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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