St. Charles aldermen may support affordable housing

If you live in St. Charles and have an old home with a mortgage that's under water or a foreclosed piece of property on your block, city officials may be interested in buying it. Aldermen joined the city's housing commission Monday night to voice support for building some affordable housing in the city as soon as possible.

Just last month, aldermen expressed frustration about new state calculations showing only about 11 percent of St. Charles' housing stock is affordable. That number barely keeps the city on the right side of a state law that says every community must keep at least 10 percent of its housing stock affordable.

Prior to a change in the state's formula for determining affordable housing, the city's own calculations said about 23 percent of its housing stock was affordable.

Aldermen again expressed doubts about the state's numbers. Alderman Dan Stellato said his own calculations put a home of about $275,000 as affordable per local median income. But the state's numbers show an affordable house costs closer to $145,000 for a family of four. Stellato and other aldermen had a hard time believing land prices and taxes would make the construction of a $145,000 home a profitable venture for any developer.

Housing commission Chairman David Amundson told them that's not the point.

"I believe it's in the best interest of the community to do this," Amundson said. "The people who serve us, our police, teachers, we can give them a place to live in our town. Having diversity in our classrooms, a diversity of income, avoids groupthink. Affordable housing allows everybody in and everybody a place at the table."

Aldermen strongly agreed with that concept. They said they want their children to be able to come back and buy property in their home community. And they may be willing to put some money behind it.

The city has about $575,000 in a housing trust fund. The money comes from developers who have chosen to pay a fee in lieu of providing affordable housing in their development projects. Stellato suggested using the cash to lure a developer to construct senior citizen housing in the city. If that doesn't work, he suggested buying a local foreclosed home with some of the money, fixing it up, and then selling it an affordable price. Stellato said doing a good job on a project like that, and publicizing it, could put a positive face on the concept of affordable housing for the community.

"If you do that, and people see some activity happening, then they'll see what we're talking about and build some momentum," Stellato said.