Chicago and communities across Illinois face a housing shortage that drives up costs and squeezes working families. I believe we need creative solutions that expand the supply because people want to live in Chicago. Housing costs would come down, and the city would grow if we built enough to offer housing options to all who want to live here. There are parts of the city, like the Loop where we can do more deconversions to create more housing. We need new thinking and partnerships with our Cook County Land Bank, which sits on vast tracts where there is not enough movement to build. I believe in cutting unnecessary red tape in regulations, streamlining permitting processes, and promoting transit-oriented development principles and other zoning reforms. I also appreciate your emphasis on harnessing great human capital, which can contribute to population and economic growth by fostering more businesses.
I support the legalization of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) statewide, giving families the flexibility to add affordable apartments, such as in-law suites or coach houses.
I support the People Over Parking legislation, which would eliminate parking minimums for housing development. I would introduce a single-staircase reform bill in Springfield to address double-stair requirements that make it harder to build housing.
I am also interested in grant programs that incentivize the Chicago government to expedite review times on projects, which are currently excessively long, whether that involves implementing new technology or process improvements.
We can also expand rent-to-own programs to give more people the opportunity to become homeowners. Modular homes offer innovative possibilities at a time when construction costs are a major barrier. We also need to add more multi-family buildings through zoning adjustments. The Missing Middle Housing Act is a step in this work and I want to advance it.
6) Would you work on state legislation to end local exclusionary zoning that only allows for single family homes , and require municipalities to allow apartments and other types of housing in all residential areas?
Yes
7) What kinds of housing would you like to see in communities that currently have exclusionary zoning?
All of the above! As detailed in my Plan.
8) Do you support “by right” permitting, where cities must make clear, objective zoning and building standards, thus allowing developers following these rules to build new projects without delay?
Yes
9) How would you increase funding for Affordable Housing?
I want to be much more aggressive in increasing state tax credits so we are more effective at getting the private market to build affordable housing. As a representative, I will be tracking how much we are adding so I can be pushing for more and ensure it's part of planning processes, from the ward to the state, while including community in these processes. I want to better maximize IHDA's bonds to spur more projects.
10) The Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act (AHPAA) 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 and allows certain groups to file appeals when affordable housing developer’s proposal to build new affordable housing is improperly denied by an AHPAA community. Since the law’s passage in 2003, enforcement of AHPAA has been uneven, with only 10 of 44 communities subject to the law submitting compliant plans in 2024 and no appeals filed despite affordable developments regularly collapsing in AHPAA communities.
How would you improve AHPAA’s planning and appeal processes to ensure affordable housing developers face fewer barriers when proposing and building developments in our state’s most affluent communities?
Clearly, it's time to update the AHPAA rules, which start with communicating to the communities what is actually being built, updating the metrics for how it's counted, and strengthening compliance rules so we get updated data with fidelity. I will push the state for measures that get municipalities updating their zoning so it better reflects today's needs and not outdated and restrictive approaches to planning.
11) Are there any particular social or affordable housing models you support and would like to emulate in Illinois? (e.g. Austrian Social Housing, Montgomery County, etc.)
The Vienna social housing and Montgomery affordable housing fund are both excellent. In the wake of the L.A. fires, they’ve used this tragedy in California as an opportunity to roll out improved systems to expedite approvals and spur the development of multifamily affordable rental options. We shouldn’t need a tragedy like that to realize we already have a crisis, so enough with the inertia on this issue! Whether or not a project is approved for various reasons, the timelines are totally unacceptable and necessitate change towards a shot clock approach.
Atlanta Urban Development Corporation (AUD) to turn underutilized public land into mixed-income housing with a loan fund is a good model as we must better utilize land trusts we have.
12) What are common-sense tenant protections you support?
Screening and application processes must be transparent and nondiscriminatory, people should be protected from discrimination based on their income, and there must be protections for evictions without just cause. In this time of rising unaffordability, I believe we need greater notice on rent increases as I know many friends getting hit by shocking ones and people need more time to prepare for how they will be handling changes like that.
13) Are there any active tenant protection laws in Illinois that you believe are not being properly enforced? How would you change this?
Ensuring legislative protections for the return of security deposits within the contractual time frame.
