The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is facing significant challenges in completing its long-stalled Plan for Transformation, an initiative launched 25 years ago aimed at revamping public housing throughout the city.
According to a new report from Impact for Equity, a public policy nonprofit that has been active in housing advocacy and monitoring the CHA, if the agency does not accelerate its efforts, it could take another 30 to 40 years to fully redevelop the communities affected by the plan.
Daniel Kay Hertz, director of housing at Impact for Equity, stated, “This report serves as a wake-up call. It is not acceptable for there to still be vacant land 30 or 40 years from now.”
Rather than suggesting a single solution, Hertz emphasized the need for serious conversations among CHA, the city’s Department of Housing, and the Illinois Housing Development Authority to expedite the creation of new homes over the next decade.
The report, titled “Building the Future: Restoring Communities and Renewing Chicago’s Commitment to Public Housing,” urges local leaders to prioritize the redevelopment of vacant CHA land and buildings within a ten-year timeframe.
To stimulate this development, the authors recommend incentives such as reducing property taxes for projects that include public housing units and providing rental subsidies to developers who partner with the CHA.
Another recommendation is for the CHA and city to explore purchasing existing buildings for conversion into public housing units.
Additionally, the report calls on the CHA to increase its utilization of federal rental subsidies to help more residents afford rent in privately owned developments.
In a response to the report, CHA spokesperson Karen Vaughan reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to increasing affordable housing opportunities and acknowledged that the CHA shares the goal of exploring innovative strategies to enhance the delivery and preservation of affordable housing for Chicagoans.
Vaughan noted that the report presents “valuable ideas” that could work alongside existing programs.
The CHA initiated its Plan for Transformation in 2000, which resulted in the demolition of many public housing high-rises and the loss of approximately 16,000 apartments intended for families.
The CHA had committed to constructing or rehabilitating thousands of homes in new mixed-income developments, but skepticism arose among residents and advocates about the plan’s effectiveness.
Many worried that these demolitions would lead to an enduring shortage of affordable housing, a concern that has now been validated by time.
Impact for Equity’s findings indicate that over 100 acres of CHA-owned land and buildings remain vacant, while rising rents are exacerbating the housing crisis across Chicago.
According to the city’s housing commissioner, the city is in dire need of 100,000 additional affordable housing units to meet the demands of its residents.
In response, Vaughan highlighted that the CHA has made notable progress over the past two decades, including an increase in households receiving rental subsidies, a diversified housing portfolio spread across all community areas, and a program aimed at helping residents transition to homeownership.
However, advocates remain critical of the significant reduction in traditional public housing units. While the introduction of housing choice vouchers has offered some relief by serving thousands of individuals, many renters have faced discrimination in an increasingly competitive private rental market. Hertz pointed out that subsidy vouchers do not replace the essential need for public housing.
“We have seen a net loss of close to 20,000 units of traditional public housing,” Hertz said. “This loss is the most critical way to support very low-income tenants, who often find themselves with incomes too low for most other forms of affordable housing.”
The urgency of these issues is heightened by the fact that the CHA has been without a permanent leader for more than ten months following the resignation of former CEO Tracey Scott.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has the authority to appoint the CHA’s new leader, indicated last week that an announcement regarding this appointment is expected within the month.
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