nt the remaining units because the occupancy department sends him only five to 10 applicants a month. Russ of the CHA said those complaints are one reason the CHA is moving toward site-based waiting lists, kept by each development, instead of one general waiting list. Each applicant can then sign up for as many as three lists, said Russ, who added the change was still a few months away.Stiff CompetitionAs CHA buildings are closed or demolished, displaced families will move into the private housing market, where theyll compete for affordable apartments with applicants now on the Section 8 waiting list.To qualify for Section 8, a renters income must be less than 80 percent of the Chicago areas median income$63,800 for a family of four. Tenants pay 30 percent of their income as rent; the government pays the rest.After HUD took over the CHA in 1995, the department hired CHAC Inc., a subsidiary of a Washington D.C.-based private firm, to administer the Section 8 program. CHAC officials dispensed with the old waiting list, saying it was badly managed, and started over.In a two-week period in July 1997, CHAC received 104,162 applications, then randomly selected 35,000 for the list. About 2,000 Section 8 subsidies become available each year through turnover, said Jennifer Lee ONeil, CHACs deputy director. At that pace, the company will never reach the end of the list and will probably compile a new list "in a couple of years," she said.Section 8 recipients typically have 120 days to find housing. Those who fail are removed from the list.Yet few affordable apartments are available, according to the 1999 Regional Rental Market Analysis, sponsored by HUD, the CHA and the city of Chicago. The study, released last November, found 192,000 extremely low-income families living without a federal or city housing subsidy, but only 38,700 affordable units available to them. Each apartment rented by a Section 8 tenant must meet federal Housing Quality Stand...
