Why Elmhurst Wants Affordable Housing: Mayor

ELMHURST, IL – Chills go up some suburbanites' spines when they hear about the possibility of affordable housing near their homes.

During his State of the City address last week, Mayor Scott Levin explained why he believed Elmhurst needed such housing.

"It's not low-income housing. It's not Section 8 housing," the mayor said during his speech at Community Bank of Elmhurst. "It's affordable housing for your children who grew up here and want to move back. Can they afford a house here? If you want to downsize from your house, is there a place you can downsize?"

He continued, "It's workforce housing. Can our police officers, our teachers, our firefighters afford to live here in town? I'm very interested to see it."

The mayor referred to the problem as a "puzzle" because of skyrocketing local home prices.

Now, Levin said, the average Elmhurst home sale price is $761,000, up from $410,000 five years ago.

In a few weeks, the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus will present its affordable housing study on Elmhurst, he said.

Levin also spoke about property taxes. In December, the City Council decided to increase the property tax levy by $1 million. That translated to a $56 hike for the owner of a $500,000 house, officials said.

Levin said that was the city government's first general property levy increase since he joined the council 16 years ago, outside of mandatory pension levy hikes.

"I trust our City Council," Levin said about the tax hike. "Everyone's afraid to do it. It's a political scare if you want to run for higher office... But I can assure you we're doing what we need to do."

He was likely referring to Democratic and Republican opposition researchers who dig deep for campaign attacks.

In 2024, the state GOP tried to use city utility hikes against then-Alderwoman Marti Deuter, a Democrat running against Elmhurst Republican Dennis Reboletti.

Deuter supported the rate increases, but so did Alderwoman Noel Talluto and former Alderman Mark Mulliner, both of whom backed Reboletti.

Deuter defeated Reboletti.