[remote or in person] Board of Commissioners

Chicago Housing Authority

Development

Housing

Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023
8:30 a.m. — 1:00 p.m. CST

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60 E Van Buren St Chicago, IL 60605 (Directions)

CHA Corporate Offices, 7th Floor, Board Chambers

This is an assignment to cover a series of back-to-back meetings of the Chicago Housing Authority board.

You have the option of attending this meeting remotely or in person.

If you attend in person, you may need to reserve a spot in advance more details here. Please indicate that you attended in person and an hour will be added to your total assignment pay.

If you document the meeting remotely, it will be live-streamed on the Chicago Housing Authority’s Youtube channel at this link: https://www.youtube.com/@ChiHousingAuthority/streams

Meeting schedule (additional details here)

8:30 a.m.: Closed session (this part often ends early, so we ask that you tune in at this time so you don’t miss the open session that follows)
9:00 am: Finance & Audit Committee (Business Session)
9:10 am: Tenant Services Committee
9:20 am: Real Estate Operations Development Committee
9:30 am: Business Session Public Hearing
Closed Session

The meeting duration varies but usually wraps up between noon and 1 p.m.

Check the source website for additional information

Reporting

Edited and summarized by the Chicago - IL Documenters Team

Live reporting by Dylan Comerford

The fourth and final stop of the proposed Red Line Extension is set to be located in Riverdale, with a portion of it on an undeveloped part of the Altgeld Homes public housing complex.

dylan comerford @dyldocumenting

Hello and good morning! I’ll be live tweeting today on the Chicago Housing Authority(CHA)’s Board of Commissioners meeting today for @CHIdocumenters #CHIdocumenters. The meeting begins at 8:30am.

08:28 AM Nov 21, 2023 CST

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@CHIdocumenters CHA is a municipal nonprofit corporation largely funded by the federal government through the Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD). The goal of the organization is to provide affordable housing and thus sustain healthy communities.

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@CHIdocumenters The CHA Board of Commissioners is CHA’s governing body that determines policies and resolutions of The Board consists of 10 members that are appointed by the mayor for staggered 5-year terms.

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@CHIdocumenters They approve decisions that chart the direction of current and future programs and authorizes the actions of the Chief Executive Officer and his or her designees.

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To view the agenda for today’s meeting:

thecha.org/about/board-co…

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Board Chair Angela Hurlock has called the meeting to order. The roll has been called.

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Agenda item #1(FY2024 Comprehensive Budget) will be tabled to a future meeting in December.

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Tracy Scott is presenting and acknoweldging some community members who have passed away recenty. Brenda Perry and Marilyn Katz(civil rights acitivst who suported the housing mission of CHA).

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Tracy Scott is now presenting some construction highlights and has announced that CHA is fiscally sound at the moment. 2k mixed income apartments are being created currently. Enhancements, such as parking lots with better drainage are being made in some apartments.

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In 2024, vacant buildings will be utilized to provide further housing. In the budget meeting to come in December, the details of this will be covered in more depth.

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CHA has multiple initiatives to provide for the community: providing coats to migrants through Operation Warm, establishing Little Free Libraries, and more.

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CHA has an e-newsletter that recently launched called Our House.

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A video about CHA's down payment assistance program is playing. The program provides 20k grants for first time home owners. Residents are sharing the impact of becoming a homeowner in their lives in the video.

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Chairperson Angela Hurlock announced Public Participation is now open. There is a time limit of 2 mins. There are 6 registered speakers to comment on general CHA matters.

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Jennie Newsome is commenting now. She is suggesting a fire remediation team because neighbors of fires are impacted by fire residue, but are sometimes not able to clean themselves(such as seniors).

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Delano Androzo, a resident in a CHA apartment is now commenting on his saftey concerns. There is severe water damage that has not been addressed as well as mold damage.

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Matthew Brewer has called the Finance and Audit Committee in order. Now, the committee is in closed session for about 15 mins.

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We're back: Chairman Matthew Brewer is resuming the business portion of the Finance and Audit Committee

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The first item is approval of the CHA handbook, presented by Dominick Maniscalo. Key revisions to the handbook include: updated SA harassment guidelines, hybrid work schedueles, EOC updates, pregnancy leave, hiring practices, and more.

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Floor is now open to questions from the comissioners. Commissioner Washington believes there is a problem with contractors being under the influence frequently and this is something that needs to be addressed by the CHA handbook.

