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At the housing committee meeting Thursday aldermen still had plenty of praise for housing commissioner Ellen Sahli and her department, and committee chairman Ray Suarez still defended the Daley administration’s record even when it wasn’t being attacked. “Chicago has probably, in my opinion, the best housing plan of any city,” he said.
But the economy and housing crisis are obviously having an impact. Since the beginning of the year, Sahli said, the city has earmarked about $129 million to build affordable rental housing, $124 million for single-family homes, and another $14 million for preserving existing housing; the city anticipates that it will have set aside a total of $378 million before the end of 2008. But that would be down significantly from last year’s total of about $661 million, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Chicago Rehab Network.
