Pritzker: I’ll require Section 8 Housing in every Illinois suburb
Democrat Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker will push for state laws that mandate Illinois communities allow building of unlimited “Section 8” and other taxpayer-subsidized apartment units on any residential lot.
Pritzker unveiled his suburban Section 8 plan during his annual State of the State address, which he gave Wednesday.
Taking aim at single family homeowners in the Chicago suburbs, Pritkzer said their “shameful” opposition to taxpayer-subsidized Section 8 apartments are responsible for driving up the cost of Illinois housing.
Community zoning laws “have made it too difficult and costly to build new (Section 8) housing,” Pritzker said, chiding suburban Illinoisans who oppose high-density, subsidized apartments as old-fashioned and behind the “times.”
“Often, the problem is a failure to modernize and keep up with the changing times we live in,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker will seek new laws passed by the Democrat-supermajority Illinois General Assembly that would bar Chicago suburbs from prohibiting the building of apartments on any residential lot. He’ll also seek to give another $100 million to the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA), the state agency that subsidizes the building of Section 8 apartments.
Seismically, the governor’s plan would prohibit Illinois suburban communities fom requiring minimum residential lot sizes greater than 2,500 square feet, or 20 percent smaller than a standard 25 by 125 (3,125 square foot) City of Chicago lot.
Pritzker’s plan would mandate that anyone could build a four-flat of Section 8 apartments on any 2,500 square-foot suburban lot in Illinois, a six-flat on a 5,000 square foot lot and an eight-flat on a 7,500 square foot lot.
Elmhurst’s minimum residential lot size is 7,260 to 9,000 square feet. Naperville’s is 10,000 square feet for single family homes.
In Glen Ellyn, minimum lot sizes range from 7,500 to 40,000 square feet, in Hinsdale they are 10,000 to 30,000 square feet and in Wheaton, 6,500 to 43,560 square feet.
In Downers Grove, the minimum lot size for new construction is 10,500 square feet.
“Zoning has been a scam”
The proposal was cheered by government-subsidized developers who build and invest in apartments, and by real estate brokers who will grow their businesses marketing them.
Illinois Realtors’ CEO Jeff Baker “applauded” Pritzker for pushing more rentals “into existing single-family neighborhoods.”
Iman Jalali, a dual Iranian-U.S. citizen and investor in apartments in Glen Ellyn, lauded Pritzker for “coming out swinging” against suburban single-family homeowners.
“Zoning has been a scam,” Jalali said. “The suburbs have weaponized single-family zoning, parking minimums and permit BS to keep density out.”
Pritzker was also lauded by non-profits paid by the state to move the mentally-ill out of institutions and into subsidized rental apartments.
In banning local zoning, Pritzker’s plan would also require communities to accept government-subsidized housing for people with “serious mental illness” through non-profits funded by taxpayers.
Amber Kirchhoff, a lobbyist for non-profit The Thresholds, which received $120 million in taxpayer money in 2024 to “empower people with severe mental illness” to move into their own apartments, attended the State of the State to support Pritzker.
“We will be advocating for affordable housing – a foundation for recovery for people with mental health and substance use conditions,” she said.
Pritzker cited a University of Illinois study that claims the state is “142,000 units of housing short.”
According to Chicago Cityscape, the City of Chicago had 31,086 vacant properties as of March 2023, and Cook County had an additional 28,308 vacant lots.
The U.S. Census bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey estimated that the City of Chicago has 121,652 vacant housing units, or a rate of 9.5 percent.
Minneapolis was the first community in the U.S. to try barring single-family home zoning, in 2018. New housing development, as measured by housing permits issued, has fallen by 88 percent there since 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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