CHICAGO URBAN DAILY
CHICAGO (CHICAGO URBAN DAILY)— The fight for control of the Chicago Housing Authority is now the City Council’s favorite spectator sport — and Mayor Brandon Johnson keeps losing.
Aldermen this week rejected another pair of Johnson’s nominees to the CHA board, dealing the mayor a fresh blow in a power struggle that has now dragged on for more than a year. For months, the council has denied Johnson’s appointees almost unanimously, convinced he wants a board that will fire the agency’s current leader.
The current leader, Keith Pettigrew, owes his job to Matthew Brewer — the former interim CHA head who is now running for mayor against Johnson. When Johnson tried to install veteran Ald. Walter “Red” Burnett Sr. as the agency’s chief — moving his son Walter Jr. onto the council seat — the vote was delayed while the city waited on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to decide whether the elder Burnett needed a conflict-of-interest waiver. HUD said no. Brewer then appointed Pettigrew, and the war was on.
Johnson insists all he wants is to build housing, fast — especially more public housing. But his critics aren’t buying it. They say the mayor’s nominees are a Trojan horse for a board that would sweep Pettigrew out.
The stakes are enormous. The CHA is the second-largest public housing authority in America and the largest owner of rental housing in Chicago, with a roughly $1 billion operating budget serving more than 63,000 low-income families. Control of it is a prize Chicago mayors have traditionally held. Johnson may not get it back before the February election.
Stay tuned to Chicago Urban Daily as the council keeps saying no.
Reported by Chicago Urban Daily News. Visit chicagourbandailynews.com for updates.
