Progressive politicians who run America’s biggest cities often boast about how much they’ve invested in “affordable housing.” But multi-billion-dollar bills for affordable housing units are hardly affordable for the taxpayers forced to pay them, even as the affordability crisis grows more severe.
A since-deleted X post from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson last week is a case in point of this absurdity. “We have invested $11 billion in contracting to build 10,000 more units to offer affordable housing,” Johnson bragged. He also repeated that claim in testimony before the House Oversight Committee.
But as one X user was quick to note, $11 billion for 10,000 units works out to $1.1 million per unit.
The median home price in Chicago? Just $350,000.
Amid all the talk of waste, fraud, and abuse consuming Washington, D.C., it only seems fair to train this same scrutiny on liberal city governments famous for spending enormous sums of money but failing to solve any problems. Chicago’s history with affordable housing projects paints a bleak picture and gives taxpayers little confidence that this latest investment will come close to justifying the staggering $11 billion price tag.
In February, for instance, Chicago proudly opened the 5th City Commons project, a 43-unit development in East Garfield Park. Despite the pomp and circumstance, the project proved to be a massive drain on the city’s resources. The development cost $38 million, averaging out to a whopping $884,000 per unit. A recent Chicago Tribune editorial notes that “there’s an existing 21-unit building nearby on the market for $150,000 per unit. Even with any necessary renovations, it would be a far cry from $884,000 per apartment.” Another proposed development would create 22 units for a cost of $20 million, nearly $1,000,000 per unit.
But Chicago is hardly the only Democrat-run city to pour enormous sums of money into “affordable housing” projects. New York City has spent hundreds of millions of dollars building “affordable” housing only to see its homeless population increase more than 50 percent in 2024 alone.
California is also famous for sinking billions of dollars into affordable housing while simultaneously having the largest homeless population in the nation. The LA Times reported in 2022 that “More than half a dozen affordable housing projects in California are costing more than $1 million per apartment to build, a record-breaking sum that makes it harder to house the growing numbers of low-income Californians who need help paying rent.”
The Cascade Policy Institute, a policy research center, has found that subsidized housing “costs about 20 percent more per square foot than unsubsidized homes.” Most of those subsidies go to overpaid developers. Back in 2015, two prominent affordable housing developers in Miami were charged with knowingly inflating the cost of construction projects to net more than $7 million in kickbacks.
Some affordable housing developers even have direct ties to the politicians dishing out the contracts to build the units in the first place. Last year, 70 public housing employees in New York were charged with accepting over $2 million in bribes in exchange for awarding $13 million in no-bid contracts.
Oftentimes, the affordable housing units that do get built don’t even go to the families that need them the most. The Mountain View Whisman School District in Silicon Valley spent $90 million (far above the original budget of $56 million) on a “teacher housing project” that turned into luxury apartments that are too expensive for most teachers.
Meanwhile, in Houston, Texas, the Midtown Development Authority acquired land in the Third Ward over the course of nearly 15 years to combat gentrification and develop affordable housing there. However, the authority’s largest expenditure was a $22 million office building, One Emancipation Center, which is underutilized for residential purposes.
What progressives fail to realize is that it is their own policies that made housing unaffordable in the first place. No amount of taxpayer-funded subsidies can cancel out onerous zoning laws and the ever-mounting costs of an endless sea of red tape. New construction projects routinely take years to receive final approval. The Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley has reported that, over the past decade, the per-square-foot cost to construct multifamily homes in California has risen by 25 percent after adjusting for inflation.
New houses in liberal bastions like California must also meet certain “green” building standards, such as mandatory energy efficiency requirements under California’s Title 24 Energy Code, which requires solar panels on new homes and stricter insulation standards. The California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen) further mandates water conservation, sustainable materials, and improved indoor air quality. These regulations, while aimed at environmental sustainability, significantly increase construction costs, making housing even less affordable.
Just a generation ago, the dream of owning a home was attainable for virtually anyone who worked hard and saved wisely. Now, that dream seems more like a fantasy. But pouring billions of dollars into building affordable housing that only ever benefits a favored few will do nothing to solve the underlying problem of housing affordability that government policies created in the first place.
Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.
This article is exactly what those who are protesting DOGE need to read. Sadly I doubt that will happen.
Yes, this is exactly how the scam of government sponsored, or government controlled “affordable housing” actually works. If you want to know why the unit costs are so out of line with what the costs per unit would be with the private sector market, all you have to do is look at all the political hands (state and local politicians of all stripes, state and local bureaucrats all taking their “slice of the pie” via fees, regulations, special permits to exempt the projects from various other zoning reviews and other additional subsequent fees and and regulations along the way) the money has to pass through before it reaches the actual private contractors building these things.
The resulting mark-up in unit costs to cover all this “greasing of palms”, as they used to call it decades ago, along the way is of course completely insane and unjustifiable, but then this system of essentially institutionalized kickbacks was set up by the politicians as means to collect additional income for the political class. The system was NOT set up to actually solve the problem of so-called “affordable housing”.
