An internal investigation by the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) has determined Commissioner Debra Parker has committed housing voucher fraud.
WBEZ reports Parker, who has served on the CHA board since 2018, has participated in the Housing Choice Voucher program (also known as Section 8) since 2007 and is supposed to be using her subsidy to rent a four-bedroom home on the city’s South Side. However, the investigation found Parker is living with her fiancé, Charles Bell, in a luxury high-rise in River North.
Parker failed to report that her daughter, Lovie Diggs, lived in the subsidized home, and she also failed to report Diggs’s income as a CHA contractor. Diggs owns a cleaning company that received more than $1 million from CHA contracts. Parker also failed to disclose other earnings from her fiancé, gambling and her job at another housing authority.
The investigation concluded that Parker owes the CHA more than $12,000 from her failure to properly report income and household composition.
CHA Chairman Matthew Brewer has called on Mayor Brandon Johnson to consider removing Parker from the board.
“The findings of fraud and intentional deception in relation to CHA housing programs raise substantial concerns regarding Commissioner Parker’s fiduciary responsibility,” Brewer wrote to the mayor.
During an investigation hearing, Parker stated, “I do acknowledge the fact that I had an oversight and I failed to recognize that I was to report income because I was confused as to the biannual reporting and that’s the reason why I didn’t make that report at the time that I should have. I am a nice person. I follow rules, and so the rule is very important to me.”
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