HUD Chicago office taking on more public housing authority oversight as staff dwindles regionally, nationally

Miami Herald

5 days ago

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Chicago office will now oversee 65 public housing authorities in Wisconsin because of staffing shortages in the agency's Milwaukee office.
This represents a roughly 62% increase in the number of public housing authorities the Chicago office is responsible for holding accountable to their missions, potentially stretching staff thin amid national cuts. The office had previously been limited to the oversight of Illinois' 105 housing authorities. Those public housing authorities' budgets combined, according to HUD, are more than $1.9 billion in federal dollars.
The increase comes as the Chicago office's public housing division is now the largest in the country after massive downsizing at other agency offices, including New York and Puerto Rico, Chicago's division director said at a recent public meeting.
"As we move forward, unless we are able to hire, there are offices that will pick up more (of our) mission as we start to move on and continue to become more regionally focused," said William Dawson III, HUD's Chicago public housing office director, at a recent Housing Authority of Cook County board meeting.
President Donald Trump's administration has upended federal agencies such as HUD since his return to the Oval Office in January, slashing funding and staff. As Trump, Department of Government Efficiency workers and HUD Secretary Scott Turner tout the importance of cracking down on "fraud, waste and abuse," public agency employees are having to do more work with fewer staff members. Former HUD staffers told the Tribune that agency workers were already overburdened prior to Trump's cuts. Housing advocates and local and state officials fear the reduction in force at HUD will do the opposite of what Trump and DOGE set out to do.
HUD did not respond to a list of questions by the Tribune's deadline.
Locally and nationally, HUD has seen numerous employees retire early, with others being laid off or taking the federal government's deferred resignation program. As of May, HUD had about 6,000 workers after a reduction of approximately 2,300 employees, said Antonio Gaines, president of AFGE's National Council 222, the group that represents 40 local HUD unions nationwide, at a spring meeting with local union leaders.
Turner announced in a video on social media in February that a DOGE task force had launched at HUD. That same week, a document circulated among HUD workers that was reported on by national news outlets and obtained by the Tribune showing HUD's workforce could be halved. It indicated that the total agency head count as of Jan. 21 was about 8,300, with some departments slated for more drastic staff reductions than others.
"People aren't going to be able to get their questions answered," said U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, a Chicago Democrat, in a recent interview with the Tribune. "Programs aren't going to be publicized, and people won't know they exist."
Chicago's public housing division shrunk from 24 employees to 17, mainly stemming from the resignation programs, Dawson said at the board meeting.
New York's public housing division, previously the country's largest, Dawson said, now employs 14 staffers from a peak of 40. Milwaukee's public housing division stands at four employees. HUD did not respond when asked how many Milwaukee workers have left since the inauguration.
Kristin Faust, executive director of the Illinois Housing Development Authority - the state agency in charge of financing affordable housing, including by administering the federal tax credit program that is the primary mechanism for developing affordable housing in the U.S. - told the Tribune that the authority is expecting response rates from HUD to slow.
"Thus far, we haven't seen that a lot, but I have had individual conversations with HUD staff and my sense is that a lot of them feel like they are doing two to three people's jobs," Faust said. "They are very motivated and that is not sustainable."
Trump has proposed a roughly 43% budget slash to HUD programs, as well as a shake-up in the funding structures of the programs. In his first term, Trump also proposed sweeping cuts to HUD, but did not achieve them. The House appropriations subcommittee on HUD will meet Monday to hash out specific agency appropriations packages after the passage of Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."
The Illinois Housing Development Authority's board, which is bipartisan, approved a resolution at the end of last month objecting to the proposed HUD cuts.
Quigley, a member of the House appropriations subcommittee that manages HUD funding, pressed Secretary Turner in a June meeting to provide details on how cutting HUD's budget so drastically will lead to more efficiency. In an exchange between Quigley and Turner, Turner brought up his Christian faith, did not provide the requested details and said, "We look forward to working with you. It is not just words."
"There is a thoughtful middle ground to being frugal and efficient in government," and it's not this proposal, Quigley told the Tribune.
Housing authorities across the country are facing serious budget shortfalls.
The Housing Authority of Cook County is facing a potential multimillion-dollar funding shortfall that could have repercussions throughout the real estate market as the struggling agency looks to cut costs, possibly leading to greater expenses for its housing voucher holders and a decline in the number of the people it serves. The agency attributes the shortfall to an increase in its voucher usage rate and rising rents, which eat into its limited dollars allocated by HUD.
Chicago-area housing organizations are also facing funding cuts from HUD, with some receiving termination notices for grants in March, while others are in limbo as they wait for overdue contracts or to see what happens with expected awards. Some renovation projects aimed at preserving and greening existing affordable housing properties are on hold in Chicago as well, as the Trump administration takes aim at the program.
At a recent Housing Authority of Cook County board meeting, Dawson told the board he was heartened to be with them to lead a refresher training on their responsibilities as commissioners.
But he wasn't physically there. His face showed up in a small box in the corner of a screen in a housing authority conference room while he sat in his office, four blocks away. The Trump administration enforces new procedures that limit federal government employees' travel.
HUD had not approved Dawson's in-person attendance, which required a roughly eight-minute walk.
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