Editor’s Note: The following article was written by a youth reporter who is a graduate of the Urban Youth International Journalism Program.

It’s been almost 10 years since the trailblazers of the Chicago Housing Authority’s Urban Youth International Journalism Program (UYIJP) made its reporting trip to Israel and Ghana.

I must admit this experience has been a master key to many doors that have and will continue to open for me. We were representatives of our country, our community, our families and most importantly ourselves, and our goal was to gather information, witness the triumphs of other journalists and their countries, while engaging in libation with some of Ghana’s and Israel’s most prominent families. We were lucky, and ever so grateful.
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Editor’s Note: The following article was written by a youth reporter who is a graduate of the Urban Youth International Journalism Program.

Sometimes it’s like you take one step up and fall three steps back. Three years after Part One of this story, I am going to tell you the rest.

In 2005, my mother moved back in with me and my son, sisters, brothers, aunt and grandmother. Things were good, but different. She was kind of living up to the mother she used to be. But then my grandmother got sick and had to go to a residential care home.
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Editor’s Note: The following article was written by a youth reporter who is a graduate of the Urban Youth International Journalism Program.

Many have seen the movie “Barbershop,” but is that really what goes on inside barber shops? I decided to engage in some shop talk with barbers and beauticians. More and more people are spending cash dollars on hair and nails. Why is this a priority for many people? I interviewed Rick Davis, owner of R&B Platinum barber shop on Chicago Avenue and Lockwood.

I wanted to know if being a barber was a lways his career goal. “Yes, because I love being around people and helping people,” Davis said. He has been a barber for 21 years. I asked if he believes the shop is a place to “kick it.” “No, not really, it’s a place where people unite and get caught up on the latest news,” he said. “Plus they walk out with a new look.”
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In 2006, the City of Chicago recorded 204,729 domestic violence service calls, an average of 561 calls per day, according to a recently published study.

The most important part of the Plan for Transformation is the outcome. What has happened to residents who lived in CHA communities? Are they getting a fair share of new dwelling units? Do they now have decent housing?

Many factors prompted me to write this article. I felt I had a story to tell. What former CHA residents are experiencing in new communities, their trials and tribulations, needs exposure.

It’s important because it’s history. It’s important because if there were glitches, the Plan can be tweaked, set straight and applied to future planning.
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My family was part of the relocation process at the Chicago Housing Authority’s Ida B. Wells development.

After living in Wells for 18 years, my sisters Kelly Woodridge, 21, Monica Emmons, 23, and I, 25, received a split lease Section 8 voucher under the CHA’s $1.6 billion Plan for Transformation. A split lease Section 8 is what a tenant who is not a leaseholder but has lived in low-income housing or in CHA developments on the lease is able to receive during the transformation process. On October 31, 2005, my family moved to our separate houses.

Crews demolish units at the Ida B. Wells public housing complex in June 2007, which was once home to Quintana and her family.

My mother, Lucinda Griggs, and brother, Kelly Griggs, moved into the new Oakwood Shore homes.

This is a mixed-income community that has been built on land where Madden Park Homes, another CHA development, once stood. This community is one of many that will be built under the Plan for Transformation. My family would be living apart for the first time. Growing up in Ida B. Wells was fun and educational. The people were friendly and smart.

It wasn’t the ideal community, due to violence and lack of funding that caused youth programs to fail, but it was home. The people I met living in Wells have been mentors, family and allies for me.
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Lathrop Homes is the future site of a new mixed income community along the Chicago River, according to the CHA Board approved FY2008 Moving To Work Annual Plan.

Redevelopment plans of Lathrop Homes calls for a total of 1,200 units, divided equally into public housing units, affordable units, and market-rate units, according to the MTW plan.

The MTW plan also states that the , “CHA intends to negotiate a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office, convene working group meetings, and finalize a request for proposal for the redevelopment of Lathrop Homes in accordance with the MOA provisions,” sometime in 2008.
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Round up at Harold Ickes Homes

Picture this: men and women in black from the gas mask helmets on their head to the heavy boots on their feet, carry artillery rifles and walk two by two through the Harold Ickes Homes. Some train their eyes on upper floors in the buildings, ready to fire. A special helicopter clatters above the scene to ensure no brave runners escape.

This was what the “round up” that took place at Ickes in October 2006 was like. If you never have been in a round up, you have missed a close-up chance to witness real warfare tactics.

These youths of the CHA Harold Ickes public housing development, pose with their National Teachers Academy teacher after their eight-grade graduation Ribbon Pinning Day in May 2007. Photo by Jacqueline Thompson

Over the past three years, families forced from Robert Taylor Homes and Stateway Gardens have moved to Ickes, but so have the poorest, the sickest, the homeless and the most downtrodden victims of illegal drug use and trafficking. As the two, now extinct developments mentioned above were torn down, illegal drug traffic grew at Ickes.

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