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Residents’ Journal’s Coverage of CHA Featured in Rise Magazine

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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.

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Categories: Homepage

CHA Board Appoints One of Their Own Interim CEO

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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.

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Ickes Leader Challenges CHA CEO

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It is no future at Ickes,” declared Gloria Williams, the resident leader at the Harold Ickes Homes, to Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) CEO Lewis Jordan at the Tenant Services meeting on March 11.

Williams was upset because CHA has been rapidly closing down buildings and emptying out the 738-unit public housing complex without having a formal federal plan to redevelop or rehabilitate the site. “You can steadily put people out,” Williams said. “I just want my people and the people here to know that I did everything I could. But when housing decides to tear your land down…it’s no stopping. I cannot stop them. “It’s not a ‘we’ thing. It’s a CHA thing. I used to be a part of it. Now it’s just a CHA thing,” she added.
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CHA Report: Crime Rates Not Linked to CHA Relocatees

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The Chicago Housing Authority reported on November 18, 2008 that “contrary to claims made that increased violence can be tied to former CHA leaseholders.” They determined that no link between the Plan for Transformation’s demolition of high-rise public housing buildings and perceived increases in crime can be made.

Based on an analysis of Chicago Police Department data, CHA CEO Lewis A. Jordan provided a snapshot of how it tenants, and the City of Chicago, are faring since the start of their 1.6 billion housing revitalization plan, at the CHA Board of Commissioners meeting earlier in the day at the LeClaire Courts public housing complex.

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Categories: Special Reports