Chicago Public Housing Trip

Public Housing became a method used to make decisions for the poor, but not just any kind of poor, it was mostly African Americans. When affordable housing began I was surprised to learn it had all started because of the Great Migration. When I heard this, I began to think about this period in time when African Americans did not have much. Many, if not all would come north but because of racism, discrimination and segregation, they all had to remain in the south.

African Americans have suffered all along. Even though they wanted to better their future and the future of their families, they were not allowed to. Because of the GI Bill, they were not able to attend college; they were not allowed to move north were all the job opportunities existed the most. I thought this was the saddest fact about the whole issue.

As affordable homes start to become the most needed things in the south because of the high population of African Americans, we find architects using the urban theory which was simply to build big structures and putting people in them. Of course, this was no much help for the African American community. I found this to be so unbelievable. You have people seeking for a place to live, and no one is there to help. In the end, Italians, Irish and all Europeans were able to move on with their lives but sadly enough blacks couldn't.

Later on structures were being built in order to keep African Americans isolated from the city, this was just getting worse and worse as time went by. What I found interesting was the way the isolation process, if we can call it that began. The new plan was called "superblock", as seen in the


picture below. This U-shape structure made of three building was surrounded by the same type of building structures. In order to keep the people from thinking of moving to the city, they were given water, electricity and all other facilities needed. The CHA became the provider, which going back to last night's reading, there seems to be a contradiction. First, the CHA wanted to help the African Americans but now, they are isolating the people from everything and everyone, and that is supposed to help better the lives of the African American families, to the point of building the Dan Ryan expressway on purpose to keep the people living on the south from coming to the north. This was just so incredible, building an 8 lane expressway in order to separate neighborhoods and to bring military tanks, if necessary. Quite interesting how this ideology was manifested by the CHA.





Nowadays, after the Robert Taylor Homes turned into a complete failure, we see public housing and affordable housing still playing a big role in the development of the south side. As we visited the south side today, we were able to witness the good and the bad. We saw how the Plan for Transformation is being taken care of, and even though it has its controversy, it really makes Chicago look better. Now we have townhouses which are smaller with different value. I noticed that as the years go by, things have been changing, not only the structures of the building but the way African American people are being treated.
Now, the houses are being divided into three sections; 1/3 CHA , 1/3 affordable housing, 1/3 market rate. With this division we see that only the CHA will give African Americans the homes they have been waiting for. The sad part is that now, it’s not only about the African Americans; this includes white people who can afford the houses at the market rate and the affordable housing. Now, these homes are opened to anyone who can qualify, and only 1/3 of the African Americans will get the homes. Imagining this makes me angry because this plan was supposed to only help the poor black people who were not, in the first place, allowed to move north, and now white people can invade what was supposed to be their homes.

In the end, I hope everything works for the better, even though there are plenty of African Americans in the waiting list for these homes, always keeping in mind that only 1/3 will receive them. I honestly feel very intrigued by how these projects; these homes have been taken care of.

In the end, it will always benefit the middle - class people who can afford this. There still remains inequality; there still remain cultural differences and all the problems that existed when public housing began, and honestly, I see no change coming any time soon.