Missed audit deadlines. Poor quality property inspections. An absentee board.
These were just some of the issues facing the Housing Authority of Cook County — the nation’s 14th-largest public housing authority. And why it landed on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s “troubled” list for two years.
Last month, HUD removed the housing authority from its list of underperforming agencies. But troubles persist — even without the official moniker.
The housing authority is undergoing a significant staff reorganization — one the board didn’t know about and the agency has denied. Documents obtained by the Sun-Times show payments amounting to thousands of dollars for restructuring work.
Meanwhile, some employees complain about a negative work environment. Staff turnover remains high, with some workers blaming Executive Director Danita Childers. Outside contractors are hired to perform work some board members argue should be done by staff. And a board member was investigated, following a complaint from the director of human resources.
Childers successfully removed the agency from HUD’s troubled list but internal strife is escalating to a point that some employees say it’s jeopardizing their ability to do their jobs — affecting the agency’s chances for staying off the “troubled” list.
The housing authority manages over 1,800 units and serves more than 30,000 people in suburban Cook County.
HUD flagged the agency as troubled in 2023, saying it was “primarily due to their failure to submit an audit.” Former Executive Director Richard Monocchio said earlier this year that he takes responsibility for the late submission.
“Under current leadership, I do not have any faith at all that it is going to go the way that it should be for the people we are supposed to serve,” said Ernest Lofton, the agency’s former head of IT, who resigned in May after nine years.
Lofton had planned on retiring from the agency but said the work environment worsened after Monocchio was replaced by Childers in 2023.
Childers declined requests for comment.
Restructuring plans
Childers and board members have been feuding over how to run the agency, with tensions bubbling up during a September board meeting.
The main point of contention: Childers’ decision to restructure the agency without the board’s knowledge, including hiring Chicago attorney Charles Krugel whose invoices — totaling more than $26,000 — have the word “reorganization,” records show. Payments also included work for investigating a board member.
The board’s meeting materials showed 37 positions listed under a section titled “new and restructured,” a board member said.
Board members said they didn’t know about plans for a staff restructuring and would’ve liked to have offered input on key positional changes — a practice they said is done by the Chicago Housing Authority, where Childers previously worked .
Childers said in the meeting that the board’s recent HUD-led training outlined that board members govern the overall performance of the agency, not day-to-day operations. “I don’t have to tell you when I came on board [we] had been a failing organization,” she said. “There are lots of issues that need to be addressed, and I have done that and am trying to keep doing it.”
Board chair Wendy Walker Williams said the board believes decisions on executive level staff involve the “strategic direction” of the housing authority and is under their purview.
“We asked … and you said there wouldn’t be any reorg and you were not working on a reorg and this appears to us as there has been a reorg,” Williams said.
Williams said she would introduce changes to the agency’s bylaws to make the board’s authority clearer.
Williams declined requests for comment.
Housing authority spokesperson Jared Kelly said in an email, “HACC has not announced any type of personnel reorg. … If HACC announced a reorganization, I can understand your interest in learning more. But that hasn’t happened.”
When asked about Krugel’s invoices, Kelly said, “Mr. Krugel’s use of the word ‘reorganization’ in its various forms is extremely broad and can be misleading,” claiming Krugel was hired for services related to the dismissal of the housing authority’s former general counsel.
A public records request showed in a March email to Krugel, Childers said, “I am interested in a consultation with your firm related to staff restructuring that I would like to implement.”
Krugel didn’t respond to a request for comment.
‘Us versus them’
The agency has been dogged by staff turmoil.
Records show Williams recused herself from an investigation into board member Eric Slaughter because she had a “personal relationship” with him. What that relationship is, she told the investigator, she’d rather not say.
In a February board meeting, Human Resources Director Raquel Burnette presented a quarterly update highlighting staff departures and acknowledged the number of resignations in 2024 was “high.”
She said staff mainly quit because the salaries were too low. The housing authority has about 180 workers, according to June payroll data.
During union contract negotiations this year, workers said they struggled to pay their bills because wages were low. They also said workloads were too high.
The union and housing authority reached a contract agreement in March, but staff turnover still appears high, potentially inhibiting the agency from effectively performing its mission.
Sixteen employees, or about 8.8% of workers, have resigned in the calendar year through August, compared to 17 in all of 2024, records show. Also, 14 employees were terminated so far this year, compared to 10 last year. The director of operations and director of construction were both laid off this year.
In 2023, before Childers’ tenure, 64 employees were either terminated or resigned, though 26 worked in a since-shuttered department that administered emergency rental assistance during the pandemic.
As a result of the staff turnover and high caseloads, morale among workers has been low and it’s harder for some staff to be available for every client, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Lofton said there was an “us versus them mentality,” with Childers showing clear favorites. Some union workers spoke of a similar culture earlier this year.
Childers recently hired a new director of facilities management, Broderick Banks. Banks manages a vending machine business with Cherie Strong, the housing authority’s chief legal officer, according to business registration records from the Illinois Secretary of State. Childers and Strong worked at the Chicago Housing Authority at the same time for 14 years. Childers worked in the finance division, involved in development, and Strong was a real estate attorney.
