From Despair to Hope: Hope VI and the New Promise of Public Housing in America's Cities

11. Has HOPE VI Transformed Residents’ Lives?

191 chapter When Chicago’s Ida B. Wells Homes became a HOPE VI site, it was like a war zone, plagued by sporadic episodes of gang violence, random shootings , and overwhelming drug trafficking. Adding to the pervasive disorder were the many vacant units and the hundreds of squatters who slept in the stairwells. The public housing development, which was located on the south side of the city, was in desperate need of repair: the heat was unreliable, elevators rarely worked, toilets overflowed, apartments were overrun with cockroaches and vermin, and buildings were scarred with graffiti . Few Wells residents had full-time jobs, only half had graduated from high school, and most had never lived anywhere but in public housing. Carla, who was 14 and lived in Wells before HOPE VI, talked of her fears: “I don’t really like the neighborhood. There’s too many shootings and killings going on. A lot of the little kids are starting to come out and play because it’s the summer, and it’s really not safe enough, because you never know when they’re going to shoot or, you know, drive by. You never know.”1 Severely distressed public housing developments like Ida B. Wells circa 2000 are among the most troubled communities in the nation. Families living in these communities are likely to suffer some of the most severe consequences of concentrated poverty—most devastating, the profound and lingering effects of constant violence and disorder. HOPE VI was designed to improve the life chances of public housing residents trapped in such adversity. Taking note of research on the Gautreaux program, which found that helping families move to better neighborhoods dramatically improved their lives (see chapter 5), policymakers hoped to create healthier, less economically and racially isolated communities for these families.2 The HOPE VI Panel Study, the only national study of whether life improved for the former residents of public housing transformed under HOPE VI, found a more mixed picture. According to the study, whose findings are explored in this chapter, there were dramatic improvements in quality of housing, neighborhood safety, community poverty rates, and other indicators of well-being susan j. popkin and mary k. cunningham Has HOPE VI Transformed Residents’ Lives? 11 Phyllis Williams (second from right) holds the hand of her grandson Rea-Sean Camphor as she and her family, son DeAndre Williams and great-nieces Arlisa and Felecia Payton, walk through their new neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. 192 susan j. popkin and mary k. cunningham for those who moved to private market housing or back to the redeveloped communities.3 Critics’ worst fears—that large numbers of residents would become homeless as a result of HOPE VI or end up without assistance—were not realized.4 Still, movers reported new challenges, particularly being able to pay increased utility costs, and while they moved to lower-poverty communities , their new neighborhoods still were predominantly minority. Further, the substantial minority of residents who stayed behind in traditional public housing—many of whom had problems that made them hard to house—did not experience any improvements. Finally, because of the low rates of return of former residents to redeveloped sites, even this comprehensive study leaves important questions about the potential for mixed-income developments unanswered. The study does suggest new directions for policy development and research and areas for renewed attention, in particular the sustainability of mixed-income housing and whether its potential to improve the lives of low-income public housing families can be fully realized. Relocation under HOPE VI The primary goals of the HOPE VI program are to “improve the living conditions for residents living in severely distressed public housing” and to “provide housing that will avoid or decrease the concentration of very poor Because of the gangs at the Ida B. Wells housing development in Chicago in the 1990s, the Chicago Housing Authority tenant patrol escorted schoolchildren to and from the elevators.© Ralf-Finn Hestoft/ Corbis. has hope vi transformed residents’ lives? 193 families.”5 Initially, the architects of the program envisioned temporarily relocating original residents in order to allow for demolition and reconstruction; once reconstruction was complete, residents were to move back to new apartments in a revitalized development. However, as the program matured and policymakers began to see creating mixed-income communities as the best strategy for improving neighborhoods, it became clear that not all residents would be able...