Chicago Public Housing
The 1950s Housing Act. of 1949: CHA creates map that has future housing projects strategically placed throughout the city. White city council members immediately shoot down that decision, making sure no “family” public housing was built in their wards.
1954 to 1967, CHA builds 10,300 public housing units. 63 of them built outside poor, racially segregated neighborhoods.
1950s-1960s –1950s: Grace Abbott Homes: 40 buildings on 10 city blocks. – 1962, the Cabrini-Green housing projects contained 3,607 units total.
–Stateway Gardens (1958)-eight housing buildings long. –Robert Taylor Homes (1962)- which become the largest housing project in the United States with 4,415 units including story buildings
Gautreaux v. Chicago Housing Authority Federal judge demanded that the CHA build scattered family housing throughout the city. Dorothy Gautreaux, a civil-rights activist and a resident of the South Side's Altgeld-Murray apartments. 1976: Supreme Court rules 8-0 in favor: HILLS v. GAUTREAUX, 425 U.S. 284 (1976)
Families given vouchers (half for the suburbs) avoided moving more than two or three families to any neighborhood CHA to build public housing on sites scattered throughout the city
Crossing the Class and Color Lines: From Public Housing to White Suburbia by Leonard S. Rubinowitz, James E. RosenbaumLeonard S. Rubinowitz, James E. Rosenbaum Effects on 7,000 Families who moved to suburbs vs. those who stayed…….
Kid’s grades in school unchanged, but higher standards. Kids more likely to graduate high school, attend college, attend four-year colleges. Mothers more likely to be employed and to have jobs with better pay and with benefits two-thirds of suburb-movers families remained in suburbs seven or more years, half after 20 years.
Survey of families: Better neighborhood conditions, feelings of safety, experiences with crime, opportunities and risks for teenagers, and access to services
PROBLEMS: Isolation, Lack of public transportation, Some racial discrimination and harassment in schools