To most people, the Hole was the worst part of America’s toughest neighborhood – the Robert Taylor Homes public housing development. Around the world, Robert Taylor’s 16-story high rises were infamous for their gangs, drugs, broken elevators, single mothers and general desperation. For a generation, those 28 high rises lined a 99-acre stretch of the South Side. “The Hole” was the nickname given to three of the buildings which stood in a u shape at the south end of the development, at the intersection of 53rd and Federal streets.

“They called it ‘The Hole’ because once you got in, you couldn’t get out,” quipped Residents’ Journal’s Assistant Editor Beauty Turner, who lived in Robert Taylor for 16 years.
Read more »

The CHA Board of Commissioners approved a new rule requiring all “able-bodied” adult residents – ages 18 to 61 – to work in order to keep their public housing rental unit, during their December 2007 public meeting. However, the new mandated work rule demands some things that may create “homelessness” as well as lawsuits according to legal aid attorneys for the lead resident tenant council.

Many public housing residents from the Dearborn Homes on the South Side are upset at the Chicago Police Department because they are being forced to give out personal information about themselves and their guests’ lives.

They want to know if the police department’s current requirement that they provide the information to put on contact cards as a method of deterring crime is unconstitutional and an infringement of their civil rights.

Five months ago, police officers began collecting these ‘contact cards’ from the residents of Dearborn Homes as well as their guests, according to Carol Wallace, a long-time resident of the public housing complex.
Read more »

Earlier this year, Carl Jordan was visiting his mother, Betty Jordan, a senior citizen who lives in the Harold Ickes Homes. Carl Jordan had moved out of Ickes but often returned to see friends and family. As he left his mother’s apartment, Jordan said the police approached him on the floor where she lived, threw him against the wall and went into his pocket, taking his keys. The police then took Jordan back to his mother’s apartment, opened her door with the keys they had just taken from him and barged in, flashing lights, talking loudly and scaring his mother.

The incident was recorded on a questionnaire issued by Ickes residents Aaron Boyd and was one of the incidents that inspired Rev. Jesse Jackson and others to visit Ickes in early October to spotlight reckless police activity taking place at the development.

From left: 3rd Ward Ald. Pat Dowell; Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. TK; and Tamara Holder outside of Ickes. Photo by Jacqueline Thompson

Read more »

For the last year, a battle about tenant councils has been brewing between the resident Central Advisory Council, the Chicago Housing Authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

There are two issues. The first is whether public housing residents living in tax-credit financed units in the new CHA mixed income communities can vote and be a part of existing Local Advisory Council elections. The other issue is whether public housing residents occupying those types of units can form a separate tenant council. Public housing residents are represented by Local Advisory Councils in dealings with CHA. The councils also tackle occupancy issues, social service needs as well as public safety concerns.

The CAC is currently fighting for the right to represent residents occuping this last Robert Taylor Homes building in late 2005 and others resident in CHA's mixed financed units. Photo by Mary C. Johns

Each development had one LAC, and all of the LAC presidents formed the Central Advisory Council, which negotiated on behalf of residents with CHA, HUD, the police department and other agencies.

Read more »

Editors Note: Its been over two years since Hurricane Katrina devestated some Gulf Coast areas of New Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Leaving thousands of poverty-stricken people and others without homes to return to. Aubrey was among those still waiting to return home, as of this report in December 2007. Here is his story, in his own words, about his experience before, during, and after the deadly storm.

Chapter One: Before Katrina

I have a story to tell about a storm that affected not only my life but everyones life forever; the storms name was Katrina.

But first let me tell you about life before the storm. I was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. I am 35 years old, and life was great. It was mid-August 2005 and the weather was in the upper 90s.

For the children of the city, school had just started. For everyone else it was just a normal Thursday, August 25. It was 5:00 p.m., and I was just getting home from school. While watching the news, it was reported a storm named Katrina had hit the state of Florida and it might come our way. As the week continued, people were doing one of two things: preparing for the storm or going about their daily routine, because as far as I can remember back, storms have a history of passing by us at the last minute. As the days went on, the storm grew in speed and strength. It went from a Category One storm to a Category Three in a few hours.
Read more »