Architect and experienced housing manager, Angela Hurlock, gets nod from Alderman to chair the Chicago Housing Authority’s Board. Pending full City Council approval next week, Hurlock will replace John T. Hooker on the ten-member CHA board, which determines CHA policies and resolutions.
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Aldermen gave the initial green light to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s pick to chair the Chicago Housing Authority’s Board on Monday.
Pending full City Council approval next week, Angela Hurlock will replace John T. Hooker on the ten-member CHA board, which determines CHA policies and resolutions. The agency provides homes to roughly 63,000 Chicagoans.
"I love this city, I love this city, I love this city," Hurlock said in her opening statement to aldermen on the Housing and Real Estate Committee.
Hooker, an appointee of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, was chairman from 2015 through July of 2019. He last served as executive vice president of legislative and external affairs at ComEd before retiring in 2012, one of several appointments Emanuel made from the business community.
Hurlock is a departure—she comes straight from the housing world. Her last position was Executive Director of Claretian Associates, a community development corporation that provides housing on the city’s South Side. Before that, she worked with Bethel New Life, a housing nonprofit on the West Side. She holds a degrees in architecture and business administration.
Affordable housing advocates and progressive aldermen who ran on desegregation and anti-gentrification platforms cheered Hurlock's appointment. Leah Levinger, the executive director of the Chicago Housing Initiative, said she was emotional when she heard about Hurlock’s appointment. “I rubbed my eyes, closed my laptop and sat for ten minutes. My heart lifted tremendously,” Levinger said, describing Hurlock as a “person of great personal and professional integrity.”
Progressive aldermen pressed Hurlock on her positions on ordinances designed to address issues with the city’s voucher program. Hurlock said she was still getting her feet wet, but “every family that comes out of CHA needs to be housed somewhere and housed somewhere they can afford.”
Hurlock also said she wanted to ensure public housing included safe wraparound services and amenities – good schools, nearby shopping and employment. “It’s part of an ecosystem. It’s going to take us being transparent, working collaboratively with other pieces of the system—transit, retail . . . with elected representation—to understand what their needs and constraints are as well.”
The Housing Authority is still in need of a CEO after Eugene Jones’ exit at the end of September.
Source: Chicago Business
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