The nations first federal appellate court ruling for public housing residents challenging the One Strike provision could lead to the abolition of the federal law which is being used to evict public housing residents in Chicago and across the country.

The CHAC Inc.’s Section 8 Housing Program is a rental assistance program which allows income-eligible households to rent housing on the private market.

The Section 8 program has given residents inside and outside of CHA a chance to move into more peaceful and cleaner surroundings. The only initiatives are bringing in documents and finding your own apartment. Some residents have found their dream apartment while others have come face to face with a living nightmare.

For instance, four properties on the North Side were terminated from the Section 8 program as of July 13. That’s $618,000 per year in federal funds that was issued to the slumlords for years but finally stopped by CHA and HUD. People were living in deplorable conditions.

CHAC Inc., the private company that manages the Section 8 program for CHA, stopped approving new Section 8 leases for those properties in February 1997, after a number of failed inspections. CHAC’s reports indicated serious code violations at the buildings, not to mention police calls surrounding gang and drug activity, roach and vermin infestation, broken appliances and fixtures and failed emergency items such as exposed wiring, gas and wire leaks.

Despite their warnings, when CHAC returned for follow-up inspections, they found little change.

Ald. Patrick O’Connor (40), in whose ward contains some of the properties, said at a July 8th press conference, “Let’s not allow bad landlords to continue to have good tenants to live in squalor. We will build places for people to live in but we should not allow people to live in squalor.”

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