Dept. of Amazing Coincidences. Brian Rogal writes in the Chicago Reporter (December) that over the last three and a half years the Chicago Housing Authority has evicted more families from developments it planned to “revitalize” than from developments not slated for revitalization. Why the difference? Perhaps because evicted tenants need not be provided with replacement housing when buildings are torn down for revitalization. “Eviction rates are highest in the four developments already awarded $152.9 million in federal HOPE VI funds slated for revitalization: Addams-Brooks-Loomis-Abbott, on the Near West Side; Cabrini-Green, on the Near North Side; Henry Horner Homes, on the West Side; and the Robert Taylor Homes, on the South Side.” According to the CHA, these developments simply contain more residents who are behind on their rent.
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Why is the home-mortgage interest deduction a good idea? According to Joseph Trefzger in the “Illinois Real Estate Letter” (Summer), the federal tax code should support home ownership “because a house occupies a fixed location” and thus its value “relates directly to the quality of the surrounding physical, fiscal, and social environment. The owner of a house, unlike the owner of a car or a machine or a specialized set of skills, cannot relocate the asset to derive a higher residual value in a more favorable location. As a result, the home owner has a powerful financial incentive to play an active role in dealing with some societal problems that we, as citizens, must address collectively.” Survey results reported in a November 1998 publication of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, “The Many Benefits of Home Ownership,” support this theory: owners are more likely than socioeconomically similar renters to vote, to know who their representative is in Congress, and to know the name of a school board member.
