CHICAGO — Resident leaders of multiple Chicago Housing Authority developments said Tuesday that Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th) isn’t the person they want leading the agency, portraying him as unaware of the needs and concerns of residents.
“It doesn’t matter that you grew up in Cabrini-Green,” Mary Baggett, president of the ABLA resident council, said of Burnett. “You ain’t been living how we’ve been living since you left Cabrini-Green and you don’t understand how public housing … is ran.”
Baggett and 10 other leaders expressed their concerns at a Tuesday news conference, weeks after Burnett emerged as a serious contender for the CHA’s CEO role. The alderperson, who grew up in the Cabrini-Green housing development, has said leading the agency would be a dream job.
In an interview, Burnett said he’s in the process of meeting with CHA commissioners and took the pushback from resident leaders in stride…