As the Housing Authority of Cook County (HACC) welcomes the new calendar year, HACC is happy to report updates and details of notable actions, completed audits and operational preparations for its next Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS) assessment by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The Housing Authority of Cook County is financially sound and continues to execute on its mission to support residents of Suburban Cook County with equitable care and resources to attain affordable housing and opportunities to thrive.

While all public housing agencies work in collaboration with HUD and report operational activities to the federal agency, recently HACC has worked closely with HUD to resolve concerns from previous years.

For fiscal years 2022 and 2023, the Housing Authority of Cook County uncharacteristically fell below 60% on its Public Housing Assessment System (PHAS) score, receiving a “troubled report” from HUD related to those two consecutive years. The troubled report is a warning to a Public Housing Agency (PHA), when its PHAS performance score falls below the 60-point threshold and requires additional oversight and corrective action. Understanding PHAS Assessment

THE CHALLENGES
After facing the unexpected and global crisis of the pandemic that led to remote working, quarantining, staff attrition, resident vaccinations and more, HACC also faced the difficulties of time itself. Fiscal years, calendar years, audit deadlines and PHAS assessments quickly overlapped.

Due to complexities of COVID-19, financial reconciliation and reporting changes, and significant transitions in executive leadership, the Housing Authority of Cook County required additional time to complete its financial audits for fiscal year 2022 (ending 3-31-22) and fiscal year 2023 (ending 3-31-23).

During the open Board meeting on July 27, 2023, HACC Board of Commissioners received insight from the temporary Executive Director and General Counsel, Jon Duncan, who reported that HACC submitted, but was denied by HUD, a request for extension to submit 2022 financial records after the deadline.

Because the financial audits were unavailable by HUD’s regulatory deadline, HACC was penalized with an automatic late presumptive failure (LPF), which equates to a 25-point deduction, for the Financial Assessment scoring for each of these two reporting years. In addition to past due audits, HACC’s was penalized for operations that required additional attention to improve property management and to collect accurate data for reporting public housing occupancy when units are in transition to private ownership.

CHANGING LEADERSHIP
In May 2023 the former HACC Executive Director Rich Monocchio vacated his role to accept a new position as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing at HUD. While the Board of Commissioners retained General Counsel Jon Duncan to act as temporary Executive Director, HACC also faced additional executive leadership vacancies that affected the agency.

In November of 2023, the Housing Authority of Cook County was excited to secure the leadership of Danita Childers for the role of Executive Director. Childers was immediately tasked with an urgent need to rebuild the agency’s leadership team, make corrective changes in multiple departments and repair the agency’s status with HUD.

CORRECTIVE ACTIONS AND UPDATES
Housing Authority of Cook County collaborated with HUD and agreed to list of corrective action steps and the increased oversight outlined in a fiscal year 2022 recovery agreement dated January 29, 2024. As of February 2024, HACC began communicating monthly progress to HUD in all four of the PHAS subsystem categories – physical, management, financial and capital fund – in compliance with its recovery agreement.

Under the leadership of Executive Director Childers, HACC has aggressively implemented corrective actions to improve its capacity and performance. Notable highlights include:

• Hiring seven (7) new staff for the finance team including a new Comptroller/Treasurer in 2024.
• Terminating use of temp staff on the finance team.
• Hiring external accounting firm specializing in public housing agencies.
• Continuing to aggressively convert up to 107 units in Sunrise Apartments (Chicago Heights) to a rental assistance demonstrations (RAD) properties, while managing new legal entities and financial accountability for each conversion.
• Developing staff training for resident vacancy tracking and securing approvals from HUD while privatizing converted RAD units.
• Securing certification training for 40 Housing Specialists on staff.
• Addressing maintenance policies to rectify health and safety concerns especially for “scattered sites.”
• Initiating negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement with two (2) unions.
• Commissioning an employee compensation and benefits study.
• Engaging professional consultants to develop a 3-year Strategic Plan (2024-2027).

RESOLUTION
As of the date of this news release, HACC financials for fiscal years 2022 and 2023 have been audited by Novogradac & Company LLP.  A 60-day extension has been requested for the fiscal year 2024 audit to extend the delivery date to 2-28-2025.

Housing Authority of Cook County remains committed to remedy concerns of prior years and will continue to work diligently to ensure future audits are executed accurately and timely while addressing all regulatory expectations. In 2025, HUD will review and assess HACC’s performance for fiscal year 2024. Following the guidance of HUD and the standing recovery agreement, HACC expects to outperform previous years and exceed the PHAS performance score requirements, returning to Standard or High Performer status.