An Improved Living Environment, But...

Abstract

When the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) launched its ambitious Plan for Transformation in 1999, it faced enormous challenges. For decades, the agency had failed to meet even its most basic responsibilities as the city's largest landlord. By the 1990s, a combination of failed federal policies, managerial incompetence, financial malfeasance, basic neglect, and a troubled resident population had left developments in a state of decay (Popkin et al. 2000). CHA families lived in a hazardous environment, exposed to lead paint, mold, cockroaches, rats and mice, broken plumbing, exposed radiators, and broken light fixtures. The developments and surrounding neighborhoods were extremely poor, had few amenities, and were beset with crime and violence. Within the buildings, residents had to cope with broken elevators and darkened stairwells that put them at risk for injury or assault.

Hope for Cities or Hope for People: Neighborhood Development and Demographic Change

“…Results from other deconcentration efforts indicate that residents from severely distressed neighborhoods tend to relocate into nearby neighborhoods a median distance of 2.9 miles (Buron et al 2013;Jacob 2004;Keene and Geronimus 2011;Kingsley et al 2003;Oakely et al 2011). The average poverty rate for HOPE VI households relocating using Section 8 dropped from 61 percent to 27 percent (Kingsley et al 2003).…”

“…Often times the destination neighborhoods are not much better than the original residence (Buron et al 2007). The gains that relocatees make are fragile, and many experience material hardship such as paying utilities, and other challenges such as dealing with landlords, and tenant screening (Buron et al 2007;Buron et al 2013;Brooks et al 2005). Residential instability is also an issue for some relocatees; 40 percent who moved with vouchers moved again within two years (Brooks et al 2005;Buron et al 2007).…”

“…Results from other deconcentration efforts indicate that residents from severely distressed neighborhoods tend to relocate into nearby neighborhoods a median distance of 2.9 miles (Buron et al. ; Jacob ; Keene and Geronimus ; Kingsley et al. ; Oakely et al.…”

Putting People Back into Place-Based Public Policies

“…Whereas the empirical evidence about mixed‐income development strategies demonstrates that urban neighborhoods experience positive outcomes (primarily through building affordable apartments and decreasing crime rates), the capacity of this strategy to achieve a host of outcomes for low‐income people living in these neighborhoods has been less successful. Evidence does not demonstrate that the majority of residents who relocate to new apartments are more likely to earn greater incomes, achieve educational and career goals, or have their children attend higher quality schools (Buron, Hayes, & Hailey, ; Levy, McDade, & Bertumen, ; Popkin et al., ). In order to move the marker on these primary indicators, the federal policies would need to be redesigned to focus more exclusively on building the capacity of individuals and families while creating greater access to quality amenities, services and resources that may assist in reducing poverty.…”

“It Was Love in All the Buildings They Tore Down”: How Caregiving Grandmothers Create and Experience a Sense of Community in Chicago Public Housing

“…() note that CHA families “endured considerable upheaval as the agency redeveloped its housing” (p. 2), a circumstance that has been examined across a number of populations, programs, locations, and outcomes (see Goetz ; Chaskin and Joseph for reviews). Research examining the outcomes of relocated CHA families has revealed a compelling contradiction: On the one hand, many residents are now living in better housing in safer, less impoverished (but not low‐poverty) neighborhoods (Buron and Hayes ). On the other hand, however, the neighborhoods to which these families have been moved are as racially segregated as those with public housing, and improvements in socioeconomic quality of life are slight or nonexistent (Goetz ; Oakley et al.…”