The Chicago Housing Authority is open for business.
The agency’s boss on Thursday defended its decision to lease land on the Near West Side to the Chicago Fire soccer team and went further, saying the agency is open to more deals with businesses.
CHA CEO Tracey Scott said partnerships are essential to provide the equal income housing needed to help public housing residents thrive.
“To fulfill our mission, we need to innovate, be creative with new financial tools and create public-private partnerships, because the federal government does not write a check that is enough for everyone who wants or we need in Chicago,” Scott told an audience. at a luncheon at the City Club of Chicago.
CHA receives 95% of its funding from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Scott defended the 40-year lease with Chicago Fire, signed in early March, as a “rare opportunity for the CHA to reactivate former West Side urban land that has been sitting which has been vacant for almost 20 years.” The land is on the former ABLA Homes site, near Roosevelt Road and Ashland Avenue.
A rendering of the planned Chicago Fire soccer team’s new training facility on the West Side.
The Fire agreement will fund $48 million in much-needed resources to the CHA for repairs and renovations to nearby buildings, he said. According to the lease, which Scott said preserves the Fire’s community contributions, the Fire pays $8 million up front, with an annual rent of $800,000, with increases in future years.
Fire also agreed to provide jobs and career training for nearby residents, which Scott said is “key to social and economic mobility.”
Deals like that can be important to the CHA’s future, Scott said.
They are also key to moving toward a mixed-income model and away from the old model that Scott calls the “error of concentrated poverty” or “concentrated disadvantage.”
“When someone says innovation, the first thing you think of is public housing, right? Well, I’m here to prove that innovation is our future. And it’s not just about money. Partnerships are critical. So while federal money contributes, and we can make that work, we rely on the talent and creativity of our local development partners,” Scott said.
Scott also said CHA has benefited from its business partners in other deals.
Related Midwest is currently rehabbing nearly 200 units at CHA’s Roosevelt Square, also on the former ABLA Homes site.
CHA announced in early March that it would begin a $145 million rehab of two West Side senior buildings, the Irene McCoy Gaines Apartments and Albany Terrace Apartments, with partner Michaels Development.
“These partnerships make most of the projects we do because it’s often easier to save a building than to build a new one,” Scott said. “Our priority is preserving the buildings we have and partnering with other developments in the neighborhood.”
Scott also revealed plans to build on the long-vacant land at Cabrini Green.
The area already has 3,500 mixed-use units, and the CHA plans to hire an urban planner for the next phase of two pending developments, Oak and Larrabee and Parkside V, which should be planned by 2024, according to CHA spokesperson.
A slide from CHA CEO Tracey Scott’s presentation, discussing plans for Cabrini Green.
