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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)
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