| Contact: |
Stu Kantor, (202) 261-5283, skantor@ui.urban.org |
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 7, 2003—Close to a thousand legal and illegal residents of Chicago's Ida B. Wells public housing community may end up without a home or lose the right to replacement housing, a new study by the nonpartisan Urban Institute warns.
Once one of the largest properties managed by the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), the Ida B. Wells development is being demolished as part of a 10-year, $1.5-billion transformation of the city's public housing. CHA is redeveloping or rehabilitating 25,000 housing units; however, its plans call for a net loss of 14,000 units for families.
As old buildings at the Wells site prepare for the wrecking ball, the remaining households include a high proportion with difficult circumstances, such as large families or members with physical disabilities, that make them hard to house in Chicago's tight rental market or even in replacement public housing, say researchers Susan J. Popkin, Mary K. Cunningham, and William T. Woodley in "Residents at Risk: A Profile of Ida B. Wells and Madden Park."
Another large group may have significant lease violations that leave them ineligible for new housing. And, after years of high vacancy rates, Wells has become home to hundreds of squatters whose needs are even more complex than those of the legal residents.
"The story this study tells is one of immense human suffering—hundreds of official CHA residents in difficult situations that place them at risk of either being unable to find new housing or losing their right to replacement housing altogether, and an equal number of squatters in dire straits relying on Wells as a shelter of last resort," say Popkin, Cunningham, and Woodley, researchers in the Urban Institute's Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center.
The Study and Its Findings
The study, spanning October 2002 to May 2003, surveyed 569 Wells households, containing 1,587 individuals, and counted and surveyed all squatters. Urban Institute investigators were assisted by the University of Illinois at Chicago's Survey Research Laboratory and Ujima, a resident-run nonprofit in Wells. During the coming year researchers will track a sample of Wells households to determine how their lives and household composition are affected by relocation.
As is typical for CHA developments, 87 percent of the households are headed by women, only a quarter of whom are age 35 or younger. Eighty-two percent of the heads of households have lived in CHA housing for more than 10 years. More than half of the households, 52 percent, report annual incomes of less than $5,000. Only 23 percent of the heads of households report being employed.
Many Wells households have family characteristics that will make it hard to find housing in the private market—or even replacement public housing. Forty-five percent of the households are large families needing at least a three-bedroom home. Sixteen percent of the residents are 65 or older. Forty percent of the households have someone with a disability.
Twenty-two percent of the households are not lease compliant and, thus, are at risk of being denied replacement housing. Common problems include unpaid rent (21 percent), unpaid electric bills (14 percent), household members with criminal records (15 percent), off-the-lease residents (13 percent), and no lease (9 percent).
Squatting—living in vacant units or other areas illegally—is a significant problem. Over a two-week period researchers counted 294 adults and 94 children. Sixty-eight percent live in vacant units; the remainder live in hallways, trash rooms, stairwells, or other spaces. Twenty-eight percent have been in Wells for more than a year. Ninety percent consider themselves homeless.
The typical squatter is a single male in his 40s with a substance abuse problem. Thirty-six percent are women and some are single women with children. Only 9 percent report being employed; 18 percent have a disability that prevents them from working. Seventy-one percent have annual incomes of less than $5,000, and most of these report no income. Almost all the squatters interviewed, 95 percent, say they need basic medical and dental care. Eighty-two percent say they would accept a referral to a drug or alcohol rehabilitation center.
Policy Implications
To house families with special needs, lease violators, illegal residents, and the homeless will require a major increase in supportive and transitional housing, substance abuse programs, single-room occupancy hotels, and shelters, say Popkin, Cunningham, and Woodley. "Currently, the housing market and the emergency shelter system are ill equipped to handle the needs of these at-risk residents. If the problems are ignored, the city risks enormous increases in the homeless population as Wells and other CHA developments are demolished."
The Urban Institute researchers' recommendations include constructing senior buildings and supportive housing units for those with special needs and large households; requiring developers to include a substantial number of large subsidized units in new mixed-income developments; granting residents who are otherwise lease compliant amnesty to add all current household members to their leases and amnesty for all back rent and utility payments; and providing squatters with shelter and access to effective drug treatment programs and transitional housing.
"Residents at Risk: A Profile of Ida B. Wells and Madden Park," by Susan J. Popkin, Mary K. Cunningham, and William T. Woodley, was funded by the Ford Foundation. The study, part of multiyear research on public housing and related services in Chicago, is available online at http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=310824. The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization that examines the social, economic, and governance challenges facing the nation.
Latest Research
Browse by Topic:
Printer-friendly summary
