The Chicago Housing Authority's plans for the Harold Ickes Homes on the South Side could put them in conflict with the federal government, a Residents' Journal investigation has found.

CHA will tear down Ickes even though the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently determined that the public housing complex is not subject to the federal law that dictates how and when housing authorities can demolish their housing developments.

Section 202 of the Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act of 1996 states that after a Public Housing Authority "identify certain distressed public housing developments that cost more than Section 8 rental assistance and cannot be reasonably revitalized," then it allows Public Housing Authorities to demolish developments.

CHA's plans for Ickes could lead to a harsh reprimand by HUD.

Public housing authorities are governed by the federal government's policies and procedures. All the public housing authorities around the country have to get permission from HUD to do various things with the federal government's public housing stock, managed by city governance.

HUD has the power to stop funding CHA, take management control of the CHA, and also place them on a "probation list" for failing to comply with the federal government's rules and regulations.

CHA's new Executive Director, Lewis Jordan, announced that Ickes would be redeveloped at the press conference April 8 immediately after the CHA held a public hearing to discuss the terms of its agreement with the federal government, known as the Moving to Work Amended and Restated Agreement.

In response to one reporter's question as to whether Ickes would be redeveloped into a mixed-income community, Jordan said, "That's our intent today. There was a time that we went into Harold Ickes and there were some strong recommendations around a gut rehab. And as we went in, and looked and we weighed the cost of rehabbing versus redevelopment it was clear that it needed to be redeveloped. And so as we move forward with the Plan, I don't have a specific time-line I can give you, but the long range intent is to do redevelopment...teardown and rebuild with the intent of doing a third a third a third [of a combination of a public housing units, affordable and market rate for sale units.]"

RJ asked Jordan during the press conference whether his statement that Ickes would be would be torn down over time was contrary to what HUD stated in the MTW Amended and Restated document.

He said, "That really doesn't have anything to do with the agreement...the information I have suggests that it's not, it doesn't fit the criteria to rehab it. And so as we go, our plan as we speak is for redevelopment."

But, according to the draft copy of the Moving to Work Amended and Restated Agreement, HUD had a different prospect for Ickes.

The document states that based upon the information provided by CHA, HUD determined that the Ickes Homes "are not subject to the requirement to develop and carry out a plan for removal over time from the pubic housing inventory under Section 202 of the VA, HUD and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 1996 and its implementing regulations at 24 CFR Part 971."

Ickes Homes, which opened in 1955 with a total of 738 units, is located on the west side of State Street between 22nd to 25th streets.

The public housing complex once served as one of CHA's relocation sites providing apartments for residents who have moved from other developments undergoing renewal.

CHA spokesperson Brian Zises was asked multiple times since April 8 to explain why the housing authority was acting against HUD regulations. By press time, Zises had declined repeated requests to explain the CHA's actions.

RJ never received a concrete explanation from the CHA as to why they were going against HUD's determination for the public housing development not to be demolished, by the time of this report.

Ickes Homes was named after Harold L. Ickes, who was Secretary of the Interior during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, and the site was designed by the prominent Chicago-based architectural firm, Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, according to CHA data.

The CHA Dearborn and Trumbull Homes as well as the Altgeld Murray development and Cabrini Rowhouses are also not subject to Section 202 for demolition, according to the document.

Currently, the Dearborn Homes - located immediately north of the Illinois Institute of Technology campus, between 27th to 30th streets and State Street; the Trumbull Homes - located at 105th Street and Oglesby Avenue on Chicago's far South Side; and the Altgeld Murray development, located in the Riverdale community, near the City's southern boundary, are all undergoing the rehabilitation process.

The Frances Cabrini Rowhouses - located on Chicago's Near North Side between Evergreen, Sedgwick, Chicago, and Larrabee -began its first phase of rehabilitation between February and March this year, according to an official at the Cabrini-Green management office on April 24.