A few weeks ago I wrote about the crazy CHA super voucher program that had a few lucky families living in some of Chicago’s finest apartment buildings while 15,000 other families waited for any kind of housing option: CHA Vouchers Paying For High Rent Apartments. Well, fortunately, it looks like the CHA is finally reigning in this program according to a recent story in Crain’s. It looks like the earlier Crain’s story got the attention that it deserved and some politicians decided to do the right thing – or more likely it just got too embarrassing for them.
According to Crain’s “U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., pushed a measure through the House that would curb the use of vouchers for high rents” and “the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched an investigation”. Meanwhile, the CHA is claiming that they have been investigating the program since November and they now admit that it might have been a bit excessive. You think so?
Most of the country caps these programs at 110% of the fair market rent but Chicago had received permission to go as high as 300% in various city opportunity areas (see my earlier post as to where these are). Now the CHA is knocking that cap down to 150%, which will leave 260 families above the threshold with a year to move.
The Crain’s article does go on to say that the program had started to expand this year, which may explain why I started to get these inquiries for the first time.
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