Real Estate Watching Chicago Mayor’s Housing CEO Appointment

Mayor Brandon Johnson, who campaigned on redirecting public land to housing, is faced with another chance to deliver: picking the next housing authority chief.

The mayor is expected to announce his CEO appointment to the Chicago Housing Authority soon, capping months of leadership flux at one of the city’s most powerful public landholders, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The authority controls over 21,000 public housing units and serves more than 65,000 households citywide. It has cycled through eight top executives in the past year, including former CEO Tracey Scott, who left last November amid criticism of her leadership. Interim CEO Angela Hurlock has overseen the agency since then.

The next CEO will inherit an agency dogged by controversy.

The CHA is still contesting a $24 million lead paint lawsuit it lost in January and facing criticism over its lease of 23 acres of public land to the Chicago Fire soccer club for a practice facility. Johnson opposed the deal during his campaign and pledged to halt future CHA land transfers for non-housing uses.

Housing advocates and city officials, including Vice Mayor Walter Burnett Jr. and Alderman Jeanette Taylor, urged Johnson to pick a leader focused on expanding housing supply and fixing staff morale, which one longtime employee described as “not good.”

Burnett, who’s in the running for the job, said the CHA should take advantage of the lull in multifamily development caused by high interest rates to build housing on land it owns.

Former CHA CEO Eugene Jones Jr., who left the agency in 2020, is also being considered. Jones has supporters among residents and skeptics among housing advocates who say the CHA must move in a new direction to deliver on its decades-old “Plan for Transformation,” which promised to deliver tens of thousands of public housing units but has fallen short.

CHA recently launched a resident survey and strategic plan that will be a top priority for the incoming CEO. The agency is also searching for property management firms to oversee thousands of units after the departure of longtime contractors, including Habitat Companies and Hunt Development Group, earlier this year.

— Judah Duke