DuPage County Board Chair Deborah Conroy announced Tuesday the formation of an ad-hoc County Board committee to address issues of affordable housing for workers, seniors, the disabled, and families in DuPage County.
"Housing affordability is an issue of paramount interest that impacts many of our residents, including first-time and first-generation homebuyers who are priced out of the market, essential workers who drive long distances because they cannot find housing close to work and within their budget, seniors who need to downsize but want to stay in their community, and young adults who grew up in DuPage and want to raise families of their own here," said Chair Conroy.
Board members Liz Chaplin and Sam Tornatore, who serve as the Chairs of the Finance and Development committees, respectively, will serve as co-chairs of the ad-hoc committee, which will be a committee of the whole.
The committee will begin its work with a series of educational sessions, including creating a definition of affordability, evaluating the impact of local County policies on current development opportunities, analyzing actions of past Boards that attempted to increase the affordable housing supply, and determining what resources are available to address the needs.
The committee is expected to meet monthly, with specific dates and times to be determined by the co-chairs. At the Feb. 28 Finance Committee meeting, Board members agreed to allocate $2.5 million to begin a program for affordable housing solutions in DuPage County.
