The Chicago Way: $685,000 a year to run nonprofit

The Chicago Tribune reports:

More than 60 years ago, the city gave the Chicago Dwellings Association a noble mission -- provide affordable housing for people with low and moderate incomes.

In recent years, the nonprofit's four apartment buildings also have become a lucrative income source for the organization's president, Christine M.J. Oliver.

In 2008, Oliver was paid about $685,000 in annual compensation from CDA and its management firm -- an amount that shocked local housing experts, nonprofit consultants and even a former board member of the Chicago Dwellings Association.

Housing and nonprofit experts said Oliver's compensation is at least three times higher than that received by chief executives of other local nonprofit housing development corporations.

"It's clearly absurd," said Jay Readey, an attorney who specializes in affordable housing and community development and is an adjunct professor at DePaul University's law school.

The altruism of the "non-profits".