City Living Allowance

One of the FOP's more audacious proposals just got a big boost:

• Despite lower home prices, many Chicago-area workers with only one source of income remain shut out of the housing market because of the estimated $73,000 annual salary needed to qualify to buy a home here, according to a new study released Thursday.
  
  At the same time, renters are being squeezed as an increasing amount of their paycheck goes toward housing, according to a report released Thursday by the Center for Housing Policy.
  
  [...] To qualify for that $225,000 home, a buyer would need annual income of $73,104, effectively ending homeownership dreams for a variety of occupations ranging from civil engineers, welders, elementary school teachers, accountants and others whose annual incomes fall below that figure.

And cops. So unless you're somewhere beyond 20+ years of service, managed to inherit a home or married well, you're chances of buying a house in any halfway decent area are effectively nil. And with no raises in two years while rents go up, you aren't even treading water anymore. You're drowning. Slowly.