Politics

CHA Board Picks Head of Washington, D.C. Public Housing Agency as CEO Over Mayor’s Objections

The Chicago Housing Authority board voted Tuesday to appoint Keith Pettigrew, the head of Washington, D.C.’s Housing Authority, to lead the third largest public housing agency in the nation, which has been without a permanent leader for 18 months.

Seven members of the board voted to appoint Pettigrew, with Commissioners Jawanza Malone and Angela Parker voting no. Commissioner Mildred Harris abstained from the vote. After Parker vehemently objected to Pettigrew’s appointment, CHA Board Chairman Matthew Brewer threatened to have her removed from the meeting.

“Hell no,” Parker said, casting her vote.

The board’s decision to appoint Pettigrew comes after Mayor Brandon Johnson pushed for nearly a year to name former Ald. Walter Burnett (27th Ward) to lead the CHA, only to run into a brick wall of opposition from board members and federal officials.

Burnett declined to comment on the vote to WTTW News.

The board’s decision to appoint Pettigrew to a four-year term as CEO came without the support of Johnson, whose office is reviewing the resolution passed by the board appointing Pettigrew, his spokesperson told WTTW News.

“There were a number of irregularities in the lead up to the vote which require further evaluation,” according to a statement from Johnson’s spokesperson.

Pettigrew’s salary has yet to be negotiated, CHA spokesperson Matthew Aguilar said in response to an inquiry from WTTW News.

The agency that provides more than 65,000 low-income households with public housing, rental vouchers and homeownership programs with an annual budget of $1.4 billion has been without a permanent leader since Nov. 1, 2024, when former CEO Tracey Scott stepped down.

Scott earned $311,250 annually while she led the CHA, records show.

Pettigrew comes to Chicago with more than 20 years of experience leading public housing agencies, including in the nation’s capital and New Orleans.

Pettigrew replaces Brewer, who has run the agency since September, when interim CEO Angela Hurlock stepped down.

Pettigrew is someone who has “demonstrated expertise in public housing operations, housing choice voucher administration, affordable housing redevelopment, strategic planning, financial restructuring and public private partnership development,” according to the resolution that appointed Pettigrew as read into the record by Brewer.

Pettigrew can only be removed from his new position during the next year if eight of the board’s 10 members agree he is responsible for “misconduct, neglect of duty, or material breach,” according to the resolution that appointed Pettigrew.

“The board further recognizes that leadership stability during the initial period of a chief executive officer’s tenure is essential to ensuring continuity of operations and the effective implementation, the authorities, strategic initiatives, especially after 18 months without a permanent CEO,” according to the resolution that appointed Pettigrew.

A committee formed to select the next CEO of the CHA tapped Pettigrew “and presented him to this board and the mayor for review,” according to the resolution that appointed Pettigrew.

The CHA Board had been scheduled to appoint Burnett in September, but scrapped that vote after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development warned the board not to appoint the former alderman before it could review his potential conflicts of interest, Brewer said.

Johnson publicly pushed the board to appoint Burnett, who represented the West Loop and West Side on the Chicago City Council for 30 years. He stepped down from the City Council in July, and Johnson tapped his son Walter “Red” Burnett to replace him.

“You very rarely find someone who has that type of compassion and understanding around the value of building more affordable housing, particularly public housing,” Johnson said of Burnett, who grew up in the Cabrini-Green housing development.

Pettigrew is set to inherit the agency’s two-decade-old Plan for Transformation, which promised to remake public housing in Chicago by replacing the high-rise projects knocked down by former Mayor Richard M. Daley for becoming magnets for violent crime that preyed on lower-income Chicagoans.

Those buildings were supposed to be replaced with mixed-income apartment complexes, but all of those units have yet to be built, preventing residents from returning to the neighborhoods they called home. Between 2020 and 2024, 3,000 new mixed-income units were built on CHA land and in private developments across the city, a CHA spokesperson said.

Pettigrew must also renovate thousands of CHA properties that have deteriorated after being allowed to sit empty, even as more than 120,000 Chicagoans spend years on the agency’s waiting lists.

Johnson has made three appointments to the CHA board: Jawanza Malone, a community organizer with the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization, Juliana Gonzalez-Crussi, the executive director at the Center for Changing Lives, and LaShawn Cobb, an educator and journalist.

Johnson nominated Rafael “Ralph” Caro II to replace Commissioner Luis Gutierrez and Consuela Hendricks to replace Commissioner Angela Hurlock on the CHA Board. Both of their terms have expired, records show.

Four board members were first appointed by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, two by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and one by former Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Johnson repeatedly promises to expand the number of homes available for longtime Chicagoans and often vows to make Chicago the most affordable big city in America.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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