POLITICS AS USUAL

Rahm Emanuel's Housing Agency Sitting On Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars With Massive Waitlist

Special Correspondent: HP

How Chicago's Housing Authority Is Pushing Out Poor Communities.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's housing agency has been pulling hundreds of millions of dollars from a fund earmarked for its affordable housing program and using the money instead to boost its pension, purchase government debt and build up a staggering cash reserve.

Meanwhile, Chicago's most vulnerable are bearing the brunt. The Chicago Housing Authority's waitlist tops 280,000, with a sizable portion of the city's population hoping for a shot at affordable housing. Ninety-seven percent of the people receiving housing assistance are black or Latino, and 85 percent are women, according to the agency. Some 15,000 families on the list are homeless.

Early in Emanuel's term, the size of the housing agency's reserves began hitting eye-popping levels. Instead of pouring that money into housing, it found other ways to chip away at the pile. In 2011 and 2012, the CHA pumped more than $55 million into its pension fund, nearly 10 times the amount it was required to. But because the amount of federal money the agency was receiving outstripped what it spent by such a large amount, the reserves remained high. So in late 2012, the agency took $185 million and paid down its debts early. Of what remained, millions were pumped into state and local bonds.

Despite the more than $200 million the agency moved from the reserves, the fund was still sitting on at least $440 million at the end of 2013, according to its most recent audited financial report. In a statement, CHA spokeswoman Wendy Parks noted that federal rules allow the agency to maintain some reserves, which CHA plans to use to finish developing 25,000 new units of housing.

"The increase in reserves was driven by the significant downturn in the real estate market that slowed the expenditure rate of funds," Parks said, adding that the pension contribution and bond purchase will help the agency save money on interest payments or otherwise reduce costs in the future.

The decision to hoard cash while tens of thousands of families are in need of housing appears to be a strange one only if the goal is to find housing for the people the agency is supposed to serve. Yet developers, bar and restaurant owners and other interests who want to see the city of Chicago continue to gentrify have little interest in assisting the poor, black and brown single moms who populate the waitlist. Instead, they'd prefer the women and their children leave the city and find housing somewhere in the distant suburbs or beyond. The trend was underway before Emanuel took office, with the 2010 census finding 182,000 fewer African-Americans living in the city than a decade before, when Chicago began demolishing its public housing.

The agency's massive cash reserves were first noticed by the Chicago Housing Initiative, a coalition of tenants. The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a Chicago-based watchdog group, later produced a report on the stockpile, leading to a spate of news coverage over the summer. But the fate of much of the money the housing agency has stashed away has so far gone unreported. Through a series of open records requests, the Chicago Housing Initiative and the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability obtained internal documents revealing that under Emanuel, the CHA has become as much an investment fund as a housing agency.

The CHA's long-term goal, set 15 years ago, was to dismantle its high-profile public housing high rises and replace them with 25,000 new units of affordable housing. The city received extra funds to pull off the task and succeeded in knocking down many of the high rises, yet hasn't managed to create all of the 25,000 new units. Each year from 2008 through 2012, the agency issued 13,000 fewer vouchers than it could have, according to the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability's analysis.

Emanuel, who faces a runoff against Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, was elected mayor in 2011. In the four years before he took office, the CHA delivered an average of 843 new affordable units each year, either through new construction or rehab. The year Emanuel took office, the number plunged to 424. In 2012 it dropped to 112, and in 2013 it fell again to 88, according to the agency's annual reports. For 2014, the CHA set itself a goal of 40 new units. Meanwhile, it was stockpiling unspent cash.

"It might be that a desire to reduce the number of low-income and minority families in Chicago is what motivates those who control CHA to withhold available housing assistance," said Leah Levinger, the executive director of the Chicago Housing Initiative. "Chicago activists have long questioned whether Emanuel's 'world class city' is contemporary code for rich and white -- a way to name development strategies that have obvious racial impact without all the racial overtones." (To read this story in its entirety, please CLICK Rahm Emanuel's photo above).

NOTE: The Magic Johnson back door $80 million deal for CPS custodial work, and now the massive stop and frisk of black folks on Rahm's watch. A local 'black janitor' could have received that CPS contract instead of an out-of-towner like Magic. This is what I mean about not building new black millionaires; instead, allowing the rich to get richer, as long as they do special favors. And really? Blacks need more police stops like they need another vacant lot in the hood. What else needs to be said black voters?... - CDW

NOTE 2: Congressman Rush says Rahm Emanuel TV Ads Insult Black Community During Black History Month - While the media has made headlines saying a majority of Black voters support Rahm Emanuel, Congressman Bobby Rush spoke strongly alongside the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. and told the audiences "not to be fooled" by the multi-media TV ads that Emanuel has been trying to "fool" Chicago voters with in campaigning for Mayor. Congressman Rush said strongly that "I have served with him in Congress directly, and the image you see in these slick TV spots is not the real Rahm Emanuel, and that the Emanuel that he served with in Congress clearly showed that he is only concerned about the elite, not the common people, and definitely not Black people.

Rahm specifically led a Congressional delegation to vote against the Congress Black Caucus OVER 120 TIMES. He voted against funding for Chicago State University, and he voted against humanitarian food aid to South Africa. Rush said it's an absolute insult that during this Black History Month, Black people are being force-fed a multi-million dollar remake of a Rahm that has a documented legislative record of not supporting Black and poor people's issues that he has successfully hidden behind. - Mark Allen, (February 14, 2011)