After a breach of the public trust, Chicago Housing Authority CEO Lewis Jordan decided today to resign his 4-year-old tenure, following media coverage of his and other CHA staff members’ use of credit cards to charge thousands of dollars on expenses such as upscale restaurants and red light tickets.

CHA CEO Lewis Jordan tries to calm distraught tenants at the Charles A. Hayes Family Investment Center June 2, during a public hearing to comment on the agency’s plan to drug test all public housing tenants. Photo by Mary C. Piemonte

Since the investigation from other media came to light, new Mayor Rahm Emanuel took away Jordan’s use of two CHA cars and the police officers assigned to drive them, and ordered a full audit of how city officials and other staff had been using credit cards.

In an e-mailed statement, Jordan listed his accomplishments at the agency, but said that “over the past two weeks, questions about the propriety of credit card use have overshadowed the good and important work of the CHA.”

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