Monday, May 3, 2010

GUTIERREZ TAKES HIS TURN IN THE CORRUPTION GAME

He got his daughter jobs and helped her flip an "affordable housing" condo for a profit of $84,000 even though she shouldn't have qualified for affordable housing.

With a $140,000 loan from her parents, Figueroa bought her new two-bedroom, two-bathroom affordable condo in Humboldt Park in June 2008 for $155,000, property records show.

Little more than a year later, she sold it for $239,900 -- $84,900, or 55 percent, more than she'd paid.

Had Figueroa's condo been part of a typical affordable-housing program, that wouldn't have been possible. City of Chicago rules, for instance, now bar affordable-housing buyers from turning big profits when they resell. The rules also require that affordable homes remain affordable -- they can be sold only to buyers who meet income-eligibility guidelines.

Figueroa, 30, referred questions about the condo at 1834 N. Kedzie to her father, the congressman. "My father knows all about that," she said.

For years, Gutierrez -- one of the country's most-prominent immigration reform advocates -- has been investing in real estate, making hundreds of thousands of dollars buying and selling homes in Chicago.

Two of his deals involved developers who have since been convicted of crimes: Tony Rezko and Calvin Boender. Gutierrez was never accused of any wrongdoing in their cases. He bought a condo from Rezko and flipped it for a profit. He also bought property from Boender, selling it at a loss.

When Figueroa bought her condo on June 9, 2008, she and her husband were making $93,828 a year -- $55,620 from her state-government job with the Illinois Commerce Commission and $38,208 from her husband's job with the city Aviation Department.

The 1,221-square-foot duplex is on the first floor, facing the alley. She paid 41 percent less per square foot than the next-cheapest unit, one that's 1,773 square feet and sold for $385,000

Ocasio said he doesn't know exactly how many affordable homes were created under the 26th Ward program, in part because his staff destroyed many of its records when he shut down his aldermanic office.


These HDO guys are the worst. They commit fraud and steal from the public without remorse. They're arrogant when they get caught. Anyone else would go into damage control if they had a story like this come out. These guys say they did nothing wrong. It's not wrong to take housing that was intended for poor people and give it to your daughter and her husband who are making almost 100k a year? Who are they trying to zoom?

2 comments:

  1. Apples don't fall far from the tree.

    Hey Figueroa, thanks for screwing an actual needy person out of a home so you could make a quick buck off your daddy's money. Sleep well now because there's no sleeping in hell.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is it wrong for a dad to help his daughter?

    YEAH, especially when the whole family is feeding from the public payroll trough and making more than any needy person could ever imagine!

    ReplyDelete

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