The plans of Chicago Housing Authority Chairman Vincent Lane to finance the replacement of crime-ridden public housing high-rises won the easy approval of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Development Committee on Thursday.
Approved by a 15-3 majority that included Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (D-Ill.), the plan was sent without discussion to the full Senate as part of a national housing bill designed to reduce homelessness and attack crime in public housing developments.
The panel action is a key legislative step to get federal approval allowing public housing authorities to borrow large sums of money to demolish the high-rises and replace them with mixed-income developments.
Drafted with the support of the committee chairman, Sen. Donald Riegle (D-Mich.), and the senior Republican, Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.), the bill is not expected to run into trouble on the Senate floor.
President Clinton endorsed the plan during his visit to Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes on Friday, and Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros is helping to move it through Congress.
Under the measure, as much as $4 billion would be made available for loans to housing authorities for modernization and replacement. Chicago would be eligible for $750 million that would have to be repaid over 30 years.
The CHA would then be able to leverage that money into an estimated $2.8 billion by entering partnerships with private developers and not-for-profit community development corporations.
When a previously discussed provision requiring cities or states to back the loans was removed, Mayor Richard Daley withdrew his objections to the plan. Congressional leaders had opposed borrowing against future modernization funding, which is also eliminated by the current proposal.
The new developments, expected to mix middle-income residents with the poor in less-dense low-rise buildings and rowhouses, would be the collateral for the loans.
The House Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee has already cleared legislation allowing housing authorities to use up to 50 percent of their modernization money for replacement, in addition to demolition and repairs.
Among other elements of the bill, more than $1 billion is authorized to fight homelessness in the country. Another provision would grant public housing authorities the right to prohibit weapons in their buildings. The CHA already has a gun ban.
