Investing my teacher pension in affordable housing instead of Lincoln Yards-like developments.

So, Covid caught me again.

This time two thousand miles from our home in Chicago while on a trip to visit with my old high school buddies here in Southern California.

I’ve been in touch with my medical team back home and I talked to a face using telemedicine. I’m on the third days dose of Paxlovid and I’m already feeling better.

But still in isolation.

A waste of a week in the paradise of Venice, California, looking at the four walls of our bed and breakfast instead of the beautiful Pacific Ocean.

I looked at my substack stats yesterday and was pleased that paid and free subscriptions have jumped this month to 503 as of this morning.

If you were thinking of moving your free sub to a paid one that would be great.

No pressure.

I’ve been thinking about the recent controversy involving Lincoln Yards, the troubled upscale residential and commercial development planned by Sterling Bay on Chicago’s north side and the Chicago Teacher Pension Fund.

Second City Teacher Jim Vail has written a post on it here.

I’ve posted about the issue as well.

I have a very close personal relationship with my teacher pension. I want it invested wisely. That check we get once a month is not a gift. It is earned income, contractually (and constitutionally) guaranteed to us.

Mine is managed by the Illinois Teacher Retirement System. Chicago teacher pensions are managed by the trustees of the CTPF.

Lincoln Yards seems an odd choice for CTPF to consider investing in.

As Jim Vail points out, it became a trigger point between the Chicago Teachers Union and Mayor Lightfoot who, in fact, had nothing to do with making the deal.

But if, and I’m not privy to any inside dope on this, the issue is now how much off-site affordable housing Sterling Bay will provide, I have another suggestion.

Why not invest our teacher pension funds directly in affordable housing?

I’m not suggesting charitable investments.

Pension funds have a fiduciary resposibility to pension recipients to try to earn a return on our investments.

But it seems we can invest directly in affordable housing while earning money on our investments without giving aid and comfort to developers like Sterling Bay.