At Joliet town hall, Underwood addresses affordable housing, education inequity

From the lack of affordable housing to gun violence, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, addressed a number of concerns from constituents attending a town hall meeting Wednesday night at Billie Limacher Bicentennial Park & Theatre in Joliet.

Rising housing costs was an issue raised by a few people in attendance. Underwood said she understands why it is such a big concern.

“Housing costs are at crisis levels,” she said. “There are so many people that want to live in our community and so many young people who are from our community who want to be able to come back and raise their families. And they’ve just been locked out because housing prices are so high. There’s a lack of affordable rental units. They’re not able to afford down payments or if they have a down payment, they can’t afford the interest rate. ... It’s a real challenge across our congressional district. It’s not something that’s unique to Joliet.”

Underwood said she has taken action in the last year to support legislation such as the Community Housing Act, which would invest more than $500 billion in federal programs that fund the construction of affordable housing along with doing such things as authorizing and funding programs designed to support home ownership through down payment assistance.

“We are also co-sponsoring a bill called the Home for the Brave Act that keeps veterans eligible for HUD housing assistance programs, because we’ve been seeing a lot of veterans’ eligibility being removed,” Underwood said. “We’re also co-sponsoring a Return Home to Housing Act, which increases funding for transitional housing for homeless veterans,” she said.

Another piece of legislation is the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act.

“It increases the number of affordable housing projects that can be built using these private equity bonds, which is just an incentive for the big developers to come into our community and build new housing stock,” Underwood said.

Tony Arellano, chairman of the City of Joliet Committee on Citizens with Disabilities, told Underwood that more needs to be done to help children with special education needs. He noted there is a high number of incarcerated youth who have disabilities.

“The graduation rate is so miserable – 57%,” he said. “If there is anything that can be done in that area, I would really appreciate it, because education is so important.”

Underwood thanked Arellano for his leadership role and for his efforts to make Joliet “a community where everyone can thrive.”

“It is clear to me that the inequality of our education system is put up on display when we look at the availability of special education services and resources,” she said. “If you have specific ideas that you’d like to see implemented nationwide, please consider the doors of my office open and I look forward to talking to you about it.”

Will County Board member Sherry Williams, D-Crest Hill, asked Underwood about any solutions to address the increase in gun violence the area has seen recently.

Underwood said that as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act passed in 2022, more than $200 million has been allocated for community violence intervention programs.

But she said communities haven’t been applying for the funds.

“We can’t just give it to you,” Underwood said. “You have to apply.”