Chicago’s rental assistance program will restart taking applications during the first week of July under new management from the Illinois Housing Development Authority.
The program was paused May 15 after Chicago’s Department of Housing canceled its contract with the Resurrection Project, the nonprofit formerly overseeing administration of the funds.
The department did not state why the contract was canceled. The Resurrection Project told the Tribune in May that it was no longer in charge “as the pandemic and resources for the program wane” and originally stated that the Department of Housing would administer the rest of the funds.
The restart to the program comes as thousands of Cook County residents face eviction annually, with many renters and landlords in limbo for the past month given the pause in assistance. Attorneys say rental assistance is a key component of the county’s Early Resolution Program — the formal name for the eviction diversion program — helping stave off thousands of evictions since the program began in November 2020.
Bob Glaves, executive director of the Chicago Bar Foundation, which manages the Early Resolution Program, said he does not think people have been forced to leave their homes yet due to the halt in funding but is not sure this will still be the case by the time the new program starts. He said there is a backlog of about 360 tenants waiting for rental assistance and expects that number to be about 500 come early July.
“Everybody is going to work as hard as and do everything they can (to minimize evictions),” Glaves said. “(The Illinois Housing Development Authority) has experience running this … and is starting with a model that has shown to be effective for the rest of the state.”
The Illinois Housing Development Authority manages the court-based rental assistance program for all counties in the state apart from Cook County. The agency has administered more than a billion dollars in aid to help renters affected by the COVID-19 pandemic avoid eviction and does not anticipate the addition of Chicago’s case load to affect operations, according to Andrew Field, a spokesperson for the agency.
Rima Alsammarae, Chicago’s Department of Housing spokesperson, said in a statement that the agency asked the Illinois Housing Development Authority to take over the program because of its prior experience. She said there are “a number of challenges in quickly turning around payments” but that the agencies will “continue to work to minimize processing times.”
Alsammarae said the agency hopes other resources will be available for the city’s program once federal funds run out, which is expected to happen early next year.
When the Resurrection Project was in charge of rental assistance applications, property owners and their attorneys told the Tribune in May that it took one to three months to get approved for and receive rental assistance.
Glaves said at the time he would prefer if tenants were approved for rental assistance within two weeks, but because of limited personnel, this wasn’t possible.
Field told the Tribune that rental assistance applications are processed within seven days and checks are mailed to landlords within three business days if the application is approved.
Michael Glasser, president of the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance, said the extra month provided to tenants and landlords to negotiate through the Early Resolution Program can be helpful when emergency rental assistance is available.
“But most of the time it is a court-mandated extra month of free housing — with still another three to four months ahead in the process — that falls on our members while the long legal process plays out,” Glasser said in a statement.
Glaves said there will be bumps in the transition to get everyone in the new system, with a surge of applications expected in the beginning, but those involved in the eviction diversion program will make sure everyone gets through it.
“Everyone will work well together to make it happen,” Glaves said.
