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  "path": "/real-estate/2026/06/09/cha-chicago-housing-authority-director-indicted-kickback-scheme",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-09T23:51:38.780Z",
  "site": "https://chicago.suntimes.com",
  "textContent": "<p>A former Chicago Housing Authority director and the president of a local construction company face charges for allegedly paying and receiving bribes in exchange for construction work with the city.</p><p>Ryan Ross, a former senior director of asset management for CHA, is accused of taking $421,000 in kickbacks from Vanessa Rhodes, president of Bell’s Better Buildings, Inc., a Chicago company operating as Twenty Eleven Construction, Inc., according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.</p><p>The kickbacks were allegedly in exchange for sending the company more than $4.8 million in construction and renovation work at CHA properties between 2023 and 2024, according to prosecutors.</p><p>Ross, a 50-year-old Bolingbrook resident, and Rhodes, a 47-year-old Chicago resident, both face eight counts of honest services fraud, prosecutors said. Each is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.</p><p>Rhodes declined to comment Tuesday when reached by phone. Ross could not immediately be reached for comment.</p><p>“They hijacked a program meant to repair and preserve Chicago’s already scarce public housing, diverting public funds to enrich themselves,” CHA inspector general Kathryn Richards said in a statement.</p><p>Ross was <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2025/11/15/cha-residents-frustrated-housing-agency-permanent-ceo\" target=\"_blank\" ><u>terminated from the city department in September 2024</u></a> for breaking agency procedures, including one that cost the CHA over $19,000 in “unnecessary expenses” for construction work, according to public records. It came amid a string of departures that started August 2024.</p><p>Department of Housing and Urban Development officials said the two “corrupted the fair and competitive contracting process and undermined the confidence in the integrity of HUD-funded programs.”</p><div class=\"RelatedList Enhancement\" data-module data-align-center> <div class=\"RelatedList-title\">Related</div> <ul class=\"RelatedList-items\"> <li class=\"RelatedList-items-item\"> <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2025/11/15/cha-residents-frustrated-housing-agency-permanent-ceo\" >CHA residents grow frustrated as agency marks one year without permanent CEO</a> </li> <li class=\"RelatedList-items-item\"> <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2025/10/10/chicago-housing-authority-debra-parker-cha-contracts-investigation\" >CHA has paid $22 million to companies tied to board member</a> </li> </ul> </div> <p></p>",
  "title": "Former CHA official indicted in $4.8 million kickback scheme",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-10T00:17:00.081Z"
}