Breaking news from the Windy City: the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) has unveiled a robust plan to inject life into its neglected "scattered site" housing stock. The agency is gearing up to pour a cool $50 million into refurbishing these smaller properties. This hefty sum aims to dust off a slew of vacant apartments and single-family homes that have seen better days, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.

The initiative, titled Restore Home, is set to impressively churn out 217 housing units within an 18-month timeframe. This number includes 36 apartment buildings in desperate need of TLC and 41 idyllic single-family homes that the CHA plans to flip into affordable purchases. "It’s an aggressive target," CHA's big boss, Tracey Scott, admitted in a Sun-Times interview.

Occupants in the queue for an affordable unit stretch longer than a downtown Chicago block, with more than a whopping 200,000 on the waiting list. CHA anticipates the renovations will polish up at least 175 affordable units for desperate house-seekers. Meanwhile, the agency's lips are sealed on the juicy details, like where the cash is flowing from and the expected price tags on the renovated digs, as reported by The Real Deal.

Let's not forget that CHA's track record isn't exactly spick and span; some accuse the agency of leaving properties to gather dust, turning them into painfully obvious monuments of red tape and inefficiency. In a head-turning eviction court case earlier this year, a band of inhabitants took over a ghost-like CHA property, further stirring the pot on the agency's handling of these crumbling homes, as per The Real Deal.