Dear Friends :

We The People Media is asking people to fill out an on-line survey we developed with the Local Advisory Council resident leaders. Anyone that fills it out gets the chance to win a laptop computer or a gift card!

The survey is geared toward current CHA residents as well as former residents, but we’re looking for everybody’s opinion. Feel free to copy the link and send it out to others:

http://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?9BBFD3CA9ADCCBCE90

There are more than 51,000 families in Chicago’s public housing system, including households in the traditional family style developments like Altgeld Gardens, Lowden Homes and Bridgeport Homes, as well as senior buildings and tens of thousands of families who rent in the private market using Housing Choice Vouchers (formerly known as Section 8 vouchers). All of these residents are represented by the Central Advisory Council, an elected body of tenant leaders who negotiate on tenants’ behalf with the Chicago Housing Authority, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and other government agencies. Recently, the CAC put out its annual calendar, which contains a huge quantity of useful information for tenants, and we are providing the 2012 Tenant Calendar in PDF format, free of charge, for either download or on-line viewing.

The calendar will be essential reading for current tenants as well as for the nearly 100,000 more families who are on waiting lists for CHA units and the Housing Choice Vouchers programs, and the tens of thousands of low-income families who need housing subsidies. The calendar contains answers to questions such as:

How is my Rent Calculated?

How do I save money on Electricity and Gas?

Can I have a Pet?

In a sign of the times, the calendar also has a special section for Housing Choice Voucher holders whose building is in foreclosure, and the names and addresses of every alderman in Chicago.

You can click above or on the following link to get the 2012 Tenant Calendar.

Click here to listen to We The People Media’s Executive Director Ethan Michaeli on WBEZ Chicago Public Radio’s new hit show “The Afternoon Shift” with Steve Edwards talking about the Chicago Housing Authority’s efforts to revise its Plan for Transformation. Ethan and Steve examine the pitfalls as well as the opportunities of creating a new paradigm for public housing for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the City of Chicago. Ethan speaks during the second hour of the program.

Residents’ Journal/We The People Media is proud to announce the publication of “My Story,” by Chantell Suggs, a graduate of our Urban Youth International Journalism Program. As a student in the program, Chantell wrote about life in Chicago’s neighborhood. She has come a long way and we hope you will join us in celebrating her accomplishments at a special author event at Thalia Hall, 1227 W. 18^th Street, this Thursday, July 28, at 5:50 pm.

Dear Friends:

I invite you to click here to read an article recently posted in Rise Magazine, an excellent publication written for and by adults in the foster care system. The article describes Editor-in-Chief Mary C. Piemonte’s recent coverage of the Chicago Housing Authority’s efforts to change rules for tenants and the leadership transition at the agency.

This week, I was honored to appear on “Chicago Newsroom,” hosted by veteran broadcaster Ken Davis, along with fellow guests Art Golab, Database Editor with the Chicago Sun-Times, and Charlie Meyerson, a regular voice on Chicago radio. We discussed the progress of new Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the ouster of Chicago Housing Authority CEO Lewis Jordan, the future of the Taste of Chicago and other issues.

The Chicago Housing Authority Board of Commissioners Friday appointed one of their own as interim CEO of the agency. Carlos Ponce, 61, was selected by the Commissioners at a special board meeting early in the day. Ponce will serve on a temporary basis, said agency spokesperson Matt Aguillar: “The search is ongoing for a permanent CEO.”

Carlos Ponce. Photo courtesy of CHA.

Ponce was added to the CHA Board in 2003 by then-Mayor Richard Daley. He currently runs a management consulting firm called Resonance Management and Technology Solutions. Ponce previously was the chief human resources officer for the Chicago Public Schools, commissioner of the City of Chicago’s Department of General Services and executive director of the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association.

Ponce replaces Lewis Jordan, who resigned June 14 after being snared in a media investigation that found he used his CHA credit card to charge meals at Gold Coast restaurants and pay for items such as red light tickets. Jordan also had been under fire from public housing tenants and their allies for attempting to install a policy which would have required drug testing of all residents. After Jordan’s resignation, Board Chairman James Reynolds cancelled the effort to install the drug testing policy.

Tune in to Vocalo 89.5 FM’s community media roundtable radio talk show on Friday, June 3, 2011 from noon to 1 p.m., for a live taping featuring Residents’ Journal Editor-in-Chief Mary C. Piemonte, and other local community journalists and editors having a candid conversation with Chicago Reporter Editor Kimbriell Kelly, about the city’s new Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his administration’s dealings with issues that matters to their readership.

Dear Friends:

In the next few hours, voters in Chicago will decide on a new mayor as well as the City Council and other citywide offices. Among the issues the successor to Mayor Richard M. Daley will face will be the housing crisis for the city’s poor. Last year, when the Chicago Housing Authority opened its waiting list for the first time in years, more than 200,000 families registered for just 40,000 slots – on the waiting list. The new Mayor will have to decide how to fulfill his predecessor’s pledge to rebuild mixed-income communities on the sites where the infamous high-rises once stood.

Since the beginning of the mayoral race, We The People Media has covered the contest from the perspective of those who see Chicago’s low-income families as an underutilized resource. As you make your decision, we offer you an easy way to read all of our articles and videos. These reports include exclusive interviews and comments with the candidates.

Please don’t hesitate to write to us and let us know what you think – about our reports as well as about the mayor’s race itself!

Click here to read all of our coverage of the Mayor’s race, beginning with our first pieces in December:

http://wethepeoplemedia.org/tag/chicago-mayoral-candidates/

We The People Media/Residents’ Journal staff regularly appear on the programs of other news organizations, providing our unique perspective on Chicago’s vibrant political scene, the future of poverty policy and progress of efforts to recreate public housing as mixed-income communities. Here are links to three recent print and radio reports in which Residents’ Journal’s staff were quoted:

Listen to Editor-in-Chief Mary C. Johns on National Public Radio’s “Here and Now” program about the past and future of public housing: http://www.hereandnow.org/2010/12/16/cabrini-green

Read Mary’s comments on the end of the North Side’s Cabrini-Green development in this story from the Associated Press:

http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/01/chicago-closes-infamous-public-housing-complex/

Listen to Publisher Ethan Michaeli talk about Rahm Emmanuel and the campaign to become Chicago’s new mayor on WBEZ Public Radio’s weekly political roundtable,
“The Best Game in Town”:  http://www.wbez.org/blog/best-game-town/best-game-town-14-rahms-residency-burris-bid-and-big-issues-race-mayor

Check out these appearances in other media, and make sure to look below for the articles and videos from our own national-award-winning adult reporters as well as our youth reporters.

In this holiday season, please don’t forget that your support will help us ensure that these important voices remains a part of our national conversation. Please click the “Support” tab and check out our new e-commerce service to make a donation. Remember that We The People Media/Residents’ Journal is a registered 501 c3 organization and all donations are tax-deductible. Any size donation is appreciated, but $100 or more will be especially helpful to our work.