Allow construction of dense housing in the city to make homes affordable

 Dear Mayor Misty Buscher,

My name is ________. I am an undergraduate student attending the University of Illinois Springfield, where I am a senior studying social work. Living on campus, I have learned much about life in Springfield, and there is one problem that is common in this city that I would like to address: homelessness. I am writing to you advocating against a major policy in Springfield that is perpetuating this problem in this city. This policy is code § 151.10 in Springfield's Code of Ordinances Title XV.

According to the Springfield & Sangamon County’s 2022-2028 Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness report, about 260 people experienced homelessness in Springfield at any point during 2022. I have been fortunate enough to have a roof over my head my entire life so far, but I have talked to a few people that have experienced homelessness and have read many gut wrenching stories of those experiencing homelessness in my social work classes and local newspapers.

Many of these individuals are suffering from serious illnesses. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 20.8% of Illinois homeless people reported that they were enduring a serious mental illness and 10.9% of them had chronic substance abuse conditions in 2023. HUD also found that homeless are three to six times more likely to have conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS. These illnesses often are the central reasons why these individuals are homeless, as there were not proper community services available for them to build themselves up into contributing members of society. They

also might not have had funds for their treatments and for the other financial responsibilities they face, such as rent, bills, food and paying for their childrens’ needs and wants. The combination of these financial and other responsibilities, plus their ailments, plus the lack of services needed to keep up with their responsibilities and ailments can greatly increase a person’s chances in becoming homeless.

Springfield has had many successful efforts to reduce homelessness to Springfield. One of these efforts include Springfield & Sangamon County’s 2022-2028 Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness. In this plan, Heartland HOUSED, Heartland Continuum of Care, Capital Township, the city of Springfield, Sangamon County, and many other agencies have come together to create new affordable housing that include systems of support and resources for people experiencing homelessness in Springfield. Another example would be your and Ward 5 Alderman Lakeisha Purchase’s withdrawal of ordinance 2024-376, which would have allowed Springfield police to fine people for public camping along with taking people’s possessions after not moving after a 24-hour notice.

The HUD provided Heartland Continuum of Care funds to create 142 new affordable housing units for these people. I strongly suggest combining the Heartland HOUSED project and BUILD Springfield’s efforts to improve and maintain a sustainable city that can build up the people it swears to protect. One of BUILD Springfield’s goals is “community building” and working with major community organizations to make huge strides to prevent and reduce homelessness would align with this goal.

However, ordinance § 151.10 from Springfield's Code of Ordinances Title XV limits the necessary construction to create affordable housing for these individuals, along with construction to expand Springfield’s population. Under this ordinance, “the aggregate residential densities within a planned unit development shall not exceed 35 persons per acre of the net development area.” In essence, this rule prevents high rise buildings from being constructed in Springfield, IL. By amending or getting rid of this rule, the construction of high rise buildings for apartments can occur, meaning more affordable housing construction could be done for those in need of it. In addition, high rise apartments in Springfield can attract more people to live in Springfield, which would be good for the city’s economy.

Overall, I appreciate your efforts in listening to my and the rest of your constituents' information and suggestions regarding the topic of homelessness in Springfield.

References

Bandoch, J., & Tabor, Joe (2024). Regulatory reform can make housing more affordable for Illinois families. Illinois Policy.

https://www.illinoispolicy.org/reports/regulatory-reform-can-make-housing-more-afforda ble-for-illinois-families/.

National Alliance to End Homelessness. (2023). Health and homelessness. Retrieved September 20, 2024, from

https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/what-causes-homelessness/health/.

Springfield, Illinois, Municipal Code § 151.10.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2023). HUD 2023 continuum of care homeless assistance programs homeless populations and subpopulations in Illinois. https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_PopSub_State_IL_2023.pdf.

            It’s a good letter, and you get right to the point, mention a specific problem, and give specific suggestions to the mayor, who does have some ability to get the ordinance repealed.  I might have followed your excellent opening paragraph with something close to your penultimate paragraph, explaining that the ordinance limits the density of housing construction. So, in essence, the main thrust of the letter would become a please for a change in ordinances that would allow construction of apartment building complexes that would make population density higher than it is now in some areas of town.  

            After you've made high density construction of apartment buildings the main focus, you could open the justification by describing the lack of affordable housing and the need for affordable housing, and then throw in some facts about the cost-per-unit of housing construction being much lower if people build denser housing development such as apartment buildings.  Your point would be that dense housing allows for more affordable housing, and increasing the supply of affordable housing is a preventative measure to avoid increasing the numbers of persons who are housing insecure or actually unhoused.

            I think you might also want to point out that we know that packing low-income persons or persons with mental health problems together into single neighborhoods is not good, and such persons ought to be dispersed around the community. To that end, you might point out that having new construction of dense housing development with 50-100 units in a few places around the city would allow a smaller percentage of residents in such buildings to be people transitioning out of a state of homelessness or needing permanent supportive housing.  That is, if we had six or seven such developments, providing 400 to 500 more housing units, we would only need to make 40 to 50 of them “supportive housing” units, a similar number of them rapid rehousing units, and that would leave 80% of the units available as a mix of market-rate (larger and more luxurious) and affordable (smaller and more basic but eligible for housing choice vouchers or social housing) so that the complexes would not become places of concentrated poverty.   I think you need to make this point because people may be aware of the disastrous social consequences of concentrating persons with low skills and low income into dense housing systems. 

            I think you might also mention research on the profitability and economic advantages to the public of dense housing, and also share some points about the fact that a certain percentage of the population is attracted to living in more densely populated areas (not everyone wants a single detached house). You would find information about this from various urban planning and architecture think-tanks, Youtube channels, and websites (check out Strong Towns). 

              Your letter goes into some detail about how serious health problems are a contributing factor to people becoming unhoused. To me, this suggests that you are making a point about the inevitable problem that some people will fall into addiction or become afflicted with a chronic disease, and society needs to prepare for this by creating a certain percentage of housing stock that is not available as a commodity to be purchased in a free market, but rather, provided as a human right so that all citizens can be secure in their shelter and basic standard of living. Estimates of what percentage of all housing should be provided as social housing or public housing vary from 5% to 35%, but some amount of housing units in Springfield ought to be available for persons who can't pay market rents, either temporarily or indefinitely, and changing an ordinance to allow construction of dense housing will make it easier to create such units.

You might also mention racial housing segregation, and perhaps point out the differences in incomes, poverty rates, and wealth accumulation by ethnicity/race in the United States (or even Springfield, if you can get that census information). Then you could site research that suggests a main contributing factor to persisting racial segregation in the Midwest is the continued existence of zoning ordinances that restrict multi-family housing in certain areas. Such policies preserve the asset values of persons who are already wealthier (European-Americans and Asian-Americans) and decrease the ability of persons who are poorer (Blacks and Hispanics) to gain access to better schools, better jobs, and home ownership. 

You might also mention environmental advantages of providing denser housing options.  

You might suggest a master plan for the future of Springfield to make it a more walkable and sustainable city, where 20% of all housing stock is concentrated in dense core areas, 30% is in denser areas of mixed detached housing and multi-family housing construction, 30 % is in medium-density neighborhoods of single, detached housing with scattered multi-family structures, and 20% is in low-density neighborhoods with larger yards and mostly single, detached housing with only a very few multi-family structures. Currently almost nothing in Springfield is concentrated dense core area housing, so stop issuing permits for more urban sprawl and build up the denser housing to create a more sustainable mix of housing and neighborhood types.