Taxpayers get roped into ‘affordable housing’ scheme in Chicago and get a bill for $700k per unit

Chicago’s new “affordable housing” complex—the first of such projects under mayor Brandon Johnson—rings in at nearly $700k per unit, in an area of the city where “existing units sell for $126,583,” according to a new report by Patrick Andriesen and shared via Illinois Policy. Oh, and Johnson negotiated for the units to be built in West Garfield Park, “the most dangerous neighborhood” in Chicago, per an analysis by leading home security provider Cove:

West Garfield Park is the most dangerous neighborhood in Chicago. The total crime rate in this area is 13,135 crimes per 100,000 people, making it one of the most crime dense populations in the nation. The crime in West Garfield Park is 409 percent higher than the national average. Residents in this neighborhood have a 1 in 8 chance of becoming a victim of crime.

The violent crime rate in this area makes this one of the worst neighborhoods in Chicago. The violent crime rate is 3,596 violent crimes per 100,000 people. The violent crime rate in West Garfield Park is 943 percent higher than the national average, making it a 1 in 27 chance that you will become a victim of violent crime in this neighborhood.

The property crime rate in West Garfield Park is 9,539 property crimes per 100,000 people, ensuring that residents have a 1 in 10 chance of becoming victims of property crime. The property crime rate in West Garfield Park is 433 percent higher than the national average.

As Andriesen reports, the complex is set to contain 44 units, with the total projected cost expected to be $30.6 million ($695,682 per dwelling), which means that when it’s all said and done, the disbursements will likely be much higher; do Democrat officials ever come in under-budget? Andriesen’s piece also reveals that in downtown Chicago, luxury units go for around a half-a-million dollars—or around $200k less than the taxpayer-funded apartments Johnson is building for the gangbangers and criminals that run the neighborhood. Any bets on how fast this thirty-million-dollar “investment” goes to pot? I give it less than a week.

And get this, also revealed by Andriesen:

Ethics laws forbid city contractors to donate to siting mayors, but Johnson received three contributions totaling $10,000 after he took office from Kyla Griggs, whose address was the same as GMA’s headquarters, 3520 S. Morgan St. Cornelius Griggs has a daughter named Kyla who has interned for the company.

(Cornelius Griggs is president of GMA, and GMA is one of the contractors on the project, making at least $1.16 million for its role; the payment will be higher if costs rise, since “GMA is to be paid a percentage of the final construction cost of the apartment building.”)

Someone needs to hide all of Johnson’s pens, so he can’t sign any more idiotic (and corrupt?) deals on behalf of the taxpayers, whether Chicagoan, Illinoisian, or American—just because you might not live in Chicago or Illinois doesn’t mean you’re not paying for this.

There’s a scene in The Office in which the character Ryan Howard is asked by the grumpy, unscrupulous octogenarian Creed Bratton how to start a blog; Ryan, “wanting to protect the world from being exposed to Creed’s brain…” opens a “Word document” and types in a fake URL at the top. Creed is on his way, none the wiser, and the Ryan’s plan is officially successful:

Is there a way we too can implement Ryan’s scheme to neutralize threatening philosophies and ideas, manufacturing a false reality where these lunatics are isolated from any authoritative roles? If only it were that easy!

Hat tip: Peter von Buol.

TDKR Chicago 101, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode.en>, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: TDKR Chicago 101, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, unaltered.

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