Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor was shocked to receive a letter from the Chicago Housing Authority informing her that she made it to the top of the affordable housing waiting list. After all, she applied for affordable housing way back in 1993.
A 2021 report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said that the average wait time for families to get vouchers for affordable housing was two and half years.
Clearly, Miss Taylor was on the longer end of that average, and that is because Chicago has one of the worst wait times for affordable housing in the nation. Most families never get to the top of the list.
Taylor told WBBM Newsradio that when she first applied, she was 19 and a single mother with three children. She had two more children in her one-bedroom apartment while waiting for affordable housing.
After raising her children, Alderwoman Taylor became a community organizer and entered politics. She took office as alderwoman of Chicago's 20th ward in 2019.
In my personal opinion, the arrival of the approval letter seems a little too on the nose, since the alderwoman has repeatedly sparred with Governor Lori Lightfoot on the issue of affordable housing ordinances.
At any rate, if her story is true about being denied affordable housing in her youth, and I can at least give her that, all things considered, then it is certainly understandable why she is so passionate about the issue.
And to her credit, the alderwoman has been particularly vocal opposing Illinois's plan to tear down some currently occupied affordable housing to build the Barack Obama Presidential Center, under the direction of the Obama Foundation.
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