You’ll also notice a common pattern with so-called “affordable housing”. It is usually most common in Democrat run cities and states, because it is one of the many ways the Democrat Party has managed to weaponize the political system for their personal economic advantage. Programs setup to generate money for the politicians and their political machine. There is a LOT of corruption and graft in this country that needs to be cleaned up, and if you trace back how a lot of these so-called programs came into being and who pushed to get them enacted you’ll find the same political party behind them in at least 90% of the instances.
Hmmm, how about we DEPORT the 50 million illegals int he USA so there is suddenly a dearth of housing, prices will come down and voila, more affordable housing. No drugs, less reason to become homeless…
Born in the city ..live in suburbs ( go figure) I just can’t believe that the people of Chicago are that dumb to keep electing these moron Mayors…you want it you got it….Good friggin luck Chi Town!
My guess is that these Liberal Mayors think that we can’t do math like they can’t. They get funding and pocket a bunch of it. That is going to stop with DOGE . Lets get it done .
He was WELL KNOWN in Chicago leading into the Dem primary. Yet the voters overwhelmingly voted for him to be the Dem candidate for mayor to replace Lori Lightfoot, another disaster as mayor. I have ABSOLUTELY NO sympathy for Chicagoans. They got EXACTLY what they voted for.
“Liberalsim is a mental disease”.
Stated by a famous NYC radio host back in the 1980’s.
This is a report of a crime . Us reading it will not solve it. It needs to be dealt with properly, which DOGE is doing, but they don’t have the authority to charge and arrest anyone .Funny how you can be charged for using stolen credit card but not for embezzling hundreds of millions for years and still be in the position of authority. White supremacy my foot, just looking at all the faces representing the worst cities tells the story
Whenever Left-wing liberal socialists are involved in ANYTHING involving money or policy, it is 100% GUARANTEED THAT IT WILL END BE A COMPLETE FAILURE, ENDING IN DISASTER. This phenomenon will continue past eternity because it is fueled by A COMPLETE LACK OF MORALS AND INTEGRITY, AND ENDLESS CORRUPTION, GREED, POWER, MONEY, STUPIDITY, AND COMPLETE INSANITY. ALL OF WHICH THE DEMOCRAPS HAVE A MONOPOLY IN.
In politics, if it’s BLUE, IT IS GUARANTEED TO FAIL, WITH DISASTEROUS RESULTS.
Not at all surprised. I am sorry to be stuck in Illinois, but at least I’m not in Chicago
Man! He is great! I bet his kickback was impre$$ive! Illinois should elect him to the US Congress so he can get a better return on his actions.
What everyone needs to understand is that the term “Progressive” is the current polite term for “Communist.” Just like all Communists since Communism became a pollical movement perhaps 150 years ago, their goal is nothing less than the destruction of this nation and the downfall of Western Civilization, to be replaced by a worldwide Communist dictatorship. If you keep all of this is mind, it is very easy to understand why “Progressives” do things that seem stupid and crazy to regular people. They are just following their agenda.
Must be nice to just spend billions of other peoples money and have no repercussions for it. From an economic and business point of view, this kind of spending makes zero sense. Anytime a democrat states affordable this or that, the tax payer is getting screwed and politicians are getting a kick back from this reckless spending.
Take politics out of it and anyone who is a tax payer should be upset to the point of voting whoever out of office. As well as calling for an investigation.
Are these homes for US citizens? I tend to not believe all that the mayor says. In fact, when I have heard him speak, makes me think-“he was the principle of a school?”. Has the same effect as Jeffries! DUH!
I wanted to ask why major cities keep elceting jackasses like this, but the education report answers that. Reading comprehension well below grade level means the student cannot reason. Reading teaches the brain to function.The other day I called a store employees a dumbass because he he messed up a multiple lottery ticket purchase. I had given him an explicit written note.
Housing is unaffordable because of regulations, permitting delays and the graft that seems to be commonplace. Are there honest people anywhere? (I know there are, but they don’t make news).
Chicago is corrupt …..and really always has been. Yet year after year, they continually vote Democrat. You can’t fix stupid.
Illinois has always been a Democratic Liberal Strong hold.
Just another in a long list of giveaway programs. If the populace would go to work, they could afford housing, but why should they ? Knowing the Libs will provide for them if they are not willing to provide for themselves. I’m all for helping those who are mentally or physically unable to work, BUT I’m REALLY tired of supporting generations of deadbeats who are too lazy to work or go to school or provide for themselves in any way other than to score the next joint !
First of all, thank God it didn’t continue to say, mayor exposed himself! That was my fear????. Anyway,, over $1 million per unit, well isn’t that just the liberal way! California is proof liberals can’t do anything right nor do they want to. Spend money is all they can do and all they want to do. Chicago is going the way of Detroit and its future holds bankruptcy.
Dang. Wish I were an elected official in Chicago getting millions in shavings, er, affordable housing being built. Wahoo.
I know want way to solve this is to use liberals to fund the housing of illegals or homeless for they have drain the federal government long enough
Every home is “affordable” to someone.