New approach to Lathrop criticized

Public housing complex could see affordable and market-rate units

01/13/2010 10:00 PM

By IAN FULLERTON
Contributing Reporter

6 Comments - Add Your Comment


Robert Davidson, president of the tenant's council at the Lathrop Homes, is worried about introducing market-rate units into his public housing complex.
IAN FULLERTON/Contributor

Residents of the Julia C. Lathrop Homes, a public housing development bordering the northwest edge of Lincoln Park, have long known that big changes were in store for their community.

For nearly a decade, the Chicago Housing Authority has met with a range of stakeholders to discuss what should be done with the 35-acre property, where tenant occupancy has dropped in recent years.

Last week, CHA finally released redevelopment guidelines. The agency’s request for qualifications imagines a developer overseeing an environmentally conscious overhaul of the site while hinting at placing affordable and market-rate units into the historically low-income community.

“This has never been done,” said Ald. Manny Flores (1st), who represents the area, at a press conference. In the RFQ, he said, “It is very clear that we have a special vision that is a community vision, and it’s going to be a standard that many will look to.”

The redevelopment guidelines call for setting aside one-third of the projected 800-1200 units for public housing residents. This means that two-thirds of Lathrop will most likely be made up of affordably priced and market-rate development. Flores upheld the mix as part of CHA’s plan to “expand the continuum of affordability.”

CHA vice president of development William Little said that while the public housing minimum had been set, factors such as preservation and unit density were still to be determined.

“Whatever results hopefully will demonstrate a consensus of the community,” said Little.

He added that the agency did not expect the project to cause resident displacement, given that the current occupancy of the 925-unit development is somewhere under 300 units.

Little said the construction bill would be footed by private loans, investor equity, public housing subsidy and assistance from the city.

While CHA and Flores promised at the press conference the looming redevelopment will mark a bright future for the neighborhood, some residents and housing advocates fear that CHA’s vision will be Lathrop’s undoing. Lathrop has been made up entirely of public housing since it opened in 1938.

Attorney Stephanie Villinski said that Flores and CHA aren’t telling the whole story.

“Consensus has not been reached on all the issues,” she said.

Villinski, whose firm provides pro-bono legal services to CHA residents through the Housing Law Project, said that Lathrop residents had pushed for at least 50 percent of the redevelopment to be reserved for public housing, a proposal that did not resonate in the RFQ.

“There’s an opportunity here to do it differently than it’s been done,” she said. “Green is fine, and we want to have that, but we also want to have an affordable community … And we want to have as much public housing as possible.”

As part of their long-haul plan to revamp public housing developments across the city, CHA is required to assemble oversight panels, termed “working groups,” to steer the planning of each site.

The Lathrop working group includes CHA and city officials, resident leaders and community members, representatives of the policy group Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, and a delegate from the Habitat Company, the firm appointed by a federal judge to oversee all of CHA’s redevelopment projects.

The Lathrop working group formed in 2003, and was suspended in 2006 due to disagreements over the plan, according to a Housing Law Project attorney. The group reformed in early 2009.

Robert Davidson, president of the Lathrop Homes Local Advisory Council and a resident at the development for nearly 20 years, has sat on both the old and new Lathrop working group.

Davidson said that the plans for Lathrop took a turn last year, when it became clear that CHA wanted to make room for a considerable share of market-rate units, a controversial idea for residents seeking to maintain Lathrop’s units as below market rate.

He argued that it didn’t make sense to cut the number of public housing units at Lathrop while the city had applicants waiting to get into public housing and a growing stock of vacant condos in the surrounding area.

“I didn’t get into this to help market-rate and affordable,” Davidson said. “My intention was to help poor people.”

Davidson warned that the introduction of a mixed-income community presented another problem for residents.

In compliance with a 36-year old federal ruling, CHA is required to work with local advisory councils within public housing developments. The LACs, made up of residents voted in by fellow housing tenants, are meant to serve as a channel for resident issues to be communicated to the housing authority.

But in the agency’s mixed-income communities and potentially the future development at Lathrop, CHA is under no obligation to recognize the resident councils.

Davidson said that the agency has no intention of keeping the Lathrop LAC intact.

CHA’s William Little confirmed this.

“Pursuant to the regulatory scheme, and as [the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] has recognized, the Lathrop Homes LAC will no longer exist once the property is redeveloped,” said Little in an e-mailed statement. “This is consistent with every other redeveloped property.”

He said the role of the LAC would be taken on by the agency-appointed ombudsman, who serves as a liaison for all housing residents in CHA’s mixed-income communities.

Since its inception, Lathrop Homes has always been an anomaly in public housing. Built through the Public Works Administration and the federal Housing Act of 1937, Lathrop was constructed concurrently with the Jane Addams Houses and Trumbull Park Homes on the Near West Side and South Side, respectively.

While most CHA developments were initially concentrated in poverty-level neighborhoods with limited access to employment and educational opportunities, Lathrop has long enjoyed proximity to upscale neighborhoods occupied with a number of schools, retail corridors and grocery stores.

The diversity at Lathrop is also a rare blend in Chicago’s housing sphere. The current racial mix at the development is approximately 23.5 percent Latino, 59 percent African-American and 16.5 percent Caucasian, with a nearly 60 percent senior population, according to CHA.

Davidson said that there’s something special about Lathrop that makes residents proud to call it home.

“Back in the days when they designed [Lathrop Homes], those people had a great ideal in mind for poor people,” he said. “I think CHA should respect that.”

The RFQ response deadline for the Lathrop Homes redevelopment is March 8. CHA expects to announce a selected developer by May.


6 Comments - Add Your Comment



By Marty from Roscoe Village
Posted: 03/08/2010 4:36 PM

Give me the sledge hammer, I\'ll be the first to start the demolition.


By Jonathan from Lakeview
Posted: 02/18/2010 1:20 PM

I also live across the street from Lathrop and would like to see it gone. The buildings are run down as well as the landscaping. I have nothing against low income housing but when you make an huge area all low income it becomes a pocket of crime. By spreading out the low income housing with mixed they are trying to eliminate this. You can disagree all you want but Lathrop only has 300 units filled but the cops are needed there every single night.


By George from Chicago
Posted: 01/31/2010 12:14 PM

Since when is an all poor neighborhood good for the poor? Poor people deserve to live in good neighborhoods just like everyone else. In these tough times people need affordable housing but they don't need it all bunched up in one place. They need affordable housing everywhere.


By Boyee from Mid-North (Lincoln Park)
Posted: 01/26/2010 9:20 AM

I think half market rate and half affordable (affordable in context of Lincoln Park). The demographics of this development in no way mirror the demographics of the surrounding area. This area needs to be more integrated into the greater area and keeping it all CHA public housing prevents that from happening. The nothern half of this development is in the Hamlin Park neighborhood of the North Center Community and the southern half is in the West DePaul neighborhood of the Lincoln Park Community.


By Bob from Lake View
Posted: 01/24/2010 10:33 AM

The 925-unit Lathrop Homes should be preserved as existing affordable housing stock in fullfillment of its historical and moral mission. It is a viable site for seniors, disabled, veterans, retired people, and the working poor who seek independent living in Chicago. It need not be a blight thru mismanagement. The last thing we need more of is for-profit market-rate housing at the expense of marginalized populations.


By Charley from Hamlin Park
Posted: 01/14/2010 2:54 PM

I live a block from here. I'm still trying to figure out who thinks these buildings are worth saving. Whoever is doing this development needs to talk to neighbors, not just the people that live at Lathrop. The plan affects us too.