Thread: Luis Gutierrez's daughter's sweet housing deal

Forward this to every news media. Lets get "Jail Bird' Louie on the defensive.

Congressman's daughter's sweet housing deal


May 3, 2010

BY CHRIS FUSCO AND TIM NOVAK Staff Reporters

Every time developers asked to build condominiums in his gentrifying 26th Ward, then-Ald. Billy Ocasio had the same answer:

Your project won't be approved unless it includes at least one "affordable home."


One person who benefitted from Ocasio's directive: Omaira Figueroa, the daughter of U.S. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Ocasio's political mentor.

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, though, bought her home through a 26th Ward "community" initiative that "wasn't an official government program," according to Ocasio, who resigned his aldermanic seat last year to take a $125,000-a-year post as a senior adviser to Gov. Quinn.

Ocasio estimated that about 180 affordable condos were supposed to have been created under that program. But it's unclear how many ended up being built and how many have been resold, in part because the program is defunct.

Figueroa, her husband, their son and her husband's two other children now live on the Northwest Side in a two-flat they share with the congressman and his wife -- a building that is outside the borders of Gutierrez's 4th Congressional District (see related story). Figueroa and her husband own 55 percent of the two-flat, according to Gutierrez, who said he and his wife own the rest and live upstairs.

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

Gutierrez and Ocasio said neither they nor Figueroa did anything wrong. Nor, they said, did their close relationship give Figueroa an edge to get the home.

"Never," Gutierrez said. "Never. Absolutely not. Never. Never."

Ocasio and Gutierrez also said that campaign contributions they took from Roman Popovych, who built 1834 N. Kedzie, played no role in Figueroa's deal. Gutierrez's congressional fund got $1,000 from Popovych six months before Figueroa bought the condo. The developer and an affiliated company gave Ocasio's aldermanic fund a total of $13,500 between 2004 and 2009.

"I've known Omaira since she was 6 years old," said Ocasio, who hired her to work part-time in his aldermanic office about 10 years ago. "She got no preferential treatment."

Gutierrez said his daughter "participated in a program where the rules were identical for her as they were for dozens of other people." He said he lent her $140,000 because she couldn't qualify for a mortgage from a bank "for a number of reasons," including "probably" her husband's poor credit history.

"That's all I was: I was her dad," the congressman said. "We didn't hide anything. That's why you see a mortgage of $140,000.

"We charged her four-and-three-quarters percent interest because the CPA who does my taxes said that that was an interest rate that was high enough so that the IRS wouldn't say it was a gift."

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.

$93,828 a year
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 (see graphic).

How the home became affordable housing dates to January 2006, when Ocasio backed a zoning change allowing Popovych to build four condominiums on what had been a single-family lot.

Popovych was among a group of developers who'd found it hard to build affordable homes through programs under the city Housing Department's control. The city "required developers meet all sorts of bureaucratic criteria that was time-consuming and added a financial burden" to their projects, according to Ocasio.

So, about six years ago, Ocasio and community leaders came up with an alternative: Developers would get Ocasio's OK to rezone lots for condos only if they first won approval from a group called the 26th Ward Affordable Housing Committee.

If Ocasio agreed, he would get the City Council to approve the zoning change subject to a "declaration of restrictive covenant." That would give Ocasio oversight of the project and spell out how many affordable units would be required.

Then, not-for-profit housing groups would advertise the homes, set income guidelines for buyers and work to pair them with lenders.

By late 2005, Figueroa and her husband had submitted tax returns and pay stubs as part of a first-time home-buyer counseling workshop run by the Latin United Community Housing Association. Ocasio used to work for the group, which gets about $500,000 a year in government funding.

Gutierrez said his daughter's certificate from the home-buyer workshop was all she needed to qualify to buy a home through the 26th Ward Affordable Housing Committee program.

Under city rules, Figueroa would have had six months to buy an affordable home after proving she met income guidelines.

Under the 26th Ward program's rules, though, there was no time limit. So she was able to buy affordable housing 2½ years later -- when her income had risen sharply.

Is that how affordable housing should work?

"I'm not gonna have a conversation about affordable housing in the context of a real estate transaction in which my daughter did absolutely nothing wrong -- unless you could show me she violated some rule, that she got some kind of special treatment," Gutierrez said. "It's just not there."

Figueroa sold the condo last August for $239,900 -- $84,900 over what she'd paid for it.

Gutierrez said she cleared only about $53,000, though, taking into account closing costs and money she spent on home improvements.

By the time Figueroa bought her condo, the other three units at 1834 N. Kedzie had been sold for between $385,000 and $395,000 each.

All three have been rented out and are now facing foreclosure.

