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Chicago housing voucher program under intense scrutiny

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A new Chicago Sun-Times/Better Government Association (BGA) report takes a hard look at what the city of Chicago calls its “Plan for Transformation” for housing projects. In multi-part reporting, changes to the opportunity area program are highlighted.

When providing housing vouchers to income-eligible recipients, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) does not dictate in which neighborhoods people must live. That’s part of how the program has generated controversy — an effort to designate sections of the city into “opportunity areas” — distant from traditional public housing enclaves — where vouchers can also be used to procure housing.

The Plan for Transformation is credited with some wins, but it also comes at a hefty price. According to the Sun-Times, the housing vouchers cost more than $47 million a month.

The federal government pays $35.9 million of the bill, and the tenants pay the rest, based on what they are able to afford. More than 107,000 people, mostly black, in roughly 45,000 households in Chicago take advantage of the program.

At present, 4,690 households, representing a total of 9,841 people, live in opportunity areas with the help of the voucher program.

But, recent revisions of the rules of the program, spurred in part by well-publicized investigations of it, will change the living situation of some of the residents presently in private homes.

Some of the facets of the program that raised eyebrows and spurred change are:

The investigative report included numerous examples of voucher recipients who get luxury apartments for little or no cost, while more than 50,000 other voucher holders wait for a unit to come available.

The overhaul of the opportunity program will take more than a year and a half.

The investigative report series will continue to document the evolution of the changes to the housing voucher system.

Email Kimberley Sirk.