Activists and Chicago Housing Authority residents are pushing for the replacement of the CHA leadership, saying more than 200,000 people sit on the waiting list for public housing.
About 30 protesters gathered at CHA’s office downtown Tuesday to call on Mayor Brandon Johnson to back their demands and replace the housing authority’s board and CEO Tracey Scott. A group of activists penned a letter to Johnson last week, saying current leadership “lacks vision and desire” to help more families.
“Enough is enough,” said Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez (25th), who also serves as Johnson’s chair on the City Council’s Committee on Housing and Real Estate. “We need changes of leadership. We need to honor the commitments the city made years ago.”
Sigcho Lopez said Johnson is committed to alleviating housing issues and building affordable housing, and he wants to hear from residents. Johnson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Speakers at the rally pointed to broken promises by city officials to build more public housing and gentrification driving up prices as reasons for homelessness in the city, where more than 70,000 people — including about 20,000 Chicago Public Schools students — are homeless, according to Sigcho Lopez.
The CHA is using 84% of its available housing vouchers compared with the national average of 95% for other housing authorities, according to Roderick Wilson, executive director of the Lugenia Burns Hope Center, a Bronzeville-based civic engagement organization.
That figure isn’t accurate, according to CHA spokesman Matthew Aguilar. The Department of Housing and Urban Development designates some housing authorities, called “Move-to-Work” agencies, to use funds in different ways, so the department’s utilization rates aren’t always accurate. Aguilar said CHA’s voucher utilization is at 91%.
The city’s handling of the housing crisis has faced scrutiny from residents and agencies alike. Last month, federal investigators from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found the city wrongly limited affordable housing by allowing alderpersons to oppose and reject developments in their wards.
Obstacles to affordable housing often exacerbate inequalities in a city that’s long struggled with segregation and wage gaps by neighborhood and race.
“This is an agency that’s supposed to be leveling the field. They’re contributing to inequality,” Wilson said, referencing a University of Chicago report that concluded demolishing public housing facilities increased inequality. The Census tracts hit hardest by closed and destroyed public housing were on the South and West sides.
“People are out here working for $15 an hour,” said Etta Davis, who lives at the Dearborn Homes, a CHA development in Douglas. “Well, who the hell is it affordable for?”
The median rent in Chicago is $2,389, according to a report released in October by Rent, a digital company that provides marketing services in the real estate industry.
Johnson’s election in April was seen as a beacon of hope for those looking for housing equality and affordability. He campaigned on a platform of bringing more affordable housing to the city and appointed Sigcho Lopez to lead the housing committee as part of his “Unity Plan.”
“Brandon, you need to help us,” CHA resident Laura Donaldson said at the rally. “I’m tired of our people dying because we don’t have housing.”
With temperatures in the mid-30s Tuesday and expected to drop further as the city heads into winter, Sigcho Lopez added: “We’re leaving people in the cold in viaducts and across the city.”