The men who bought those condos -- Volodymyr Kuchmiyov and Yaroslav Dzis -- appear to have ties to Popovych, according to court documents. A tenant in one of Kuchmiyov's two units said she'd been paying rent to an office at the same address as a Popovych company, V.P. Interlink Development. A tenant in Dzis' unit said he paid rent to a real estate company called V.P. Interlink at the same address and had never heard of Dzis.

Attempts to reach Popovych, Kuchmiyov and Dzis were unsuccessful.

Ocasio: program a success
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.

When he was asked about the program, Ocasio tracked down some documents. But those records don't show who bought those homes or how many have been resold.

Ocasio said that when the housing market collapsed in 2008, he let developers sell some of the affordable units to anyone, regardless of income. "Developers said, 'Look, I can't sell these units. We can't find people to buy them,' " Ocasio said. "And so, at some point ... we said, 'Go ahead. You guys need to get rid of it? Get rid of it.' "

The struggling economy also kept developers from even breaking ground on some projects, Ocasio said. Still, he considers the program to have been a success.

"I think there's worse things that an alderman can do with the power of zoning than to build affordable housing," Ocasio said. "In hindsight, there's always improvements you can make. I think, if we had the money, if we had more support from the city, we would have done all the things that everybody else did. ... We didn't have those resources."


http://www.suntimes.com/news/watchdogs/ ... 03.article

See Related stories at the end of page three and the beginning of page four on this thread

One of the stories even said that Luis Does NOT live in the district he represents

Rep. Gutierrez arrested outside of White House in immigration
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-197259.html

These people make me sick, and this is what he's trying to repopulate this once great country with, thieves that have learned how to steal from the system, that once helped them.
All illegals, and their anchors out from 1955 on, Ike had the right idea.
LW

$93,828 a year
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.

Funny...both have public sector jobs. Wonder if papa had anything to do with that, considering how competitive and difficult these jobs are to get.

This whole thing stinks to high heaven!!!!!

This should get juicy very, very fast.

chicago grease at its finest. humbolt is a alien shooting gallery. LG should go to jail, and stay there.

More trouble for Guitierrez:

chicagotribune.com
FBI agents ask about Gutierrez, developer
Questions raised during Ald. Carothers' bribery probe
By Todd Lighty and Robert Becker, Tribune reporters

8:43 AM CDT, May 4, 2010

The FBI has interviewed City Hall employees and Chicago aldermen about U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez's ties to a corrupt developer, according to records and interviews that raise new questions about the congressman amid an ongoing federal investigation.

A former alderman convicted in the investigation told FBI agents that Gutierrez boasted of helping his longtime political supporter Calvin Boender obtain a lucrative zoning change for a development on the city's West Side. Another alderman told agents this year she thought Gutierrez was going to buy a home in the development.

And several city planners told investigators they were stunned by the highly unusual intervention of a congressman in a local zoning matter.

The FBI asked about Gutierrez as recently as February, but most of the inquiries occurred during 2008, the Tribune has learned, as federal authorities prepared their bribery cases against Boender and former 29th Ward Ald. Isaac "Ike" Carothers.

The newly disclosed details, coupled with the revelation at Boender's March trial that Gutierrez met with Mayor Richard Daley on Boender's behalf, undermine the congressman's earlier assertions that his involvement was "extremely minimal." The Tribune has previously reported that Boender loaned Gutierrez $200,000 months before the congressman began pushing Daley to support Boender's venture.

Gutierrez, who is seeking his 10th term in Congress in November against little-known Republican and Green Party challengers, declined interview requests and has been largely silent since the federal investigation caught Boender and Carothers. Gutierrez recently has been at the forefront of the immigration reform debate, publicly challenging President Barack Obama on the issue and becoming a regular guest on national news programs.

A jury convicted Boender in March. Carothers, who cooperated with the FBI, pleaded guilty in February to accepting bribes in return for shepherding Boender's Galewood Yards project through City Hall. Both men are awaiting sentencing.

Gutierrez's office said , "Congressman Gutierrez's only involvement in the Galewood Yards development was to express his support for a project that he believed would be good for the community."

The FBI declined to comment.

Gutierrez for years has had a financial and political relationship with Boender, who has ingratiated himself with a number of other Chicago Democratic politicians.

The Tribune previously reported that just months before Gutierrez began lobbying Daley on Boender's behalf, Boender had loaned the congressman $200,000 in a 2004 real estate deal.

Six years after that loan, the Cook County recorder of deeds has no record Gutierrez repaid the money. The congressman's office didn't dispute that it was his responsibility to file the paperwork but said the issue was moot because the property had since been sold.

Gutierrez told the Tribune in 2008 he repaid Boender — with interest — about two months after receiving the loan. Gutierrez produced checks he had made out to Boender totaling $202,218 that the congressman said represented repayment.

Gutierrez has had business dealings with Boender and other campaign contributors.

