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Reporting and Oversight While these bonds are critical to ensuring that the funds necessary to make on-going investments in Chicago’s neighborhoods are available, it is equally important that funds are deployed in a way that provides an appropriate amount of oversight as well as a high level of transparency. To address those points, the City has committed to the following actions: o For all bond-funded programs, both DPD and DOH will define the selection criteria and any related materials used to review projects. These documents will be posted to each Department’s websites, the City’s bond website, and the City’s Rules Portal. o Projects utilizing $5 million or more in total in bond funds are subject to approval by City Council. This could additionally include approval of some programs depending on the overall operational and financial structure. o In order to ensure that outcomes are readily available to the public, DPD and DOH will amend the existing TIF Portal to be more broadly focused . This will identify all bond-funded projects as well as provide any relevant project documents that align with the requirements of the City’s TIF Sunshine Ordinance (Sect. 2-145-155). In addition, data on this portal will also be concurrently posted in tabular format on the City’s Open Data Portal. o DPD and DOH will draft and publish quarterly reports that detail any expenditures, allocations, or awards of bond funds as well as any anticipated or actual changes to property taxes as a result of project awards. These reports must be submitted on the first business day of February, May, August, and November with information covering the second preceding quarter. For example, the February 1 reports will cover the reporting period from July to September of the preceding year. These completed quarterly activity reports will be provided to City Council and published on the City’s bond website. o Finally, DPD will coordinate with the Chief Financial Officer to create a report that updates the financial model used as the basis of analysis for these bonds to reflect actual expirations and any changes, assumed future collections, and actual bond issuances and costs. This report will be issued on no less than an annual basis but may be updated more frequently if necessary. These completed quarterly activity reports will be provided to City Council and published on the City’s bond website. 12 FUNDING ALLOCATIONS: DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT AFFORDABLE RENTAL HOUSING BUILD AND PRESERVE AFFORDABLE RENTAL HOMES Expand Existing Program One of the most direct ways that the City of Chicago can intervene in the rental housing crisis is by financing the construction and rehabilitation of rent- and income-restricted affordable rental developments. In a typical year, DOH supports more than a thousand new or rehabbed affordable rental homes, and there are currently more than 25,000 such affordable rental homes under monitoring agreements with DOH. However, substantial need still remains. The Institute for Housing Studies (IHS) at DePaul University estimates that there is a shortage of some 120,000 affordable rental homes within the City of Chicago alone. The result is that 51 percent of Chicago renter households pay more than 30 percent of their income in rent and are considered “rent-burdened,” and 75 percent of very low-income Chicago renter households pay more than half of their income in rent. Moreover, in many neighborhoods – particularly deeply disinvested communities whose residents are disproportionately Black and Latine – DOH-funded rental developments are often the only new residential construction, providing new, high-quality, accessible housing as a form of economic development, in addition to affordability. The financial backbone of DOH’s multifamily rental housing program is its federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (“LIHTC” or “Tax Credits”) allocation. Chicago is one of just three municipalities in the country to receive a direct allocation from the federal government; the credits are typically allocated to states. Unfortunately, LIHTC awards typically cover just 30-65 percent of a development’s total development costs, leaving a substantial gap to be covered by other sources. DOH works to close this gap with a number of different funds, including federal HOME Investment Partnership (HOME) and Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), AHOF dollars, and state Donation Tax Credits (DTCs) or support from the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA). One of the most important sources, however, is Tax Increment Financing dollars. Because of the importance of TIF, DOH is often not able to support projects that may have merit but do not have geographic access to TIF funding. Bond funds will allow DOH to both increase its total production of affordable rental homes, as well as more flexibly award funds to high-value projects that may not be located in a TIF district with sufficient revenue to cover the development’s gap. Budget: $230-250 million Projected Impact: 600 to 1,000 affordable rental homes Selection Criteria and Process: LIHTC awards come in two types of tax credits: 9% Tax Credits and 4% Tax Credits. All 9% credits and some 4% credits are awarded competitively through DOH’s tax credit funding round or through IHDA’s annual tax credit funding round. 4% credits are generated through the issuance of tax-exempt bonds either through the City or IHDA. Every two years, following a public planning process, DOH allocates tax credits through a competitive process called the