Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday took a page out of former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s playbook, creating a $3 million program to help up to 100 police officers, firefighters and paramedics purchase homes in “targeted” Chicago neighborhoods.
Daley did the same thing in the early 1990’s with only mixed results. The program was championed by Daley’s then-Budget Director Paul Vallas, who would go on to become CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. Vallas is now a top administrator at Chicago State University.
Now, Emanuel is offering up his own “public safety officer homebuyer assistance” program in a two-fold effort to improve public safety in neighborhoods plagued by gang violence and rebuild long-neglected inner-city neighborhoods.