Mayor Richard Daley says momentum in the Chicago Housing Authority won’t be lost even though the CEO has resigned. Daley says he will announce a replacement next week.

Sharon Gist Gilliam quietly resigned right before the Thanksgiving holiday. She didn’t give a reason for her departure, effective this week.

Natalie Saffold is president of the LeClaire Courts Local Advisory Council. She faults Gist Gilliam for lacking compassion and wants the next CEO to be more understanding of residents who are struggling to find decent-paying jobs.

SAFFOLD: Her favorite phrase to us … ‘it is what it is.’ And we understand that and lot of residents moved out of public housing trying to help themselves and they found themselves getting caught up because they couldn’t sustain out there.

The $1.6 billion Plan for Transformation has torn down public housing high rises to move residents into mixed-income communities.

Saffold says some public housing residents have relocated to market rate apartments and struggled to make ends meet.

I’m Natalie Moore, Chicago Public Radio.