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2/05 p2/CIRC/DaleDue,indd-p.1

HEAR OUR VOICES: THE INTERSECTIONS OF
RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER
IN A MIXED-INCOME COMMUNITY IN CHICAGO
By

Monique M. Chism

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILSOPHY
Program in American Studies

2005

ABSTRACT
HEAR OUR VOICES: THE INTERSECTIONS OF
RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER IN A MIXED-INCOME COMMUNITY IN CHICAGO
By
Monique M. Chism
The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) plans to eliminate all public housing high
rises by the year 2009 a project that local newspapers report will affect approximately
40,000 residents and could potentially leave more than 14,000 people displaced. Under
the Plan for Transformation the CHA, which is the third largest public housing system in
the nation, undertook the task of redeveloping and rehabilitating 25,000 housing units.
The agency maintains that it is their goal to end the concentrated poverty and the social
difﬁculties that currently plague their housing projects. The logistics of the Plan call for
the majority of the residents to relocate to the private market through the Housing Choice
Voucher program. However, a small percentage of the residents will have the opportunity
to relocate to newly constructed condominiums ranging in market values between
$300,000 to $500,000 in newly developed mixed-income communities. Private
companies will develop and manage the properties and the CHA will help facilitate the
transition of public housing residents into these new communities. Generally speaking,
these developments will consist of one-third public housing, one-third affordable
housing, and one third-market rate homes.
The purpose of this study is to examine the lived experiences of nine low-income
Black women who transitioned out of public housing into a newly constructed mixed-
income community under the CHA’s Plan for Transformation. This is accomplished by

ﬁrst, examining the historical and contemporary factors that shape the sociopolitical

aspects of the Plan; and second, by capturing the voices and experiences of the
participants in order to understand their relocation experiences. The study is grounded in
qualitative methods that allow for naturalistic-inductive forms of inquiry, thus allowing
the voices and experiences of the participants to shape and guide exploration of this topic.
Such an approach shifts the discussion away from dominant mainstream views of poor
Black women and privileges forms of organic knowledge and intellectual traditions that
come from outside of the academy. Furthermore, this framework facilitates a micro and
macro examination of structural inequality, allowing for the full consideration of how
race, class, and gender shape one’s relationship with systemic forms of oppression and
power. .

While there are several studies, which evaluate the Plan, few provide a detailed
analysis of the residents’ experience with the relocation‘process. Furthermore, by and
large, the voices of Black women has either been excluded or leﬁ out of the larger
narrative that shapes and informs this issue. Black women who live in public housing
offer a perspective on housing programs that seek to deconcentrate poverty through the
creation of mixed-income communities that is not currently available. Their unique social
location provides them with a view of this process that administrators, city ofﬁcials, and
employees at the CHA simply do not have.

The women’s stories not only reveal the inherent ﬂaws in the structural aspects of
the Plan for Transformation but their stories also provide valuable insight into the

relationship between macro structural public policies and everyday lived experiences.

Copyright by
MONIQUE M. CHISM
2005

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, I want to give honor and thanks to my Lord and Savior who has brought me
from a mighty long way. I have and continue to be blessed with exceeding abundance. I
thank you Lord and I know that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I
wish to say thank you to my family who has always supported me and stood by me no
matter what. Thank you for believing in me and helping me to fulﬁll my goals and
dreams. Mom, thank you for teaching me how to be compassionate and caring towards
others; Dad, thank you for teaching me how to be a leader and someone who will stand
up for what she believes in; Monica, thank you for teaching me patience and how to
enjoy life and ﬁnally Divine, thank-you for being my inspiration. In addition, I cannot
forget my grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins and childhood friend Nadja Springer-
Ali. I am so grateful to for all of the love and support that each of you has given me over
the years. I am truly blessed to have such wonderful and caring family and friends.

I want to give a special thanks and acknowledgement to the friends that I made
while in Lansing, Michigan, particularly Carol and Dr. Allen, Ted and Karen Heutsche,
Ted Heutsche Jr., Marshanda Smith, and Rhonda Jones. Each of you has gone out of your
way to offer support and encouragement and graciously opened your home to me, I
appreciate each of you and I will always remember your kindness. In addition, I never
would have made it through my graduate program without the love, support, prayers, and
encouragement of my sister circle, Anne Heutsche, Chantalle Verna, Cecilia Samonte,

Pamela Martin, and LaTrese Adkins. I am honored to have been a part of this wonderful

fellowship group, each of you has helped me grow in mind, spirit, and soul and will
forever be a part of my life.

