With housing costs rising faster than incomes, Sophia understands that in order to improve housing affordability, we need better alignment of zoning, taxes, and subsidies.
By leveraging multiple solutions to create a wider array of housing types across Chicago, we can ensure a healthier distribution of affordable homes of all shapes and sizes.
- Chicago can optimize opportunity zones to create more affordable housing. Sophia will work with community stakeholders and business leaders to create a vision for residential and mixed use housing.
- Special incentives for teachers, firefighters, and police officers to secure zero interest loans for new housing rehabilitations to encourage our city’s public servants to live within the communities they serve and in areas of high attrition.
- Sophia is focused on taking the immediate need to deliver on the thousands of affordable housing units needed in the city. With more than 30,000 people waiting for housing assistance from the CHA we cannot afford to wait.
Opportunity Zones are an economic development tool that allows people to invest in distressed areas in the United States. Their purpose is to spur economic growth and job creation in low-income communities while providing tax benefits to investors. An investor can put their capital gains into a development and after 10 years pay no taxes on initial investment plus any gains. This tool can be used to build entire mixed use development communities.
Providing affordable housing is the responsibility of the whole city, not just parts of it.
