
You know I sort of get the
point of this program. How likely is it criminal activity would take place in front of a first responder like a police officer or a fire fighter? Though it's good to know that city workers will still choose Chatham :)
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s
latest attempt to get Chicago cops and firefighters to spread out into
the city’s struggling neighborhoods has yet to draw much interest.
Six
months after the mayor dangled a monetary carrot to try to get them to
purchase homes in high-crime parts of the South and West sides, just two
police officers have taken advantage, according to the city Department
of Planning and Development. And both closed on houses in the South
Side Chatham neighborhood that’s already known as a favorite landing
spot for first responders and other city workers.
Emanuel’s program offers $30,000 loans to police officers and
firefighters to buy a home in certain more violent areas of the city. If
they stay for at least 10 years, they don’t have to pay the city back.
It’s an idea employed by former Mayor Richard M. Daley in previous
decades that Emanuel restarted last year.
Because of the low
participation so far, some aldermen are suggesting changes. But the
mayor’s administration wants to see if the program gains steam as the
weather warms up and more young officers enter the homebuying market.
The proposal set aside $3 million to pay for the loans and passed the City Council easily last year, but not without skepticism from some aldermen about whether it would spur investment in areas that need it most.
The
program was organized to promote homebuying by police, firefighters and
paramedics in parts of Chicago’s six most statistically violent police
districts, which include portions of several neighborhoods beset by
crime and disinvestment like South Lawndale and Englewood. The
districts, though, also include less violent parts of the city, notably
Chatham.
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