Current Events > Why Chicago has a Housing Shortage

(+) Yeah! (+)

Likely true for other cities

The CHA was created in 1937 to own and operate housing built by the federal government's Public Works Administration. In addition to providing affordable housing for low-income families and combating blight, it also provided housing for industry workers during World War II and returning veterans after the war. By 1960, it was the largest landlord in Chicago. In 1965, a group of residents sued the CHA for racial discrimination. After the landmark court decision Gautreaux v. Chicago Housing Authority (see below), the CHA was placed in receivership, which would last for more than 20 years. Things continued to deteriorate for the agency and its residents, and by the 1980s, the high concentrations of poverty and neglected infrastructure were severe. The Chicago Housing Authority Police Department was created in 1989 to provide dedicated policing for what had become one of the most impoverished and crime-ridden housing developments in the country, and was dissolved only ten years later. The situation was so dire that the entire CHA board of commissioners resigned in 1995, effectively handing over control of the agency to Housing and Urban Development. After an extensive overhaul, management of the CHA was returned to a new board of commissioners, including three residents appointed by resident groups, in 1999. The previously ordered receivership ended in 2010.[3][4][5][6]

So 1937 built all this housing. Letting it deteriorate was not enough. It was " oh, look, crime. We will get rid of the responsibility to provide housing because it is crime ridden and we are making you safe by closing it."

Now. Housing shortage.

Most of the problems in Chicago can be traced back to "the people in charge were racist."

Beside the point. We need the housing. Dissolving it because it is racist does not provide housing or lessen racism.

My point is. We have a housing shortage because of razing public housing

It has nothing to do with racism.
It has everything to do with the Bears.