Monday, May 03, 2010

Rep. Gutierrez daughter profits on flipping "affordable" home

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), a prominent immigration reform advocate, got the headlines he craves when he was arrested Saturday at a Washington rally organized to denounce the new Arizona illegal immigration laws.

But the Chicago Sun-Times has another headline for the congressman from Chicago's Northwest Side.

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 benefited 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
Had the condo been part of a typical Chicago affordable housing program, Figueroa would not have been able to flip that condo. But she could and did, and Figueroa made a 55 percent profit on a home she owed for a little more than a year.

This isn't the first time a Gutierrez real estate deal has raised eyebrows. He flipped a townhouse that was developed by convicted-political fixer Tony Rezko.

Related post:

Cong. Gutierrez got special real estate deal from Tony Rezko

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