The Poorhouse: Subsidized Housing in Chicago

Preface to the Second Edition

vii Preface to the Second Edition I wrote the original edition of The Poorhouse more than thirty years ago, covering the period 1895 to 1976, during which philanthropists and governmental agencies became involved in providing housing for poor families by constructing public housing and providing various types of housing subsidies. This second edition attempts to also set out what has happened over the past three decades, especially as it relates to the Chicago Housing Authority. It continues to be my belief that an understanding of the history of subsidized housing is necessary in order to not repeat mistakes made in the past. The recent history of the CHA presents a mixed picture. High-rise family public housing in Chicago was clearly a disaster, and now those buildings have been largely demolished. Experiments are taking place with replacement housing on sites previously occupied by the high rises. They involve market-rate families who pay market rents or who have purchased their unit at the market price living side-by-side with deeply subsidized units occupied by poor families , as well as housing for moderate-income families. One result of all this, however, is that the CHA actually has under its control fewer units of subsidized family housing than it did thirty years ago, and much of what it does have is in the form of Section 8 vouchers. What seems to be resulting may be good for the city but not necessarily for its poverty population, especially large families that often have multiple problems. Those families have little chance of getting units in replacement housing or Section 8 vouchers because of tougher screening measures now in place, as well as bureaucratic rules and obstacles. The situation involving the CHA is a dynamic one. There are no simple answers to addressing the problem of providing good housing for poor people. In the 1990s, almost everyone was in favor of demolishing the high-rise CHA buildings. When it was done, however, it caused some anticipated and some unanticipated problems. For example, when Robert Taylor Homes and Stateway Gardens were torn down, many gang members moved to other projects and added to problems there. Gang problems at Dearborn Homes and Harold Ickes Homes, just a few blocks north on State Street, became worse.1 viii Preface to the Second Edition The situation was further complicated by the fact that Dearborn Homes has been retained and rehabilitated, whereas Ickes served as temporary relocation housing for a few years before its demolition was completed in 2010. In addition, some observers claim that residents and unauthorized residents from Robert Taylor Homes moved to the neighborhoods of Roseland and South Shore, for example, and contributed to crime increases in those communities. As with the original edition, the scope here is limited to multi-family developments and Section 8 voucher programs; the subjects of subsidized single-family home ownership and housing for the elderly continue to warrant their own studies. For the new chapters of the book, I have been most fortunate to have access to the excellent photographs of sociologist David Schalliol, which tell their own story. ...