The Chicago Housing Authority currently has no plans to limit the time residents can live in public housing, the agency's top official told a packed auditorium yesterday.

"I understand this is something that causes a lot of anxiety," said CHA chief Lewis Jordan. "Public housing shouldn't be forever. It should just be until we can do better. But we're all in different places."

Even so, Jordan said he could not completely rule out the possibility of residency limits.

"Can I stand here and say it will never change? No, I can't," he told reporters after the meeting.

Many residents are skeptical.

"Don't think they're not going to do it," said Myra King, president of local councils for both Lowden and Trumbull Park homes.

The discussion over so-called term limits arises out of changes the CHA is proposing to the Moving to Work agreement, which governs the agency's implementation of federal housing regulations.

An angry crowd turned up at a public meeting on the changes last month to vent their frustration at the changes. Yesterday's meeting drew 350 people and was considerably calmer.

Artie Cobbin, a resident at ABLA Homes, said he came away from the meeting satisfied.

"Now that I heard it from him, I understand some things," he says.

In his remarks, Jordan tackled many of the controversial issues embedded in the proposed rules.

The changes call for the abolition of local tenants councils in mixed-income communities, which are the centerpiece of the agency's plan to move residents out of traditional high-rise housing projects.

CHA residents in mixed-income communities, like their more affluent neighbors, would take the bulk of their concerns to the development's neighborhood association. A CHA-appointed ombudsman would handle concerns unique to public housing residents.

But the existing associations in those mixed-income communities are open only to homeowners. CHA residents rent, and hence are excluded.

"Market-rate homeowners through their condo and townhouse associations have a legally recognized voice," asked Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (D-27). "Why not public housing residents?"

Jordan said the CHA is willing to help create block clubs that would be responsive to the needs of homeowners and renters alike in mixed-income communities.

Jordan also addressed a rule change requiring all adult CHA residents to spend at least 20 hours a week working, job hunting or in school. If residents fail to comply, they ultimately could face eviction.

It's a penalty that worries people like Shirley Daniels, who uses a housing voucher to pay for her apartment near 77th Street and Phillips Avenue. Daniels understands the reasoning for a work requirement. She wants a job herself.

Last summer she began taking computer classes to be certified in Microsoft Word and Excel. But she dropped out in November. Worried about her three teenage sons' safety, she needed time to search for an apartment in a neighborhood with less crime.

But Jordan says stories like Daniels' describe exactly the kind of situation that fulfills the work requirement. Effort counts, he said.  If people can show they're trying to move forward, the CHA will continue to help them.