Over recent years, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) has built up large cash reserves primarily by holding onto millions in federal funds intended for housing vouchers, shows a recent report by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (CTBA).
Each year between 2008 and 2012, the CHA issued an average of 13,534 fewer housing vouchers than the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funded, according to the center's analysis released last Wednesday. The CHA has saved an average of $90 million annually between 2004 and 2012 by withholding vouchers. And those savings have bolstered the CHA's reserves, which stood at $432 million at the end of fiscal year 2012, the report shows.
Meanwhile, there were some 33,000 families waiting for CHA voucher assistance as of September of 2013, according to the think tank's report. Currently, there are reportedly more than 15,000 households on the CHA's voucher wait list.