- This event has passed.
Rally for a Just Waiting List
July 18, 2023 @ 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Come celebrate the reintroduction of the waitlist transparency ordinance!
We want to make some noise and let people know about the Accountable Housing and Anti-Discrimination Act, which would create a searchable database of available, affordable homes for prospective tenants by requiring that all developers who receive city funds to build affordable units be listed in one centralized, searchable database. It places those preferences into the searchable database of available, affordable housing, matching perspective tenants to available units.
We are hoping to get a lot of people there, including aldermanic sponsors, testimonials, spoken word artists, community leaders and activists from across the city!
Passing this ordinance would be critical because there are over 120,000 plus people on the CHA waiting list right now, and though the average wait for an apartment on the CHA waitlist is 4.3 years, many people have waited over 10 years, like Alderwoman Taylor. Many of folks who need this are unaware of other, available, safe, and affordable housing that they qualify for. Please come and support our efforts in creating a better, more accessible waitlist system!
The waitlist classifies units as accessible, studio, 2 or 3 bedroom units. It designates community organizations, shelters, government agencies such as aldermanic, state and congressional offices and other places people at risk of homelessness spend time as “registration sites” where people can be added to the citywide waitlist, matched with appropriate units and check their status on any CHA waitlist. This creates multiple, accessible and trustworthy points of contact for transient people in need of housing.
It allows the Department of Housing to track critical data of who is being housed, where, vacancy rates and how effectively our tax dollars are housing people. This is done by providing a publicly available quarterly report to from the Department of Housing to the City Council’s Committee on Housing and Real Estate. This will also give the DOH access to the status of any given individual on the CHA waitlist, including if they have fallen off the list, and allow DOH to inform CHA of people who have found housing who were on their lists. This should allow CHA to better serve people on their lists.
If a person cannot be found after three attempts to contact them directly and/or through their registration site the next eligible person is contacted but they do not lose their place on the list. If a person cannot be contacted for a full calendar year they move to the bottom of the list. If a person refuses to accept housing three times they move to the bottom of the waitlist
If you’re interested in attending and need interpretation or any other accommodation to attend fully, pleasecontact irhaven@accessliving.org.
The Chicago Housing Initiative is a citywide coalition of housing advocacy organizations composed of Chicagoans who have homes in private, public and subsidized housing, are without homes and/or at risk of homelessness across the City of Chicago. We have partnered with public health officials and organizations and legal organizations who are working at the intersections of public health, housing, education and transportation.
Google Calendar 
