Batavia debates the future of its 'affordable' housing

Can you afford to live in Batavia?

According to the state, most of us can.

But Batavia community surveys have shown people don't think they'll be able to afford it once they retire. Others complain that people in their 20s, just out of college and starting their careers, can't find an affordable place to live in the town in which they grew up.

And even if Batavia really is affordable now, city officials wonder if that will always be true - and if they should do anything to guarantee it.

"We keep on bumping into it when we talk about development in certain corners of town, or in the comprehensive plan, or when something is proposed," city administrator Bill McGrath recently told members of the city council's community development committee.

He was presenting a memo he had written about Batavia's compliance with the Illinois Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act. That law requires towns to have at least 10 percent of their housing be affordable for a family of four whose household income is at 80 percent of the town's median income to buy a house. For renting, the median is 60 percent.

"Affordable" is defined as ensuring the family should not have to spend more than 30 percent of its gross income for housing (or housing plus utilities, if they are renting).

The 2000 census showed $204,500 as median value of a house in Batavia, and $1,577 as the median mortgage payment and housing cost of those with mortgages. Median means half the values were below this, half were above. The median rent was $773 a month.

Assuming 10 percent down payment, and 6.68 percent 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, that's $1,185 per month for principal and interest to buy a $204,500 house today, according to a mortgage calculator at bankrate.com. That doesn't include private mortgage insurance and property taxes, which would add at least another $400 a month to the bill, or homeowners insurance.

Median income, according to the 2000 census, was $70,225 per household. A household making 80 percent of that would earn $56,180, and could afford to spend $1,404 a month on mortgage and related costs, according to the state's guidelines. For rent, it would be $1,053 per month.

Towns that don't meet the state's affordability rules are required to come up with a plan to do so.

So far, Batavia is exempt - mostly because of the Batavia Apartments, a complex at Wilson Street and Kirk Road, said McGrath. The complex, owned by Franciscan Ministries, offers federally subsidized housing. But there is a perception among residents that Batavia Apartments - along with Lorlyn Apartments on the northwest side and, increasingly, Green Meadows on West Wilson Street - houses troublemakers. A person was stabbed at Batavia Apartments in June, an underage drinking party was broken up recently at Green Meadows. Lorlyn shows up regularly in police blotter for crimes such as damage to vehicles.

But 3rd Ward Alderman Linnea Miller, whose youngest son just recently moved into Lorlyn, said people may not be giving multifamily housing a fair shake.

"There might be a perception that is different from reality," she said.

"People want to see the same thing across from their house," said 2nd Ward Alderman Alan Wolff, noting the likely protest to any proposal to build multifamily housing or smaller, cheaper houses. The fear that doing so would decrease the value of their own properties is strong.

McGrath urged the committee to visualize housing as a bundle of sticks; renting, owning, stability of being in one place, spiritual preference, school preference, proximity to certain topography and recreational amenities, house style, landscaping, neighbors, neighborhood, proximity to work, the ability to make a profit on sale, and tax write-offs.

People who don't have much money to invest in the first place may be willing to give up the ability to make a big profit, to get the other sticks, said McGrath. They might go for something like a community housing trust where the trust owns the land below the homes, thus reducing the cost of the homes.

Providing affordable housing could come in many ways.

In St. Charles, for example, developers of large, pricey homes can be charged a fee, which goes into a housing trust. The city has bought several houses and rents them out.

The city could provide financial incentives for developers to plan less-expensive housing.

Or it could work on preventing teardowns of small or older, more affordable houses for replacement by larger, costlier ones, said McGrath.

Should Batavia even worry about providing affordable housing is another question. McGrath pointed out that, even though Batavia's vision plan calls for it to be a self-sufficient community, there are towns nearby that have affordable housing to which Batavia workers could commute, especially if mass public transit were more readily available.

"What's the use of $300-a-month housing if you can't afford $4-a-gallon gas (to get to work)?" asked 4th Ward Alderman Jim Volk.

Volk, who is not on the committee, but attended the meeting, said that even fixer-uppers are becoming unaffordable in Batavia, citing a house on Washington Street that is listed for $220,000 - "and you are going to have to dump $100,000 into it," he said.

Washington Street is in the northeast portion of town in Ward 4. The northeast quadrant is where most of Batavia's less-expensive housing is, where its lowest household incomes are, and where most of its minority residents live. Batavia Apartments is in this ward.

He also pointed out that, besides a mortgage payment, people have to have the money to maintain what they own, to prevent an area from becoming blighted. "'Affordable' also has to be for the long term," he said.

That's why the discussion shouldn't just focus on homeownership, McGrath said. "A lot of this will be about rental. For some people, their money would be better spent raising their families than paying a mortgage. But that concept is foreign to us."

The committee seemed to favor establishing a housing commission to study the issue. It also gave the city staff the go-ahead to present a formal recommendation at its August meeting.

McGrath's memo is available online at www.cityofbatavia.net/content/articlefiles/4201-Housing%Process%20Start.pdf.