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3. Chicago Housing Authority: The War Years
- Southern Illinois University Press
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30 3. Chicago Housing Authority: The War Years World War II brought major new responsibilities to the Chicago Housing Authority: providing housing for war workers and later providing housing for returning veterans. The census of 1940 showed that 55,157 residential units in Chicago were overcrowded, using the standard of having more than 1.5 persons per room, and that 206,103 units either had no private bath or the units were in need of major repairs. Employment and wages increased during the war period, but the housing supply did not, because of wartime restrictions on construction and because of rent control. The Federal Emergency Price Control Act of 1942 imposed rent control on Chicago and other “defense-rental areas,” with high concentrations of war-industry workers. Rent control has the effect of perpetuating a housing shortage, because it removes incentives for new construction or renovation of housing. Also, because of artificially low rent levels, it encourages tenants to stay in large apartments when they might otherwise move to smaller ones, for example when their children leave home.2 With the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the country mobilized for war. The Chicago area, being the major steel and industrial center of the country, had a tremendous in-migration of warindustry workers. Within a short time, war production doubled, and the city faced its most severe housing shortage. Wages were pushed up, but the War Manpower Commission and the Office of Price Administration ordered that the CHA stop evicting families whose income had risen above the normal CHA limits.3 The CHA was allowed to charge these “excess income” families higher rents. This was the first experience the CHA had with different rents for identical apartments. By federal ruling, no new public housing could be constructed unless it was for war-industry workers. Projects that were planned, however, could proceed if they were in areas with a shortage of war-worker housing and if it was agreed they would house war workers. The CHA proceeded with four projects: Frances Cabrini Homes, Lawndale Gardens, Bridgeport Homes, and Robert H. Brooks Homes. Sites had already been selected for these as low-income projects. They were built under the terms of the 1937 housing act but without the $1,200 maximum limitation of income for admission. It was planned from the beginning 31 The War Years that these developments would be changed to low-income occupancy at the end of the war. A special set of eligibility standards was established for the war-industry-worker projects. They provided that (1) the wage earner had to be employed in essential war work; (2) in-migrant war workers were to be given preference, since they had the least chance of finding housing; (3) the wage earner’s family had to have at least one child; and (4) the family’s income at entrance could not exceed $2,000, though their income could go above that level after they were tenants. Frances Cabrini Homes The planning and land acquisition for the Cabrini Homes had started before the war. The development was originally projected at 920 units for the site bounded by Chicago Avenue, Larrabee Street, Division Street, and Hudson Avenue, on the Near North Side, adjacent to the Montgomery Ward headquarters and mail order warehouses. Because of difficulty in acquiring the property, the project was reduced to 586 units on sixteen acres by making its northern boundary Oak rather than Division Street and by moving its western boundary one-half block east. Before redevelopment, the area was an infamous slum. Of the buildings on the site, 70 percent were over fifty-five years old, and 50 percent Consisting of two- and three-story buildings, the rows and rows of houses in the Frances Cabrini Homes, built in 1941–42, were regimental in appearance, almost like army barracks. Photograph by Mildred Mead (negative no. ICHi-00783), courtesy of Chicago History Museum [52.54.103.76] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 16:43 GMT) 32 The War Years were of frame construction. Of the 683 units on the site, 443 had no bathtubs, 480 had no hot water, and 515 were heated only by stoves. Forty-three toilets were shared by two families each, and there were twenty-nine yard toilets and ten “under sidewalk” toilets. Only half of the properties could be purchased by negotiation; the rest had to be acquired under the CHA’s condemnation power, which was a lengthy procedure. Actual construction...