A View From The Ground newsletter
Hello Everyone!

I have been following the Chicago housing projects for a while, as well as others. I have no problems with the HOPE IV program persay, but the way that it is being used I do have a problem with.
I actually have always had a fasination towards housing projects in general, and in my hitchhiking days, I had landed in some of the neighborhoods they were located in, and on one occasion, when I was 17, I ended up hanging out in the Castle Hill projects of the Bronx. Of course I live here in VT now, and while there are some projects here, they are not the massive skyscrapers that dominate the major cities skylines.
The HOPE IV project is a good idea, but I do not agree with the fact that the cities are allowed to place less rental units where the former projects stood. In Chicago there is a massive waiting list for housing, yet in order to get the HOPE IV grant, they (the CHA) allowed apartments to remain vacant and to fall into horrible disrepair. Years of neglect have caused the building to become decrepit, not just a handful of bad residents.
Though it was tragic that young Eric Morse had died in the Ida Wells projects (for those not familiar with the story, Eric Morse was a five year old, who went with some older kids, aged 11 and they threw him out an 11th story window because he told on them for stealing candy) but CHA has to be held responsible for not securing the vacant units so children and squatters cannot gain access.
A great site to check out is the one that I linked at the beginning of this post.

It also bothers me that the CHA also allowed residents to go without heat in several of the buildings, causing one infant to die. Then, they used that as an excuse to force the tenants out of that building, so they could demolish it. They were informed of the lack of heat, yet took no action until there was a death.

I guess the point of my rambling is that the CHA should be held responsible for what they have done to the poor that live in the projects.

Going back to the HOPE IV project...

There has been some problems with the tenants that had to relocate before they could move into a new HOPE IV development. They are ending up in worse neighborhoods than the projects they lived in, and there has been some problems moving families into rival gang areas, and kids being shot and killed because they lived in such-and-such project which was controlled by a gang (whether it be the Latin Kings, etc) Other tenants are moved from building to building in the projects, moving over three times to avoid the wrecking ball.

Anyone wanting more info, feel free to e-mail me at redhotstarr1@aol.com