Wealthy Suburbs Flout Illinois' Affordable Housing Mandate

"State housing officials say dozens of affluent suburbs have missed a recent deadline to create plans for increasing the supply of affordable housing within their borders," reports Karen Berkowtiz.

"Under a 2004 Illinois law, 68 municipalities identified as having too little affordable housing were required to file plans with the Illinois Housing Development Authority by June 2, according to spokeswoman Man Yee Lee." The Affordable Housing Planning and Appeals Act, as the law is known, targets towns and cities "in which less than 10 percent of the housing stock is considered to be affordable under state guidelines."

The problem: 40 of the towns required to submit plans have failed to do so, reports Berkowitz, and the state has little authority with which to enforce the mandate. The article includes a lot more detail about the law, as well as the status of various cities in regard to the law's requirements.