The Chicago Housing Authority board voted today to divide the city's housing voucher program between five organizations: two private companies, their subcontractors and the CHA itself.

The $61 million contract to administer the so-called "Section 8" program will be split between CHAC, Inc., which has held it for the last 13 years, and a Tampa, Fla.-based consulting firm, CVR Associates. It will be further subdivided between the two companies' subcontractors: Thomas & Herbert Consulting and McCright Associates.

"Now it's not a monopoly," said Mary Wiggins, president of the Central Advisory Committee and a CHA commissioner. "I feel competition will be great. I think then we'll find out what the problems are in Section 8."

Also, in what one public housing policy expert called "a gigantic shift," the CHA will take over the program's financial management after contracting it out for more than a decade.

"On the one hand, (the split) will create the potential for competition and creation of best practices," says Robin Snyderman of the Metropolitan Planning Council. "But it's going to be an administrative challenge to gather all the data and ensure smooth delivery under more than one contractor."

Smooth delivery of services is exactly what worries some housing advocates. It's already complicated for voucher holders to know who to call to have their housing problems resolved, says Richard Wheelock, head of the Housing Project for the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago. Landlords who accept vouchers face the same maze. Adding another company, plus subcontractors, will make navigating the system more confusing.

"It's going to have a devastating effect on our clients," he says.

More than 34,000 families in Chicago participate in the federally funded housing voucher program. They search for housing on the open market, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development pays the difference between what they can afford - generally 30 percent of the their income - and the market-rate rent.

Those families won't notice any difference in service as CVR starts taking over operations from CHAC, says CHA spokesman Bryan Zises.

"None of the changes will be seen from the outside," he said.

The voucher program's various components will be divided between the two companies during April and May. CVR will take over the program's main call center and the housing inspection process, two areas where Wiggins says CHAC fumbled in its service to residents. In particular, attempts to reach a live person at CHAC by telephone were often futile.

"Nobody answers the phone," says Wiggins.

CVR Associates also will handle about 35 percent of the program's vouchers.

CHAC will continue to administer the other 65 percent and will oversee the voucher waiting list. It will keep responsibility for certain buildings with a set percentage of rent-subsidized apartments, as well as pilot programs it launched to help families achieve self-sufficiency and to place voucher holders in more prosperous neighborhoods.

The two companies will share office space at 60 E. Van Buren St., the same building occupied by the CHA.

CVR representatives attending today's board meeting pledged clear communication with their counterpart during the transition to ensure voucher holders and landlords do not experience the confusion Wheelock described.

"We will be working as a team," says company principal Ana Vargas. "It will not be CVR or CHAC. It will all be CHA."

Yet part of the reason the CHA split the contract is to force each company to compete with the other, to "hold people's feet to the fire," Zises says. Competition will improve customer service and ensure "public dollars are being spent as efficiently as possible," he says.

What neither CHAC or CVR Associates will do is pay the $28 million in rent subsidies owed each month to the 15,600 landlords who participate in the program. It's a job that involves keeping track of thousands of records.

CHA used to managed the program's finances but began outsourcing that responsibility in the 1990s when HUD listed it as a "troubled" housing agency. But after reviewing bids from contractors, the CHA decided it was cheaper to hire full-time employees to do the job, Zises says.

"We did it before, and this is a piece we feel we could do well and do again," he says.

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