CHICAGO-With his city continuing to see a tight multifamily rental market, Mayor Richard M. Daley wants the a Congressional commission to push for a 40% jump in the federal Home Investment Partnerships Program, which helps cities and states subsidize affordable housing. The Millennial Housing Commission was a captive audience recently for a day-long hearing at the Chicago Cultural Center.

“This is the only way we're going to build new rental housing in cities like Chicago,” Daley says. “The private market simply will not do it without federal assistance.” He adds the HOME program would help create “more stable mixed income communities in which families and children and economic opportunity can flourish and gangs and drugs cannot.”

Daley is seeking a $2.5-billion commitment to the HOME program. The city has helped build or preserve more than 30,000 rental units.