This CHA resident waited years for safe housing. There are hundreds more like her. – Chicago Sun-Times

Nearly 400 households currently are on waitlists to move, records show. About 150 of the requests are labeled an “emergency” by the CHA. And 241 of the transfer requests are to accommodate disabilities. Among the other reasons CHA residents have sought emergency transfers: “infestation … mold … fire.” Records also show 103 transfer requests cite the Violence Against Women Act, and 24 are described by CHA as “not habitable.” This comes as about 18 percent of the CHA’s roughly 21,400 public housing units — 3,978 apartments — are vacant, most of them because they are uninhabitable, records show.