City Council voted 5-4 Monday night to table a vote on introducing a Property Tax Circuit Breaker program, following a discussion about how the program would be implemented and whether it should be advanced before the Council’s vote on Evanston’s Strategic Housing Plan, commonly known as Housing4All, next month.
The “circuit breaker” program, introduced by Alds. Clare Kelly (1st), Tom Suffredin (6th) and Parielle Davis (7th) would allocate $500,000 from the city’s Affordable Housing Fund for a one-year pilot program that would aim to subsidize property taxes for eligible homeowners.
“This is about the people that are the fabric of this community, the people that have been here for generations; it’s about stopping that bleeding, so they can remain in their homes,” Kelly said.
Applicants must be residents of Evanston for at least 15 consecutive years, have a household income that is equal to or less than the area’s median income, have annual property tax payments for their primary residence that equal or exceed 10% of their household income and a primary residence that does not exceed 1,800 square feet of “livable area.”
“Circuit breaker” programs are generally meant to subsidize property taxes or rent among residents for whom those costs present a financial burden.
The Housing and Development Committee advised against approving the program as a stand-alone ordinance at its January 20 meeting. The committee then voted to recommend the ordinance be considered alongside the Housing4All.
Evanston residents expressed broad support for the “circuit breaker” program during the public comment period of the meeting.
“The action or lack thereof will be an indicator whether this council is interested in keeping residents in Evanston, or if we’ll continue to allow the conditions that push lower-income homeowners out of our city,” said Evanston resident Trisha Connolly.
Several public commenters emphasized the program will run for just one year, allowing for review and improvement at the end of that year.
Councilmembers Kelly and Davis expressed unwavering support for the program. Davis said several other programs included in the Strategic Housing Plan aim to make housing more affordable for renters, but this program will help Evanston residents who have bought a home manage high property tax rates.
After several councilmembers expressed concern that the program’s would-be beneficiaries already have programs such as Cook County’s Senior Citizens Real Estate Tax Deferral Program and Homeowner Relief Fund. Kelly moved to amend the ordinance to verify applicants have exhausted these other programs.
Ald. Shawn Iles (3rd) said he was uncomfortable advancing the plan before approving the Strategic Housing Program. He posited that a “hierarchy of needs” for affordable housing should be determined through the Strategic Housing Plan, which Council is set to vote on at its next meeting.
Suffredin disagreed. He urged councilmembers to put any amendments forward instead of voting to table the ordinance. He said delaying a vote would only hinder a solution to an important problem for Evanston residents.
“Saying that we need to wait until we have a larger plan is like saying, ‘We can’t have the fire department put the fire in your house out until we have a comprehensive fire protection plan,’” he said.
Ald. Bobby Burns (5th) advocated for integrating the proposal into the broader housing strategy, criticizing other councilmembers for failing to grasp the urgency of housing affordability.
He said he did not want to kill the plan entirely and proposed tabling it until the next meeting to find a “middle ground” and allow for necessary adjustments or integration with the strategic plan.
Public commenter and Evanston resident Meleika Gardner questioned why the program was folded into the strategic housing plan, which has been in committee since September.
“Residents are watching to see whether the city will offer modest relief to longtime families struggling with rising costs,” Gardner said. “Evanston has said many times it values diversity and longtime residents. Supporting the circuit breaker would show that those words actually mean something.”
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