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\"The system should be ashamed, not me,\" Taylor said.

Soon after Taylor's post went viral, the CHA released a statement addressing news reports highlighting their long wait times.

\"CHA's public housing and project-based voucher waitlists are always open and have wait times that range from as little as six months, to as much as 25 years,\" the CHA said in a statement going on to explain its system of recycling the 47,000 vouchers that the federal government grants to the CHA.

\"The number allotted has not increased in years,\" the CHA said. \"A voucher only becomes available to a new family on the waitlist after it is no longer being used by an existing voucher holder.\"

Taylor said she knows of the wait pains families go through. When she finally got a call saying they had found her an apartment, they said her son could not live there because he had just graduated and turned 18.

\"After completing my application, the young lady told me that I wasn't gonna be able to put him on my lease,\" Taylor said. \"She was like, 'if we find him in your unit, you will lose your CHA housing.'\"

Taylor had to either rejoin the waitlist, or move without her son.

\"I'll be homeless before I put my 18-year-old son out,\" Taylor said.

As years passed, Taylor said she'd received a letter assuring her that her number was getting closer to the point of selection. Finally, after meeting with the head of the Chicago Housing Authority 2019 Taylor said she received a letter on May 20 notifying her that she made it to the top of the waitlist and could begin the application process.

\"I just sat on the bed,\" Taylor said. \"The kid that handed me the mail, is the kid that I just had when I applied for this, who will be 29.\"

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that there are over 970,000 households residing in public housing units across the nation, a number that fluctuates daily.

For many families like Taylor's, she said many feel like \"there's no choice\" except just to continue fighting.

According to a 2021 point-in-time count conducted by HUD, 122,849 African Americans experienced sheltered homelessness compared to 3,055 Asians, 6,460 American Indian/Alaska Natives, 3,785 Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islanders, and 113,294 white people.

By taking the opportunity to fix a persistent housing issue in her ward, she hopes the housing crisis and racial housing disparities can be transparently addressed by the federal government.

\"Black women, you figure it out, and I had to,\" Taylor said.

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