Remembering Sue Brady

When BPI’s Gautreaux litigation began in the mid-1960s, all public housing was managed by Chicago Housing Authority employees. Never had it been otherwise. As Gautreaux “scattered sites” were developed in the 1980s, BPI pestered CHA with the notion of farming out the management of those units to mission-driven nonprofits. Grudgingly, CHA eventually agreed to experiment with this radical idea.

Sue Brady was then director of the Housing Resource Center of the Jane Addams Hull House Association. HRC’s mission was to provide technical assistance to landlords of low-rent buildings in Chicago’s Uptown Neighborhood, thereby to improve the lot of Uptown’s poor by improving their housing. Sue and HRC became the guinea pig for the first private management experiment in CHA’s history, developing a program to manage some 132 North Side scattered-site CHA apartments in 29 buildings spread over seven community areas.

Brady plunged into her task with zeal, quickly moving beyond normal property management. She began a “management aide” program that paid stipends to residents to inspect buildings and handle routine maintenance. She hired residents to do painting, and organized self-help painting and screen replacement programs for families willing to work on their own apartments. She began a monthly newsletter. She became acquainted with most residents by name.

Several touch-and-go years followed, with CHA officials reluctant to let go and CHA’s own management staff strongly opposed to the private management idea. But eventually good sense prevailed. HRC’s portfolio grew to 362 units in seventy buildings, another 1,386 units were managed by others, and eventually the private management concept, begun tortuously by Sue Brady and HRC, swept through all of CHA. Today, management of tens of thousands of public housing apartments is contracted out to private firms. It might be said that Sue Brady had started a quiet revolution.

Abner Mikva describes Sue as “one of the most wonderful people” he has known. Sue Brady was likewise one of the most wonderful people BPI has known. We acknowledge with deep sorrow her passing on December 14, 2014. With sorrow but with gratitude that we were privileged to know and work with a truly special human being.

Click here to read her obituary in the Chicago Tribune.