NOVEMBER 4, 2024
City Hall risks millions in fed housing funds Due to a 2018 affordable housing lawsuit, Chicago may not be eligible for the $7 million in new federal dollars for which it applied By Dennis Rodkin
Workers staged a walkout to protest Amazon’s RTO policy in 2023. CEO Andy Jassy just announced a new mandate. | BLOOMBERG
Return-to-office push feels real, but numbers differ Some big employers are bringing down the hammer on remote work, but most WFH arrangements probably aren’t at risk I By Jack Grieve
I
t may feel like corporate America is on the verge of yet another remote work inflection point. The country’s two largest employers just told desk workers to return to the office full time, and some big-name business leaders are now predicting an end to WFH practices altogether. A closer look, however, challenges that narrative. There is no evidence of offices suddenly filling. Many employers are actively standing by their current work models. And companies bringing down the hammer See WFH on Page 19
Years of data shows in-office activity has remained relatively consistent since November 2022.
The city of Chicago may have made itself ineligible for $7 million in federal housing dollars it applied for last month, because of a long-standing legal battle over housing for people with disabilities. On Oct. 11, the city submitted a proposal for $7 million in Pathways to Removing Obstacles, or PRO, funds from the federal Department of Housing & Urban Development. The money would be used to “address supply-side barriers to expanding affordable housing development,” according to a draft of the application that the city made public in late September. The city would use the money to “streamline coordination between public and private actors” in the affordable-housing development realm, the draft said, and “stand up a public development vehicle” that will help fund development of mixed-income housing. But Chicago may not be eligible for the funding. Since 2018, the city has been
engaged in a legal fight with Access Living, a disability rights group. Access Living alleges the city ignores federal requirements that it confirm a portion of the affordable housing that gets built in the city with federal funds is designed according to disabilityaccess standards. The litigation may disqualify Chicago’s application under HUD rules issued in July that said cities would be ineligible to receive new discretionary funds from the agency if they have “unresolved civil rights matters” that the U.S. Department of Justice has taken a role in. That matches the situation in Chicago, where the DOJ in December issued a statement of interest in Access Living’s suit against the city. In late September, New Orleans, which is in a similar situation to Chicago’s, disqualified itself from applying for new discretionary funds from HUD on advice from the city’s legal department. “If New Orleans isn’t eligible,
Betty J
See CITY HALL on Page 19
Another Advocate exec post moves to North Carolina By Katherine Davis
Advocate Health, the Charlotte, N.C.-based multistate health system that operates 11 Illinois hospitals, has named a new chief nursing officer. Betty Jo Rocchio, currently the chief nurse executive at St. Louis-based Mercy, begins the new Advocate role Nov. 11. She re-
places Mary Beth Kingston, who announced earlier this year that she will retire in December after a 45-year nursing career. As chief nursing officer, Rocchio will lead more than 42,000 nurses across Advocate Health’s 69 hospitals and 1,000 care locations in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
Advocate Health, the third-largest nonprofit health system in the U.S., formed in the 2022 merger of Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health. Prior to the deal, Advocate Aurora was headquartered in Downers Grove. Now, Advocate Health Care, the Illinois unit of the new system, operates more See ADVOCATE on Page 19
VOL. 47, NO. 43 l COPYRIGHT 2024 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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MEET CRAIN’S HONOREES FOR 2024. PAGE 9
AURORA HEALTH
It’s the latest leadership role to no longer be based in the Midwest