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Response was that the handbook does not address contractors, and that when there are misconduct issues on properties, the employee is required to be drug tested.

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Now item #3 is being presented by Anna Chen, which is a reccomendation to work with R4 to handle CHA's offsite document storage. The CEO is now speaking to the board and answering questions.

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Some of the concerns brought up by the board include sensitive information security, document purging timeline, document organization, and resident engagement.

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Now item #4 is being presented by Katheine Vaughn and it is a contract to make a new CHA website to improve user expereince. CEO is here to answer questions about her web design company.

Palantir.net

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Palantir has a committment to provide internships to make careers in tech more accessible to underprivilleged community members. CHA residents will be considered for their 3 month internship program as a part of this contract.

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Commissioner Washington is asking why Palantir was chosen as the vendor despite the runner up being significantly cheaper and only 1 vote away from Palantir. The response was that the other vendor did not align with CHA values.

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The three items were approved. The finance meeting is now adjorned and the real estate operations development committee meeting is now beginning.

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The first item is authorization to excecute a housing assistance payment(HAP) with Lawson House VASH(a 24-story development in Chicago's Ner North Side that plans to support veteran residents with an on-site social worker).

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The board brought up how though this project is exciting, a public commenter earlier brought up significant negligence concerns in their unit, which is managed by the same contractor(Holston Management Corporation).

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Meghan Harte expressed how it is disappointing that Holston Management Corporation did not send any senior management to represent them at this meeting despite a longstanding relationship and a large scale project being proposed.

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Next item is a proposed laundry services contract with Midwest Laundry, where CHA will lease, rather than own machines. It is expected to generate new revenue and result in lasting equipment that is properly maintained.

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Vendors have a section 3 requirement to hire CHA residents. The board is asking about what training services will be avaliable with Midwest Laundry to hire residents and asking for a quarterly report of how many residents were trained in machine repair.

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Board member Meghan Harte made a point that in the revising of this contract, costs should not be cut towards resident's ability to do laundry, especially when so much $ is allocated toward other projects such as the web design.

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Next agenda item is being discussed now and regards the authorization to take actions necessary to extend predevelopment loan and for the closing of Oak & Larrabee Phase 1.

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According to chairperson Angela Hurlock, residents will reap the benefits of redevelopment in their area through this plan.

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Now, item #8 will be addressed, which is authorization for actions necessary for the proposed Chicago Transit Authority Red Line Extension 130th Street Station development. It would be the 4th and final stop of proposed extension of red line.

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The board is asking questions about the environmental impact of the project. Positive impacts would come from less driving, electirc buses, and no train storage at the end of the stop.

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Connection of this project to CHA is that the proposed station is to be developed partially on CHA land. A concern brought up by commissioner Harte is that it should not obstruct access to nature preserves or interrupt the preservation of historical underground railroad sites.

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The board approved all items addressed and the Real Estate Operations Committee meeting is now adjourned.

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Commissioner Washington abstained from item #8.

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There is now a closed session meeting for ~45 minutes.

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We're back: Chairperson Hurlock has resumed the meeting. During the closed session, item 10 was discussed. Items 9 and 10 were just now approved (9. Authorization for payment of Gautreaux Plaintiff’s Counsel attorneys’ fees and expenses. 10. Approval of Personnel Actions.)

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Meeting adjourned at 1:15 p.m. This concludes the Chicago Housing Authority Board of Commissioners meeting. For more meeting coverage, check out .

documenters.org

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Attachments

Notice & Agenda

By Grace Del Vecchio 11/21/2023

Video livestream

By India Daniels 11/21/2023

Agency Information

Chicago Housing Authority

See Documenters reporting

The CHA Board of Commissioners is the governing body that determines policies and resolutions of CHA. The Board approves decisions that chart the direction of current and future programs and authorizes the actions of the Chief Executive Officer and his or her designees. The 10-member Board of Commissioners is confirmed by the Chicago City Council for staggered five-year terms. All commissioners must be residents of Chicago, and at least three commissioners must be CHA residents. Employees of CHA are not authorized to serve as commissioners.

Remote meetings are live-streamed on the Chicago Housing Authority’s Youtube channel. The video may not appear until at or a few minutes after the scheduled start time. If you do not see if right away, wait a few moments and try refreshing your Internet tab.