Friday, January 7, 2011

Some Clarification From The CHA

Yesterday, 4425 N Malden was given as the address of the alleged shooter in Tuesday's murder.  We and others expressed dismay that a felon was able to live at the CHA when there are so many other deserving families who desperately need housing.

A reader wrote to the CHA management company and received this reply:
"As stated in the article, he did claim a CHA address as his. We have confirmed that Brayant Rogers, the person arrested in the Uptown shooting, is not a CHA resident.

Having said that, we can say that our policy does allow us to take eviction under certain circumstances even if he doesn't physically live there but it was determined that there is a connection.

For privacy reasons, we are unable to go into specifics in this incident but we can assure you that as the case warrants, lease enforcement actions are taken to the extent allowable by law."
We appreciate the quick response from CHA, as well as the information.

15 comments:

  1. Does the management's statement that he "is not a CHA resident" rule out the possibility that he was living there unofficially? You don't have to be a CHA resident to live on your grandmother's couch or in your girlfriend's bed. If that was the case, whoever was harboring him there should be out on the street.

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  2. So he just crashes with a CHA resident?

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  3. I think we can trust the CHA to do the right thing here. The CHA has a long, established history of weeding out criminal activity from its buildings... to the point that it's rare to even hear about a minor misdemeanor occuring in a CHA building or perpetrated by a fine, upstanding CHA resident. In fact, the CHA high-rises at Cabrini Green and along South State Street had such wonderful, glowing reputations as crime-free rays of sunlight that they had to be removed. They were just so darn successful! They made the people living in luxury Gold Coast condos jealous.

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  4. It would be a tough precedent to set to evict this low-life's grandma, if that were the case, but residents harboring murderers (especially those with a prior conviction for attempted) just can't be tolerated by CHA.
    There's got to be an understanding by their residents of the standards required to receive this assistance.

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  5. I agree, there should be a zero tolerance policy for CHA/section 8 tenants who let convicted felons live with them off-lease. Putting this into practice is probably a lot more work than people think though.

    Our next alderman could play a HUGE role in working on this issue.

    Empower law abiding tenants to report trouble to the alderman's office by actually dealing with the problems.

    Put a staff member on this full time (or close to it) so that you can truthfully say that every single day the alderman's office is doing something.

    Strong arm landlords into true compliance with existing laws/regulations and meaningful cooperation with the police. Make life miserable for those who fail to step up.

    Use the bully pulpit and not just for platitudes - name names and get specific about people/landlords/organizations that are hurting the community.

    There's really a lot an alderman can do on this.

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  6. A couple decades ago, when I worked in Cabrini-Green, trying to figure out WHO was allowed to live in WHICH apartment was impossible to determine. With the constant flux of boyfriends and baby daddies and 'he be stayin with' my cousin, there is absolutely NO CHANCE that the CHA can keep track of who lives in their buildings. I'm sure the CHA is as cash strapped as all other governmental agencies these days, so there's no one keeping track of who comes and goes from their properties either, (not that they would make much of an effort, anyway).

    One problem with most governmental giveaways is that, beyond the original screening for inclusion into the programs, little or no follow-up is done to regulate them.

    Was he "staying" with someone on CHA property? Probably.
    Was the CHA aware? I'm sure NOT.
    Will the CHA do anything about it? Don't think so.

    One thing I learned long ago: Laws and rules are only made for and followed by those of us who CHOOSE to do so. Beyond that, the laws and rules are a joke without an established method of insuring compliance.

    Bottom line? If you aren't going to monitor who is in the CHA's units, you can't regulate them.

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  7. The CHA is a huge bureaucratic canyon in which huge amounts of taxpayer monies disappear every day. Unfortunately, time and time again, we find out that those bloated budgets are not there for the public, but more for the clouted ones in charge.

    The CHA's CEO has an armed CPD chauffeur service that is paid for by all of us. Must be nice...

    The Watchdogs: CHA Boss Has Security Detail, Too

    Lewis A. Jordan, CEO of the Chicago Housing Authority, has a Chicago Police security detail — a fact police had refused to disclose but the CHA confirmed Monday after a Chicago Sun-Times report about the costs of protecting public officials.

    http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/3044785-418/security-police-cha-chicago-jordan.html

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  8. So the CHA is bad at monitoring its tenant population, fine. That's where the neighborhood has to step up and "help" the CHA by giving them the evidence that enables them (perhaps forces them) them to begin eviction proceedings against tenants who are not in compliance.

    Strong aldermanic leadership through words and action would empower law abiding tenants and their neighbors to take a more active role in this. It sucks that we're talking about outsourcing the CHA's monitoring duties onto average citizens, but with some help from the alderman and the police, it can be done.

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  9. Not reading the comments right now so I can keep up my veil of optimism.

    Glad there's an official response to this from CHA. Do they have security at the building that can keep this guy and others out at the door?

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  10. Well said Big City Police. Well said.

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  11. Taken from the comments at Second City Cop:

    Today's victim is tomorrow's offender."

    Brayant was shot, along with his "dogg", who is no longer with us, about
    100 yards away, last fall. Although the victim in this case had a long rap
    sheet, he had just dropped his child off at the Stockton School & had
    stopped at the Subway, on the corner.

    Another shooting on the same block happened around 1600 hours Thursday. Guy
    in a car with his kid and baby mama. Dude was taken to Illinois Masonic in
    serious condition.

    ===================================

    If Bryant isn't a resident t 4425 N Malden then he sure spends a lot of
    time on the neighborhood.

    I would hope that CHA did their due dilligence to confim that he isn't
    living at the residence. Hopefully they confirmed with CPD which unit he
    went into, then completed a search of that residence for evidence that he
    isn't a resident before being so quick to issue a statement. Or is this
    just more of the same ol same ol.

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  12. I was listening to the police scanner feed at the time of the shooting and the offender went into unit 101 on the ground floor of the building. He must have had a key to the security door and the u it I order to gain access. The Police had to break into the building to apprehend him.

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  13. Doesn't the CHA base its rent on the income of all adults living in the household? If rent is calculated based on the leasee's income alone, but there are other contributing adults in the household, would it not be fair to say that the rent payment is being unfairly discounted? I'm not against supporting needy families, but when you're supporting people who have resources, or, in effect would have resources if they bothered to work. But hey, why work when you have free rent. Kick 'em out if you can, or make them pay the rent.

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  14. So it turns out that bryant Rogers was the other man shot during the July 28th incident that took the life of Aaron Carter.

    From SCC:

    Last summer or fall at 4500 magnolia. He was standing next to fellow gang member Aaron Carter who was shot in the chest and killed that day.

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  15. p - please send that info to CHA. ok so 2 of the bangers down from the block, how many more to go?

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