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Chicago Public Housing Waiting List Deadline Extended

By Wendell Hutson | January 31, 2013 1:43pm
 The Altgeld Gardens complex on the Far South Side is among the housing developments applicants on the Chicago Housing Authority waiting list could be placed.
The Altgeld Gardens complex on the Far South Side is among the housing developments applicants on the Chicago Housing Authority waiting list could be placed.
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Chicago Housing Authority

CHICAGO — Low-income residents who want to remain on the Chicago Housing Authority's waiting list for public housing have another month to renew their applications.

Previously, the public agency had set a Jan. 18 deadline for the more than 85,000 people who make up its housing list to renew their information online or face being removed from the list.

Now, the agency has extended the deadline until Feb. 28, according to Matt Aguilar, a spokesman for the Chicago Housing Authority, who declined to say how many people met the first deadline.

"Because [the] CHA has extended the grace period through Feb. 28, the information has not yet been finalized," he said. "We will be providing the final data regarding the Wait List Update after the closing on Feb. 28."

The need for subsidized housing has grown since the waiting list closed over a decade ago.

"With such a critical housing need in the city of Chicago, this update will allow us to house people faster and to more efficiently provide public housing and Housing Choice Vouchers to tens of thousands of low-income residents," said Charles Woodyard, chief executive officer of the Chicago Housing Authority.

And the 85,000-person waiting list also doesn't include people on a separate list reserved for those displaced in 1999 when the CHA began its transformation plan that resulted in public, high-rise buildings being demolished. Applicants on that list get first preference when a unit becomes available, said Stacey Fields, the CHA's director of Administration and Asset Management.

Unlike before when applicants could go to one of nine CHA computer labs to update their information, the process this time is slightly different. In addition to updating their information online, applicants can visit the CHA Client Center at 60 E. Van Buren St., or call Housing Choice Voucher at (312) 935-2600 or Public Housing at (312) 913-7266.