Chicago Rental Assistance Resumes Under State Management

Chicago’s rental assistance program is back in action after about a month-long hiatus led to a backlog of about 360 tenants waiting for help.

New management under the Illinois Housing Development Authority will now oversee the initiative, called the Early Resolution Program, after Chicago’s Department of Housing canceled its contract last month with the Resurrection Project, which had been administering the program, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The Early Resolution Program was launched in November 2020 to prevent evictions by providing financial help to landlords and tenants affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Resurrection Project said it would no longer administer funds “as the pandemic and resources for the program wane,” halting the program while hundreds of would-be applicants waited for its resumption.

Luckily, no one has been forced to leave their home as a result of the program going offline temporarily, according to Bob Glaves, executive director of the Chicago Bar Foundation, which manages the Early Resolution Program. He expects the number of tenants waiting for assistance to increase to about 500 by early July.

“Everybody is going to work as hard as and do everything they can [to minimize evictions],” Glaves told the outlet. “[The Illinois Housing Development Authority] has experience running this … and is starting with a model that has shown to be effective for the rest of the state.”

Previously, the rental assistance program was being handled by the city. But Chicago’s Department of Housing asked the Illinois Housing Development Authority to take over because of its prior experience, DOH spokesperson Rima Alsammarae told the outlet. The exact reasons for the cancellation of the Resurrection project contract are unclear.

Property owners said it would take one to three months to get approval for and receive rental assistance when the Resurrection Project was leading the program, the outlet reported.

Alsammarae hopes other resources will be available for the city’s program once federal funds run out, presumably early next year.

— Quinn Donoghue