Altgeld Gardens residents won a $10.5 million dollar Class Action lawsuit settlement regarding environmental contamination with Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) this past summer.

But unlike most class action lawsuit winners, these residents won’t be receiving their money in the form of a check, according to the attorney who represented the residents in the case. Instead, CHA will keep the money and award the plaintiffs credit toward their rent, according to Cheryl Johnson, President of the People for Community Recovery (PCR) of Altgeld Gardens, and Kim Johnson, Assistant Press Secretary with CHA.
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“Girl X Settles With CHA for $3 million.” That’s the way the headlines appeared in the April 18 daily newspapers and how the story was announced on several television and radio news stations.

The settlement was the result of a lawsuit filed on behalf of 15-year-old Toya Currie. Currie was given the title ‘Girl X’ after her attack at 1121 N Larrabee in CHA’s Cabrini-Green public housing development in January 1997. Currie was nine years old at the time of the attack.

Another, possibly unauthorized Cabrini-Green resident, Patrick Sykes, was convicted of the assault and sentenced to 120 years in prison this past July. Read more »