Lofton said Childers would usually “complain” about senior staffers in their one-on-one meetings.
Sheryl Seiling, director of rent assistance, who has been with the agency for about 17 years, said there is a “bad environment here. … We have no one to go to … can’t go to [Childers and] can’t go to the [board],” public records from the board member investigation showed.
Outside contractors
The housing authority has earmarked at least $641,000 for outside work during Childers’ tenure, records show.
Some of the contract work included:
- Hiring an ethics officer, over objections from some commissioners to keep the work in-house, spending no more than $125,000, unless approved by Childers.
- Engaging two law firms to handle evictions, retained for up to $200,000.
- Recruiting a firm to handle inspector general services, spending no more than $125,000, unless approved by Childers.
- Tapping a consultant, who previously worked for the Chicago Housing Authority, to review the agency’s IT department for $36,000.
- Employing a consultant to help implement an electronic content management system for $9,000. The consultant had applied to a request for proposals for the work but her proposal was rated the worst by housing authority staff, according to records obtained by the Sun-Times. The request for proposals was scrapped, but she was still hired for a lower fee, an amount that didn’t require board approval. The consultant previously worked at the Chicago Housing Authority and was fired in 2019, after an Equal Employment Opportunity investigation, records show.
At its September board meeting, commissioner Eric Slaughter said the agency is hiring “a lot” of consultants.
“I’d like us to have some control over that,” he said.
Payments to contractors are coming from the agency’s roughly $22 million budget, while it’s experiencing what is expected to be a multi-million dollar shortfall. The deficit could have broad 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 served.
Board member investigation
The housing authority recently conducted an investigation into Slaughter, after the head of human resources, Burnette, lodged a complaint in May, saying he created a “toxic and hostile environment” and took “direct shots” at her and other women in senior leadership.
Slaughter is one of two male commissioners on the then-seven-member board — one recently retired — and is vocal at meetings, raising questions about the agency’s spending.
Childers had prohibited staff from communicating directly with the board. But Slaughter, commissioner Herb Porter and the former director of communications exchanged emails discussing “day-to-day” agency business, including about Burnette, without involving Childers in the emails, documents included in the investigation show.
Childers asked attorney Krugel to conduct an investigation into Slaughter. At the time, the housing authority had hired an ethics officer and a few weeks later, would hire inspector general services. The contractors could normally conduct an investigation but neither were asked to be involved.
Records show some commissioners were concerned about hiring Krugel, saying his demeanor and previous interactions with leadership could affect his ability to be impartial.
When interviewed for the investigation, three board members disagreed with Burnette’s characterization of Slaughter, but acknowledged he asks hard questions. One agreed with some of the complaints, but said she isn’t as qualified as other board members because she doesn’t engage with senior staff to the same degree.
The female staffers interviewed agreed with some of Burnette’s characterizations of Slaughter, including Childers who said Slaughter “harasses and discriminates.”
Childers complained that Slaughter questioned why the agency’s former general counsel was polling board members for their meeting availability instead of leaving the task to an administrative assistant. He said the general counsel had “more pressing matters than this type of administrative task.” Childers told Krugel it was a “sexist” remark, since the administrative staff are women.
In his interview with Krugel, Slaughter called the allegations “absolutely bogus” and said his behavior was based on helping the agency get off HUD’s troubled list.
Krugel determined Slaughter’s conduct was “unintentional sexual harassment and discriminatory” and his conduct puts the agency at “risk of legal liability.” In July, he recommended a written or verbal acknowledgment and apology from Slaughter to Burnette or others, banning Slaughter from attending agency business in person, training and/or removal from the board.
Slaughter emailed Burnette a note and the board sent a letter to staff following the investigation. The board voted to remove Slaughter from the agency’s finance committee and required him to attend two board meetings virtually instead of in person.
“Everyone is entitled to their opinion,” Slaughter said. “As a commissioner, I am allowed to ask questions of all of the personnel.”
Sixteen staffers thought Slaughter’s punishment didn’t go far enough — signing a petition directed at those attending September’s board meeting, to remove him from the board.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle appoints board members and declined to comment on the petition.
Another three employees at the meeting didn’t sign the petition. Records show one of the three removed her signature, saying in an internal email that she hopes it doesn’t “impact my continued employment at the HACC.” Other employees felt forced to sign it to show support of Childers’ investigation because they were worried about being fired, an employee said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
The petition followed a bitter exchange between Childers and Slaughter at the September board meeting.
Slaughter asked why she sent an email to staff about the investigation when the board was in the process of drafting a note. Childers said Preckwinkle told her to send a note to staff, declining to comment further during the public portion of the meeting.
The housing authority’s operations don’t fall under Preckwinkle’s jurisdiction. But she said in a statement that she expects the county-appointed board to continue to “focus on building a culture of transparency, and accountability.”
“It is my expectation that the HACC Board and executive management prioritize County residents and the needs for access to suitable affordable housing,” Preckwinkle said.
Slaughter hopes the agency is on the right track but has doubts.
“I think there’s some uncomfortable feelings amongst the company as a whole,” he said. “I get a feeling there is very little camaraderie.”