With Berwyn’s municipal budget bleeding red ink, one alderman wants to reconsider dishing out $250,000 to help attract renters.

Rob Breymaier, director of the Oak Park Housing Center and the Berwyn Housing Center, along with his staff, work to place renters in units throughout Berwyn. Almost a year ago, aldermen voted to pay $250,000 a year to help launch the Berwyn center and attract renters to the community.

But Alderman Robert Lovero, 7th Ward, said he wants to cancel the city’s contract with the housing center. With the city’s recent round of layoffs — although some staff later were reinstated — Lovero questions whether the program is worth the price tag.

“The way I’m looking at the numbers, we’ve only moved 7 percent into the community from outside,” Lovero said during the Sept. 17 Committee of the Whole meeting. “Six-hundred fifty-three people came from outside of Berwyn and you only moved 43 in. That 7 percent, to me, isn’t a very impressive service.”

Breymaier said the Berwyn Housing Center has handled nearly 800 clients during its first 11 months.

“It takes time to build awareness of what we’re doing,” he said.

The busy rental season spans April through September.

Breymaier said 25 people came into the housing center seeking Berwyn rental space during the first full month of operations. By April, about 75 people came in a month. The number had risen to about 150 people per month by July, Breymaier said.

That number should remain high as August traffic is calculated, but from September through next spring it should dip, he said.

Breymaier said Berwyn Housing Center staff work with about 50 rental units each month to rent them out, and out of that are helping locate renters for about 15 units each month.

Housing center staff are working to promote Berwyn as a desirable community in which to live.
“Affordability is part of that, but we don’t want to overplay that,” Breymaier said. “We don’t want them thinking it’s a cheap community.”

Based on the housing market and foreclosure rates, Lovero said the amount of people looking to rent should naturally increase.

“Nationwide they haven’t been able to show a noticeable increase in demand,” Breymaier said.

For homeowners who are in foreclosure, some may be moving in with family or friends.

“They have no ability to (rent),” he said.

Or, existing renters may stay in their current building, instead of moving to another apartment and paying more in rent.

“Why would I stay in an apartment where I pay more rent when I can move to Berwyn and pay less?” Lovero said. “Your argument doesn’t hold up.”

Berwyn Housing Center staff hope to attract outside renters, but it’s a little early in the program, Breymaier said. It may take six to eight months just to gain recognition in a community, he said, and a truer picture could be obtained after 18 to 24 months.

“In the meantime we’re out half a million dollars,” Lovero said.
Last year, the Oak Park Housing Center helped place about 1,000 renters in that community, Breymaier said.

“So you obviously know what you’re doing,” Mayor Michael O’Connor said.

The village of Oak Park spends $592,111 a year on the Oak Park Housing Center to help place renters in the village’s approximately 9,000 rental units, Breymaier said. O’Connor said Berwyn has about 12,000 rental units.

Breymaier agreed to assemble additional statistics for aldermen as they continue to evaluate whether to renew the center’s funding.

The average income of clients and prospective clients started out at about $32,000 a year, and since has climbed to about $42,000 a year, Breymaier said.

“In Oak Park, it’s about the same. Maybe $45,000 to $46,000,” he said. “Right now we’re working with about 77 (rental property) owners in Berwyn. That’s about half of what we (have) in Oak Park. That’s about 109 different buildings.”