Chicago Housing Authority and a tenant organization representing Cabrini-Green low-income residents filed an agreement last week that will allow hundreds of public housing units to be built on the Near North Side and will development projects available to use throughout the entire area.
According to chicagotribune.com, the agreement was filed to settle a 2013 federal lawsuit by the Cabrini- Green Local Advisory Council to make CHA fulfill its 19- year pledge to rehabilitate the Cabrini row houses while maintaining them as a public housing units.
The settlement gives CHA an opportunity to build mixed- income housing while Cabrini residents get the assurance of larger options for low- income residents in the area. The settlement states, "Completion of the Cabrini Redevelopment, with public housing integrated into a racially and economically diverse area will provide relief to plaintiff class families."
The Cabrini-Green development final remains were the row houses at Oak and Larrabee streets and last of high- rise apartments were taken down last 2011. As establishments around the area improved, CHA promised to preserve row houses and continue to use them for public housing units. CHA has renovated 146 of 586 row houses but stopped the operations in 2011 due to the firm's interest of turning the rest of the site into mixed- income housing instead. This firm's decision had left the remaining 440 row houses unused and fenced off for several years.
According to dnainfo.com, Cabrini- Green housing development had offered more than 3,000 housing units but court document states that the redevelopment project was for 5,279 housing units. Out of the remaining 440 row houses, 40% of the units will be allotted for the public housing and at least 15% of the houses will be affordable.
Elizabeth Rosenthal, an attorney with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago who represents the advisory council said that though the agreement hasn't deliver a 100 percent public housing, the settlement is still a victory. She said, "We're pretty pleased with that. That one of the key issues in the suit."
