Thread: Grim proving ground for Obama

Grim proving ground for Obama's housing policy

The candidate endorsed subsidies for private entrepreneurs to build low-income units. But, while he garnered support from developers, many projects in his former district have fallen into disrepair.

By Binyamin Appelbaum
Globe Staff / June 27, 2008

CHICAGO - The squat brick buildings of Grove Parc Plaza, in a dense neighborhood that Barack Obama represented for eight years as a state senator, hold 504 apartments subsidized by the federal government for people who can't afford to live anywhere else.

But it's not safe to live here.

About 99 of the units are vacant, many rendered uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage. Mice scamper through the halls. Battered mailboxes hang open. Sewage backs up into kitchen sinks. In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale - a score so bad the buildings now face demolition.

Grove Parc has become a symbol for some in Chicago of the broader failures of giving public subsidies to private companies to build and manage affordable housing - an approach strongly backed by Obama as the best replacement for public housing.

As a state senator, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee coauthored an Illinois law creating a new pool of tax credits for developers. As a US senator, he pressed for increased federal subsidies. And as a presidential candidate, he has campaigned on a promise to create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that could give developers an estimated $500 million a year.

But a Globe review found that thousands of apartments across Chicago that had been built with local, state, and federal subsidies - including several hundred in Obama's former district - deteriorated so completely that they were no longer habitable.

Grove Parc and several other prominent failures were developed and managed by Obama's close friends and political supporters. Those people profited from the subsidies even as many of Obama's constituents suffered. Tenants lost their homes; surrounding neighborhoods were blighted.

Some of the residents of Grove Parc say they are angry that Obama did not notice their plight. The development straddles the boundary of Obama's state Senate district. Many of the tenants have been his constituents for more than a decade.

Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama's presidential campaign and a member of his finance committee. Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems.

Allison Davis, a major fund-raiser for Obama's US Senate campaign and a former lead partner at Obama's former law firm. Davis, a developer, was involved in the creation of Grove Parc and has used government subsidies to rehabilitate more than 1,500 units in Chicago, including a North Side building cited by city inspectors last year after chronic plumbing failures resulted in raw sewage spilling into several apartments.

Antoin "Tony" Rezko, perhaps the most important fund-raiser for Obama's early political campaigns and a friend who helped the Obamas buy a home in 2005. Rezko's company used subsidies to rehabilitate more than 1,000 apartments, mostly in and around Obama's district, then refused to manage the units, leaving the buildings to decay to the point where many no longer were habitable.

Grim proving ground for Obama's housing policy - The Boston Globe

Try a Google search for Chicago politicians indicted. Then you can see what a political cesspool Obama has risen from. It has to be some sort of hang over from the old Al Capone days, everybody wants to be the new Al.

There is no change here, just politics as usual. Obama is full of shady Chicago deals with Rezko, Blagovich and the rest of the Chicago Demobsters, Biden does legislative favors for the Credit card industry after one of MBNA's execs bought Biden's house for double what it was worth, almost like Obama's Rezko real estate deal. Some Change.

I fail to see any direct or indirect connection between Obama and the deterioration of those privately managed properties. That is the fault of the relevant property management company.

If Obama is so involved in, your words, "shady deals," then why hasn't he been investigated and indicted? Even the inquiry into Rezko's activities found no unethical or illegal action on the part of Obama.

Originally Posted by Bourne

I fail to see any direct or indirect connection between Obama and the deterioration of those privately managed properties. That is the fault of the relevant property management company.

If Obama is so involved in, your words, "shady deals," then why hasn't he been investigated and indicted? Even the inquiry into Rezko's activities found no unethical or illegal action on the part of Obama.

You must have missed this part and the point.

Grove Parc has become a symbol for some in Chicago of the broader failures of giving public subsidies to private companies to build and manage affordable housing - an approach strongly backed by Obama as the best replacement for public housing.


Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama's presidential campaign and a member of his finance committee. Jarrett is the chief executive of Habitat Co., which managed Grove Parc Plaza from 2001 until this winter and co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems.

Allison Davis, a major fund-raiser for Obama's US Senate campaign and a former lead partner at Obama's former law firm. Davis, a developer, was involved in the creation of Grove Parc and has used government subsidies to rehabilitate more than 1,500 units in Chicago, including a North Side building cited by city inspectors last year after chronic plumbing failures resulted in raw sewage spilling into several apartments.

Obama is showing great judgment surrounding his campaign with folks associated or directly involved in Parc Grove, these are now advisor's to his campaign!

Originally Posted by Professor Peabody

Try a Google search for Chicago politicians indicted. Then you can see what a political cesspool Obama has risen from. It has to be some sort of hang over from the old Al Capone days, everybody wants to be the new Al.

There is no change here, just politics as usual. Obama is full of shady Chicago deals with Rezko, Blagovich and the rest of the Chicago Demobsters, Biden does legislative favors for the Credit card industry after one of MBNA's execs bought Biden's house for double what it was worth, almost like Obama's Rezko real estate deal. Some Change.

There is a reason Clinton refers to him as just another Chicago political thug.