Chicago Housing Initiative

Public Housing Lease-Up Campaign

Campaign Goals•Two weeks ago, the CHA released its Plan for the next year.

•This plan completely fails to address the persistent, excessively high level of vacancies in CHA’s public housing stock.

•With 68,000+ low-income families and seniors on the CHA’s waitlists who desperately need housing today, our Coalition demands that the CHA begin addressing a vacancy problem that has grown to obscene proportions: Each and every public housing unit that has already been rehabilitated or revitalized or is otherwise in live-able and decent condition must be leased-up immediately to one of the tens of thousands of very low-income families on the CHA’s waitlist.

CHA-Wide

CHASnapshot

At the end of 2010, the CHA reported that it had completed rehab or redevelopment on 21,310 units.

•On that basis, the CHA claims to have fulfilled 85% of its commitments under the Plan for Transformation to replace 25,000 public housing units.

But the CHA indicates that only 17,979 of these post-rehab, post-redevelopment units are inhabitable.

•More than 3,300 units sit inexplicably vacant and “unavailable for occupancy” after rehab or revitalization has occurred.

•The CHA continues to count these uninhabited/ “offline” units towards its total “unit delivery” count, even though these homes are housing no one.

CHA:Self-

Reported Occupancy Rates as reported in 2011 Budget

CHA:Actual

Occupancy Rates as reported in

CHA’s 2011 Budget

7,667 actual families/ 12,402

hard units of family housing =

61.8% occupancy in family housing

8,093 actual seniors/ 9,498 hard

units of senior housing = 85.2%

occupancy in senior housing

CHA:Actual Occupancy Rates Over

Time

63%

59%55% 55% 58%

57%

63% 67%

60%59%

84%

Reported delays on leasing

In 2008, the CHA reported that it took 453 days on average to lease-up a unit in its traditional housing stock, not including time the unit is counted as “offline” for rehabilitation or

revitalization. The CHA stated it will begin tracking vacancy turnaround time using its asset management software and sets a goal of leasing units within 30 days or less after rehab and

related certifications are complete. But subsequent reports in 2009 and 2010 do not report any data on vacant unit turn-around time, and the CHA has now indicated it does not have any responsive documents to this vacancy turn-around issue in response to our FOIA inquiries.

CHA:Capital Expenditures

Between 2001 and 2010, 21% of the capital dollars designated for repair, rehab, and redevelopment across the

CHA went unspent. This amounts to almost $611 million dollars. It is unclear whether or how those funds were re-

allocated.

CASE STUDIESof the CHA’s vacancy problem

Dante/HarperDante/Harper is a 50 unit Scattered Site property.

At least 36 of these units received substantial rehab work in the mid-2000s.

The CHA then vacated the buildings in June of 2005 claiming they needed to be re-repaired and residents would be returned to their homes within a year.

Today, over 6 years later, all of the units remain vacant and boarded up.

Now, the CHA states verbally it is looking to sell or convert the property, while written documents in 2011 promise 36 units will remain subsidized. The development is not mentioned at all in the 2012 plan.

Scattered Site West– North LawndaleThe North Lawndale scattered site units received substantial rehabilitation work in the mid-2000s, with rehab work completed by 2005.

Neighbors of 3605 W. Douglas report that after rehab was completed, this 6 unit development was never leased up.

Today, over 6 years later, all of the units remain vacant and boarded up.

Nearby, 3 units at 1407 S. Spaulding have been vacant for at least a year.

3605 W. Douglas

1407 S. Spaulding

Parkview Apartments

Parkview was a 181 unit Senior Property.

After years of low occupancy rates, Parkview closed in 2007 for “necessary repairs”.

In 2008, after closure, Parkview received roughly the same amount of operating funding from the CHA that it had received in 2007 when it was occupied.

In 2009, Parkview received $725,056 in stimulus money for plumbing and boiler repairs.

Four years after it was closed, Parkview and all of its units remain vacant.

The 2012 plan indicates the CHA is considering whether the building should be converted to “[an]other housing type”.

Lake Parc Place

Lake Parc:Snapshot

As part of the Plan for Transformation, all 280 units at Lake Parc Place were rehabbed by 2004.

As of 2009, only 47% of the units were occupied, leaving around 130 units vacant. Today 120 units remain vacant.

CHA claims the vacant units are “off-line” so they can be modified to be Accessible.

But the ADA only requires that 5% of units in a development (or 15 units at Lake Parc) be Accessible.

The CHA now claims it will be converting around 56 units to become ADA compliant. The remaining 64 vacancies are unaccounted for. Only in mid-September did the CHA begin indicating plans to lease these units.

Lake Parc:Occupancy

No Information

78%82%

78%

90%

79%

68%63%

47%

Lathrop

Lathrop:Snapshot

Lathrop is a 925 unit Family property.

CHA stopped leasing units in 2000, claiming rehabilitation would begin in 2001.

No rehabilitation work was completed.

Conditions have continued to deteriorate, but the property remains structurally sound.

Lathrop:Occupancy

58%50%

41%36% 34%

29%

81%76%

69%64%

In 1999, 747 units were occupied.

In 2011, only 170 units remain filled. 750 units are vacant.

Lathrop:Occupancy

• In 2008, the Lathrop Leadership Team urged the CHA Board to put 300 vacant units back into service by 2010 to house homeless or needy families, prevent crime, and stabilize the community.

• The CHA said no.

Lathrop:Capital Expenditures

Between 2001 and 2010, 32% of the total repair dollars designated for Lathrop went unspent. 98% of these repair

dollars went unspent in FY2010.

The heating system has been allowed to disintegrate, “forcing” closure of the northern half of Lathrop.

Residents live WITH mold but WITHOUT neighbors.

Meanwhile...

Cabrini Rowhouses

Cabrini Rowhouses:Snapshot

The Rowhouses: 586 units of Family housing.

The CHA stopped leasing the property in 2001, promising rehabilitation was imminent.

While rehab work was completed on 146 units, 438 units still await rehabilitation.

Currently, over 90% of the units awaiting rehab are vacant, and 20 of the units that have been rehabilitated are also unoccupied.

The property remains viable but the CHA indicates it is considering demolition followed by mixed income/mixed finance redevelopment.

Cabrini Rowhouses:Occupancy

40%

49%56%

63%65%69%

74%79%

84%80%

1. Overall Transparency and Accountability about

Vacancies:

The CHA should report and account for vacancies in each development, and

publicly report on its vacant unit turn-around time to ensure that no

habitable public housing unit goes empty for any significant period of

time.

Three Types of Challenges to Solve?

2. Developments rehabbed and then left vacant:

Developments the CHA has already rehabbed but then left only partially

occupied or unoccupied for years, like Lake Parc Place or Southeast Scattered Site- Dante/Harper, must be leased up

fully immediately.

Three Types of Challenges to Solve?

3. Properties CHA has left in limbo:

Developments the CHA has promised to rehab for over a decade, like Lathrop and

the Cabrini Rowhouses, must be rehabbed immediately and reoccupied.

Families should not be relocated and leasing should not be frozen on any development until there is an actual plan for the rehabilitation or revitalization for the development and actual

financial resources committed towards that plan.

Full occupancy should be maintained in all portions of a development that are not undergoing rehab/revitalization in the

immediate future.

Three Types of Challenges to Solve?

How will we take action to solve these problems?