Lisa Green says she is just a step away from being homeless.
For close to two years, she has lived in the basement apartment of her former boyfriend’s mother, unable to find an affordable apartment of her own.
For Green, the situation is particularly trying. Two years ago, one of Green’s twins was stillborn, and the second, a girl, was born with severe disabilities, and she now stays home to care for the child full-time.
In addition, the girl’s father departed a year ago, leaving Green to raise her disabled daughter and 8-year-old son alone.
“Finding a place to live is almost impossible, and I really think there should be more resources for people like me,” Green said. “If they need proof, they could just look into my daughter’s case.”
Arlington Heights housing advocates point to Green’s situation and others as evidence of a need for affordable housing in the relatively wealthy suburb.
But a proposal from the village’s Housing Commission–that developers be given incentives to include more units for moderate-income residents in new apartment buildings–has met with opposition.
A survey about affordable housing commissioned by a pro-affordable housing community group, Healthy Arlington 2000, sat on the shelf for a year until the Northwest Community Hospital agreed to pay for postage to mail the questionnaire.
Resident Frank Biga attacked the idea of incentives at a recent Village Board meeting, suggesting that if people couldn’t afford to live in Arlington Heights, they should “go live in Wheeling.”
And some village trustees say they aren’t convinced of the need.
“Is there evidence, empirical evidence, that suggests there is this need?” Trustee Frank Guagliardo said. “As it stands now, I don’t see it and I wouldn’t support it.”
Margaret Schlickman, a member of the Housing Commission, isn’t optimistic the ordinance will get much support from the Village Board.
In 1996, 229 Arlington Heights residents requested help in finding affordable apartments, according to social worker Ed Geiss. From May 1 through October of this year, 87 people have asked for help, he said.
Irene Stangland, a 73-year-old who has lived in Arlington Heights for nine years, for example, is about to retire and will have a limited income. She said she worries she’ll have to move out of the community she has grown to love. She said new management recently boosted her $950 monthly rent and fees by $40.
“I don’t think people without money are really all that welcome anymore,” Stangland said. “I guess they assume affordable housing attracts the less desirable. But lower income does not make one less of anything.”
The proposed measure would allow developers to exceed the village’s limit on the number of apartment units that can be built on a particular parcel, if they include several units designated for people with moderate incomes.
Those units would allow a three-member family with an income of $31,000 to $39,000 to pay 70 percent of the normal rent for the building. Currently, the average one-bedroom apartment rents for $700 or $800 in Arlington Heights, said Rich Milburn, the Housing Commission’s chairman.
Because the proposed ordinance doesn’t include very-low-income residents, some Housing Commission members said they are surprised it has drawn so much criticism.
Mayor Arlene Mulder said the majority of the Village Board would like to first see a survey of residents on housing issues before making a decision on the commission’s ordinance.
“We would certainly welcome the ordinance to come forward, but we are concerned that the need be more than anecdotal,” Mulder said. “We want some kind of substantiated need for units.”
Village Trustee Dwight Walton believes the Healthy Arlington survey, due to be mailed next month, will prove what he already believes–there’s a need for more affordable rents.
“You just have to have some compassion for the situations that Arlington Heights residents get themselves into,” Walton said. “I go back to single-parent mothers. That has been to me a frightful trend. We have a growing number of single-parent mothers who have needs, and one of them certainly is affordable housing.”
