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Democrat Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker will push for state laws that mandate Illinois communities allow building of unlimited “Section 8” and other taxpayer-subsidized apartment units on any residential lot.
Pritzker unveiled his suburban Section 8 plan during his annual State of the State address, which he gave Wednesday.
Taking aim at single family homeowners in the Chicago suburbs, Pritkzer said their “shameful” opposition to taxpayer-subsidized Section 8 apartments are responsible for driving up the cost of Illinois housing.
Community zoning laws “have made it too difficult and costly to build new (Section 8) housing,” Pritzker said, chiding suburban Illinoisans who oppose high-density, subsidized apartments as old-fashioned and behind the “times.”
“Often, the problem is a failure to modernize and keep up with the changing times we live in,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker will seek new laws passed by the Democrat-supermajority Illinois General Assembly that would bar Chicago suburbs from prohibiting the building of apartments on any residential lot. He’ll also seek to give another $100 million to the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA), the state agency that subsidizes the building of Section 8 apartments.
Seismically, the governor’s plan would prohibit Illinois suburban communities fom requiring minimum residential lot sizes greater than 2,500 square feet, or 20 percent smaller than a standard 25 by 125 (3,125 square foot) City of Chicago lot.
Pritzker’s plan would mandate that anyone could build a four-flat of Section 8 apartments on any 2,500 square-foot suburban lot in Illinois, a six-flat on a 5,000 square foot lot and an eight-flat on a 7,500 square foot lot.
Elmhurst’s minimum residential lot size is 7,260 to 9,000 square feet. Naperville’s is 10,000 square feet for single family homes.
In Glen Ellyn, minimum lot sizes range from 7,500 to 40,000 square feet, in Hinsdale they are 10,000 to 30,000 square feet and in Wheaton, 6,500 to 43,560 square feet.
In Downers Grove, the minimum lot size for new construction is 10,500 square feet.
“Zoning has been a scam”
The proposal was cheered by government-subsidized developers who build and invest in apartments, and by real estate brokers who will grow their businesses marketing them.
Illinois Realtors’ CEO Jeff Baker “applauded” Pritzker for pushing more rentals “into existing single-family neighborhoods.”
Iman Jalali, a dual Iranian-U.S. citizen and investor in apartments in Glen Ellyn, lauded Pritzker for “coming out swinging” against suburban single-family homeowners.
“Zoning has been a scam,” Jalali said. “The suburbs have weaponized single-family zoning, parking minimums and permit BS to keep density out.”
Pritzker was also lauded by non-profits paid by the state to move the mentally-ill out of institutions and into subsidized rental apartments.
In banning local zoning, Pritzker’s plan would also require communities to accept government-subsidized housing for people with “serious mental illness” through non-profits funded by taxpayers.
Amber Kirchhoff, a lobbyist for non-profit The Thresholds, which received $120 million in taxpayer money in 2024 to “empower people with severe mental illness” to move into their own apartments, attended the State of the State to support Pritzker.
“We will be advocating for affordable housing – a foundation for recovery for people with mental health and substance use conditions,” she said.
Pritzker cited a University of Illinois study that claims the state is “142,000 units of housing short.”
According to Chicago Cityscape, the City of Chicago had 31,086 vacant properties as of March 2023, and Cook County had an additional 28,308 vacant lots.
The U.S. Census bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey estimated that the City of Chicago has 121,652 vacant housing units, or a rate of 9.5 percent.
Minneapolis was the first community in the U.S. to try barring single-family home zoning, in 2018. New housing development, as measured by housing permits issued, has fallen by 88 percent there since 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
If this is true, this might be the worst idea ever! I am sure the real estate investors profiting from this will be tucked away in a cozy, wealthy place where some loophole exists to avoid these policies.
The legal citizens of Illinois must vote Pritzker and his Demoncrat goons out of office in November, and every election thereafter. The morbidly obese, incompetent and highly neurotic imbecile does not understand that the social experiment he wants to push on behalf of his handlers’ marching orders will be legally challenged. There are plenty of apartment complexes throughout several of Chicago’s suburbs that already accept Section 8, and they have absolutely ruined once beautiful neighborhoods (a proven fact). If he would only step away from the kitchen table and look up from his plate, he would already know that.
Also, municipalities have every right to create zoning laws to prevent eyesore apartment complexes from being shoved into single-family neighborhoods. It is more appealing to build housing uniformly. Pritzker needs to watch the old Sesame Street episodes to learn “which one of these is not like the other.” He clearly flunked Pre-School and Kindergarten.
The Trump administration is working with the HUD Secretary on a revamp of the federal Section 8 program, and rightfully so. Suburbs were developed for and by hard-working families as a quieter and safer place to live, work and raise a family.
What is the endgame in pushing crime to every corner of the state? Is it to pander to more criminals, illegals, and illegal criminals? Who is paying him a hefty amount to do so? Follow the money, because it clearly leads to the usual foreign and domestic suspects and their desire for a distorted “new world order.” Not on our watch, Lucifer.
He gets money somehow. One thing about JB, hr does nothing unless it makes him money
Section 8 housing is basically terrorism against normal working people who pay their own mortgage, rent, bills etc..
Go to https://www.stop8.vote/ and get in the fight to take our neighborhoods back!
People have a right to keep their neighborhoods safe
This article is just straight up lies and libel. Do you people even know how Section 8 vouchers work? Anyone with a voucher can apply to live in ANY rental unit. There is a difference between subsidized housing (which is not what’s being proposed at all in this legislation) and building new market rate housing that voucher holders can apply to, but landlords can still deny them!
The BUILD legislation package that Pritzker is proposing gives property owners more rights to build things like coach homes and different kinds of housing like duplexes on their land, so families can afford to stay in their communities, or so they can rent out another unit on their property to supplement their income. That’s it. None of the new housing built under this legislation will be taxpayer subsidized, at all. It’s just modernizing the zoning code to allow for more types of housing to be built in communities that are facing severe housing shortages.
If you don’t like your property taxes to keep going up forever then you need to allow for more homes to get built near you to share the tax burden! It brings in new investment, good paying construction jobs, and people with high incomes who will be able to afford these new homes! It’s that simple!
Funneling taxpayer funded subsidies into the hands of private developers? In ILLINOIS?
I’m shocked, shocked I say. I’m sure the developers will find ways to express their gratitude toward our governor.
From the guy who bought a mansion next to his Gold Coast mansion so he wouldn’t have to deal with neighbors. Then removed the 13 toilets from the extra mansion so he could get it zoned ‘inhabitable’ thereby lowering his property tax burden.
I pay outrageous property taxes and he wants to build cheap housing to my town? So my property value will crash as they increase property taxes to accommodate all the required infrastructure more schools,police,fire etc… crime. Fuck that. there’s very little section 8 in my town for renting. The homes are too expensive and I’m OK with the homeless being too expensive if it keeps out the riffraff.