It's been eight months since the Sweet Home Chicago Coalition first put Mayor Daley on the spot, demanding to know why the city is sitting on more than $1 billion in economic development money at a time when foreclosure-ravaged neighborhoods are desperate for investment. As aldermen backing the campaign pointed out, unless the city steps in to help protect against the blight, the foreclosure crisis will continue to drive down property values and push commerce out of communities. "We've got to get our economy going," then-Ald. Manny Flores warned. "And we have TIF [tax increment financing] money here that can be used in a strategic way."

To that end, the coalition began pushing the city to set aside 20 percent of all new TIF revenue to jumpstart affordable housing projects. The idea, as explained by the proposal's chief legislative sponsor Ald. Walter Burnett (27th Ward) at City Hall today, is that by leveraging the public funds, developers will be enticed to invest in blighted neighborhoods (the original objective of the city's TIF system). In turn, the new units will stabilize communities and instill confidence in the local housing market.

For evidence that the strategy works, Burnett cites the beginning of Chicago's development boom in the early 1990s. "[A]fter the affordable developers built, then everyone else had confidence in the community," he said. "And that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to bring the affordable developers back to our communities. Bring people back to the neighborhoods." Watch:

On Wednesday, Burnett and his eight co-sponsors -- Alds. Dick Mell (33rd Ward), Emma Mitts (37th Ward), Joe Moore (49th Ward), Rick Munoz (22nd Ward), Toni Preckwinkle (4th Ward), Pat Dowell (3rd Ward), Toni Foulkes (15th Ward), and Ed Smith (28th Ward) -- will introduce the proposal to the full City Council.

If the level of revenue siphoned off the tax rolls and into TIF funds ($552 million last year alone) remains steady, the city would have roughly $100 million per year to invest in applicable housing projects. As we noted in our housing round-up last week, the TIF funds are one of the largest untapped resources out there for local projects. And by directing them toward housing, the city could help take some pressure off of working-poor families who are struggling more than ever to afford market-rate rents. It would also create jobs; for every 1 unit built, the construction industry says 1.6 permanent jobs are created.

"What does the city have to lose?" Action Now president Michelle Young said today. "We're losing tax dollars on these [vacant] buildings. We need to stimulate the economy again. We have to get these neighborhoods up and running."

More to the point, what does Mayor Daley have to lose? Full control over his shadow budget, of course.