Boender's Elmhurst development company has put together projects throughout Chicago. Along the way he made friends with many city politicians and gave generous political donations to Gutierrez, Carothers and a host of other aldermen, including Ed Burke, 14th, and Emma Mitts, 37th.

Galewood Yards, a former rail yard, was one of Boender's more ambitious developments.

From the outset, the city's planning staff opposed Boender's plans, arguing that the Daley administration's policy is to preserve scarce industrial areas to promote manufacturing and jobs. The standoff over Galewood Yards led to a summer 2004 meeting at which planners told Daley they were against the project.

Over the next few months, Carothers met with planning staffers and other public officials to seek their backing for Boender's project.

For his part, Gutierrez wrote a July 2004 letter on U.S. House stationery to Daley backing the project, even though it wasn't in his congressional district.

Gutierrez told Daley he understood that a planner, Nancy Kiernan, told the mayor at the summer meeting that Boender was "a bad guy of sorts."

"I absolutely refute this characterization," Gutierrez wrote. "Mr. Boender also has been responsible for development in Bucktown and (elsewhere) during the past 25 years, and I take issue with the Planning Department official's alleged negative comments."

Gutierrez asked the mayor for "any support that you can give" Boender.

The congressman's letter created a stir in Daley's planning department.

Danita Childers, a former top planning official who testified at Boender's trial, called the congressman's involvement in a local zoning matter "highly unusual" and said she was shocked at the tone of the letter.

"It just seemed out of nature for a congressman to write a letter like that," she told the Tribune.

Federal prosecutors had Kiernan read Gutierrez's letter to a grand jury in 2007. She confirmed reading the letter but declined to comment further.

Gutierrez met with the mayor in December 2004 to again push for Galewood Yards. Boender attended the meeting with Gutierrez and brought along a scale model of his project.

Several months later, Boender wrote to Daley thanking him "for meeting with Congressman Gutierrez and myself." He asked Daley to call his planning commissioner "as soon as possible and let this project make your city a little bit greater," according to the letter obtained by the Tribune.

Daley told the FBI in a March 2008 interview that he could not recall the meeting.

Denise Casalino, a former planning commissioner who attended the Gutierrez-Daley meeting, told agents she was unsure of what impact Gutierrez had in getting zoning changed at Galewood Yards.

The Tribune has learned Carothers told agents that Gutierrez often bragged he was close to Daley. While Carothers felt he was more responsible for Boender's success, he told agents Gutierrez took credit for clearing the path through City Hall.

Carothers pushed for Boender's project at every key legislative turn. He wrote an official letter of support to the planning staff, spoke before the Chicago Plan Commission, addressed the council's Zoning Committee and in March 2006 voted in favor of a council ordinance to rezone the land.

Boender and the city eventually reached a compromise. Part of the industrial site would be developed for a labor union training center. The other portion of the land would be rezoned to allow Boender to build a 14-screen movie theater and a nearly $60 million residential development of 187 single-family homes, town houses and condos.

The zoning change meant an extra $3 million in Boender's bank account, prosecutors said.

Relatives of Carothers and Gutierrez also benefited. Boender hired Carothers' brother, a Chicago police lieutenant, for security at Galewood Yards. Red Seal Development Corp., Boender's partners in the project, used Gutierrez's sister-in-law, Jeanette Torres, to sell real estate.

According to a source, Mitts, who backed out of a deal to buy a $450,000 home in the development, told agents that she heard that Gutierrez had planned to buy a condominium in the project.

"I was not a target or a subject of the investigation. I voluntarily agreed to be interviewed by the government" and testify if needed at Boender's trial, Mitts said in a statement. She was not called to testify.

Residents in Galewood said Gutierrez's name was used to persuade them to buy in. Elida Cruz, a former banker, said Torres told her the congressman was going to buy the condo next door. "She told me that Luis Gutierrez purchased here," Cruz said.

Gutierrez's office said the congressman "never purchased a unit or had any financial interest of any kind in the project."

Another resident, Isabelle Lane, a Cook County sheriff's sergeant, recalled that Gutierrez attended an open house at Galewood Yards with Mitts. She said Gutierrez posed for a picture with her daughter and son-in-law.

Gutierrez had prior real estate dealings with Boender in the 1000 block of West Fulton Avenue. Boender in 2004 began selling lots there to investors, including Gutierrez and Stanley Walczak, a key government witness at Boender's trial.

Walczak had arranged for nearly $40,000 in free improvements to Carothers' home at the direction of Boender as a way to reward Carothers for backing Galewood Yards.

The Tribune has learned that Walczak was questioned in 2009 by the FBI about Gutierrez's relationship with Boender and asked about the $200,000 loan. Walczak told agents that Gutierrez and Boender were close and said he knew nothing about the loan.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-m ... rint.story