Chicago’s public housing through international eyes
Raquel Rolnik talks to Sean Johnson, a resident of Altgeld Gardens, about his housing problems
I imagined she would be austere and solemn. Sort of like the White Witch of Narnia, only not evil and speaking several languages.
Turns out that Raquel Rolnik, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, is anything but reserved. It’s not often you meet a Brazilian housing policy expert who empathizes with a black man from Chicago’s public housing, but that’s just what Rolnik is like. On her three day visit to Chicago, she’s taken to the streets, trying to meet people and hear their stories directly.
Her tour of Chicago’s public housing started at the city’s most famous development – Cabrini-Green.
Steele told Rolnik about the residents’ fight over what would happen to their home, and their continuing battle to make sure they got a fair deal.
Many of the rowhouses 584 units are boarded up, waiting to be rehabbed for residents to move back in. About 150 units currently sit vacant.
Here we met Tonie, a seven-year rowhouse resident, who loves her home, but is upset by the continual problems with leaks and mold which exacerbate her son’s asthma.
So we continued down to Altgeld Gardens, a community that’s been in the news a lot lately after the beating death of Fenger student Derrion Albert was blamed on the mixing of students from Roseland and Altgeld.
If you’ve never been to Altgeld, there’s two things you need to know about it. One, it’s huge. Massive, really. 2,000 units sitting on 148 acres. It goes on and on and on.
Altgeld's library, which is now closed
Two, it’s about as far away as you can be while still being in the city. Drive on I-94 until you’re sure you can’t be in the city anymore – around 130th street – and that’s where Altgeld lies. There’s almost nothing around, except factories and the water reclamation plant. One small grocery store lies just down the road, the only store there, except for the liquor store an fast food place on Altgeld’s campus. If you lived in some of the nether regions of Altgeld, it would be a long walk to the grocery.
We drove around Altgeld because it’s so big. Here are some of the images from our journey.
What will Rolnik do with all ths information? A few things.
One, she meets with local and federal officials to tell them what she’s seen and her ideas for what needs to happen with the city’s housing stock.
Two, she writes a report that’s delivered to the U.N. General Assembly and to national officials about the state of housing in the U.S.
Three, she hopes her visit inspires local people to connect, organize and find their own solutions to improve their neighborhoods and communities.
I’m now hearing that Rolnik is going on another tour today, this time with CHA officials. We’ll see what comes of that.
The most interesting thing about the day was seeing someone view public housing from a totally different perspective. In other countries and other cities, they’ve done public housing in a very different way – from social housing, to cooperatives, to land trusts, and even kept the traditional high-rises.
It makes me wonder: what are the solutions we aren’t thinking of? What things don’t we try simply because they’re so different from our own experience?
And on the flip side – because Chicago’s public housing transformation has been so big and so severe – what things could we have saved just by tweaking the old plan and not tearing down everything?
I guess we’ll never know.
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I’m so jealous that you got to meet her. Holy cow.
She was so cool! One of the few public officials I have meet that isn’t stand-offish and afraid of the media.
So what are your thoughts on the proposed Red Line extension that would terminate on the Northeast edge of Altgeld?
Just off the top of my head – because I don’t know much about the project…
I think it would be good. It’s so isolated down there. If you don’t have a car, it’s so hard to get places. The bus comes, but imagine how long you have to wait for that bus…
One of the things that residents talked about was the lack of jobs and the lack of access to jobs because of transportation. Not just at Altgeld – but a lot of public housing sites didn’t have good transportation options. And transit is one of the ways communities can be come successful – people are going in and out, there are stores, people can get to and from jobs. It ends some isolation.
I think it would take a lot, A LOT, more than just one train station to end the isolation at Altgeld. But I think it would be a huge start.
So, what do you think? I am curious.
HI Megan Thanks for covering the special rapp. mission i would like to do a wrap up when i get back from d.c. with you as the coordinator of this mission to Chicago. I would like to discuss our future plans and how historical this mission really was.
J.R. FLEMING HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT!
Hi J.R.! Thanks for commenting. It was great to meet you, and I would love to talk with you further. I have your number, so I will give you a call, but if you don’t hear from me soon, email me at megan (dot) m (dot) cottrell (at) gmail.com