Chicago Housing Authority backs off ban on contracts with commissioner’s daughter

The Chicago Housing Authority reversed course after moving to permanently block the daughter of longtime CHA Board Commissioner Debra Parker from continuing to do business with the agency, records show.

Lovie Diggs faced what the CHA calls permanent debarment after she was arrested, charged and entered a guilty plea, according to Cook County circuit court records and CHA documents.

But her lawyer appealed to CHA executives, and documents obtained through a public records request show the agency has cleared Diggs to get more contracts from the country’s third-largest housing authority.

Diggs’ company has been paid more than $1 million by the CHA, records show. WBEZ and the Sun-Times reported in October that Diggs was one of three agency contractors with personal ties to Parker.

The other two companies are owned by Parker’s sister and longtime boyfriend. The three businesses have been paid a https://www.wbez.org/government-pol... combined total of nearly $22 million by the CHA. Parker — who has been a commissioner since 2018 — denied having anything to do with that success.

All three have faced scrutiny from the government agency’s independent inspector general, according to CHA records and interviews.

For Diggs’ company, Lavi Decor and Cleaning Co., the problems began after Diggs was arrested by the Chicago police in February 2023. She was indicted by a Cook County grand jury, accused of using another woman’s identity to get more than $5,000 in merchandise from a Bob’s Discount Furniture store in Calumet City.

That case was closed in 2024, with Diggs pleading guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. She was given a year of probation and ordered to stay away from the furniture store. Prosecutors agreed to drop a felony identity theft charge as part of a plea deal.

Inspector General Kathryn Richards' office conducted an investigation and concluded that Diggs’ legal issues were cause to block her from doing business “on a permanent basis” as a prime contractor, subcontractor or supplier on any CHA deal.

In July, the CHA’s contracting department served Diggs with a “notice of proposed debarment,” informing her that “adequate grounds exist” to ban her personally — and also cut off any potential for new business with the agency for Lavi Decor and any other company that Diggs might own or have a significant role in running.

The following month, a lawyer for Diggs filed a protest with the CHA’s procurement and contracts department and law department. Diggs’ attorney Richard Fenbert noted that Diggs wasn't convicted of a felony, that she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Fenbert also wrote that Diggs satisfactorily completed her probation a year after her guilty plea.

“Consequently, a judgment did not enter on her criminal record and her case was discharged without a criminal conviction,” Fenbert wrote on Aug. 6. “She will be eligible for expungement of her arrest and court records in two years.”

On Oct. 20, Ryan Smith, the CHA’s senior assistant general counsel, told Fenbert the agency was willing to “amend its proposed debarment” and asked whether Diggs and Lavi Decor instead would accept a voluntary suspension of 18 months.

Ten days later, though, the CHA notified Diggs she would not face any punishment.

“After further review, CHA has decided to cancel the proposed debarment proceedings,” wrote Sheila Johnson, the housing authority’s deputy chief procurement officer. “Your participation in the program will continue uninterrupted from the date of this letter provided you abide by CHA’s rules and regulations.”

The inspector general says the court clerk’s records erroneously showed Diggs was convicted of a felony.

But Richards continues to assert that Diggs’ misdemeanor plea deal placed her afoul of the CHA procurement policy. In a report last month, Richards said the policy allows the agency to ban a contractor for “fraud, embezzlement, bribery, theft, deception, misrepresentation, indictment, felony conviction” and other reasons.

Richards wrote that “the criminal court hearing transcripts show [Diggs] had acknowledged the underlying facts as charged during the plea hearing.”

According to a transcript from the hearing on July 1, 2024, the judge told Diggs the charge to which she was pleading guilty meant “that you in an unreasonable manner knowingly used any personal identification information of another person … to obtain goods.”

Diggs said she understood the charge and entered a guilty plea, the transcript shows.

Through her lawyer, Diggs wouldn't comment. Nor would Parker or Richards.

Matthew Brewer, who chairs the CHA board and is its interim operating chairman, and an agency spokesperson didn't respond to requests for comment.

Diggs started Lavi Decor in 2020. Records show she and Parker’s son also have worked for another CHA contractor, Parks and Bell Cleaning Co., which is owned by Charles Bell, Parker’s longtime boyfriend.

Records show Parker was corporate secretary and a paid consultant for Parks and Bell but resigned from that company after she was appointed to the CHA board in June 2018 by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Parker was the first CHA housing voucher tenant on the agency’s board. She also had lived in the city’s Altgeld Gardens public housing development.

Bell told WBEZ last year that his company — which has been paid more than $5.8 million by the CHA — was contacted by the inspector general. Bell denied getting favorable treatment due to his personal relationship with Parker.

The inspector general said last year that Angela Parker, the commissioner’s sister, repeatedly tried to overbill the agency, for a total of more than $175,000. After being confronted about “exorbitant proposals,” Angela Parker became hostile with CHA staff members, https://www.wbez.org/government-pol... threatening to complain to the agency’s CEO and board, the inspector general said in October.

Richards told CHA administrators they could terminate their contract with Angela Parker’s company, Ryan’s Cleaning Services Inc., which records show has been paid more than $15 million by the agency.

Instead, the CHA gave Angela Parker a “warning letter,” according to the inspector general’s office.

In her response to CHA officials in October, Angela Parker wrote that her company “absolutely DOES NOT engage in business practices that promote irresponsible and/or dishonest business activities as mentioned in the [inspector general’s] report.”

She also wrote, “However, we do accept the CHA admonishment and ensure that we exercise supreme caution and thoroughness when we supply estimates and quotes to CHA.”

At a CHA board meeting last month, Angela Parker told the Sun-Times she was continuing to perform work for the agency.

Dan Mihalopoulos is an investigative reporter for WBEZ. Lizzie Kane is a Sun-Times contributor. Related CHA has paid $22 million to companies tied to board member Chicago Housing Authority contractor accused of ‘intimidating’ staff Chicago Housing Authority subject of HUD audit citing immigration and criminal activity, records show CHA’s top CEO candidate withdraws application