I want to give special honor and thanks to my graduate director, Dr. Maxine Baca
Zinn, whose mentorship and guidance have proved invaluable. Thank you for pushing me
beyond what I thought I could achieve. I know that your guidance has prepared me for
the future. In addition, I owe a great deal to my committee members. Dr. Joe Darden, Dr.
Darlene Clark Hine, and Dr. Geneva Smitherman, I could not have asked for better
committee members. Each of you has shared your wisdom and knowledge with me and I
sincerely thank you for your guidance, mentorship, support and encouragement.

Last but certainly not least, I wish to thank all of the people who have helped me
complete this study including Jamie Kalven, Kim Johnson, Daniel Allen and especially

all of the participants who entrusted their stories to me.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................... viii
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................. ix
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Statement of the Problem ....................................................................... 3
Overview of Chapters .............................................................................. 6
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
Urban Race Relations .............................................................................. l 1
Culture of Poverty .................................................................................. 14
Concentrated Poverty .............................................................................. 18
Public Housing ........................................................................................ 21
The Chicago Housing Authority ........................................................ 22
Black Women in Public Housing ........................................................... 29
Neighborhood Effects ............................................................................. 35
Gautreaux ................................................................................................ 39
Mobility Programs ................................................................................... 43
Conceptual Framework ........................................................................... 54
Intersectionality ................................................................................... 54
Black Feminist Thought ...................................................................... 59
Systems of Domination ....................................................................... 62
Research Questions ................................................................................. 65
Key Terms and Concepts ....................................................................... 66
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
Qualitative Methods ................................................................................ 71
Role of the Researcher ............................................................................ 74
Background of the Investigator ............................................................ 77
Project Design ......................................................................................... 79
Gaining Entry .......................................................................................... 81
Sources of Data ...................................................................................... 83
Data Collection ........................................................................................ 87
Analyzing Data ........................................................................................ 89
CHAPTER IV
BUILDING NEW COMMUNITIES SHAPING A NEW VISION OF PUBLIC
HOUISNG IN CHICAGO
Context for the Plan For Transformation ................................................ 91
The Plan for Transformation ................................................................... 93

vii

CHA Tenant Selection Process ............................................................... 100

Near North Side Redevelopment ............................................................. 103
Relocation Process .................................................................................. 105
Service Connectors .................................................................................. 1 l3
Relocation ............................................................................................... l 19
CHAPTER V
EMBOUNDED
Proﬁles ................................................................................................... 124
Homeplace: Life in Cabrini Green ......................................................... 134
Embounded: Reactions to the Relocation Process ................................. 141
Coping Strategies .................................................................................. 145
CHAPTER VI
PRIVATE HOUSING PUBLIC LIVES
A New Politics of Containment .............................................................. 150
Visitors ................................................................................................ 152
Drug Testing ......................................................................................... 156
Good Neighbor Class ........................................................................... 158
Pet Policy ............................................................................................. 159
Social Capital ......................................................................................... 164
Participants’ Response to the Public Gaze .............................................. 177
CHAPTER VII
CONCLUSION ................................................................... 181
APPENDICIES ............................................................................................. 188
APPENDIX A: Interview Schedule/ Public Housing Residents ................... 189
APPENDIX B: Interview Schedule/ Chicago Housing Authority ................ 192
APPENDIX C: Resident Consent Forms ...................................................... 194
APPENDIX D: Management Consent Forms ............................................... I96
BIBLOGRAPHY ....................................................................... 1 98

viii

Table 1:

Table 2:

Table 3:

Table 4:

Table 5:

LIST OF TABLES

Hope VI Funding for the Chicago Housing Authority 1994—2001 ........ 45

Goals and Objectives Outlined in the Plan for Transformation ............. 98

Selected Aspects of the Minimum Tenant Selection Plan ...................... 101
Total CHA Housing Units Completed and Demolished by Year .......... 1 15
Characteristics of Primary Inforrnants .................................................... 133

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Causes, Consequences, and Response to Concentrated Poverty ............. 42
Figure 2: Relocation Process ................................................................................... 106
Figure 3: The Relationship between Social Interactions and Social Capital .......... 168

CHAPTER I
Introduction

The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) plans to eliminate all public housing high
rises by the year 2009, a project that local newspapers report will affect approximately
40,000 residents and could potentially leave more than 14,000 people displaced. The
CHA, which is the third largest public housing system in the nation, is redeveloping and
rehabilitating 25,000 housing units for families and senior citizens. The agency maintains
that it is their goal to end the concentrated poverty and social difﬁculties that currently
plague their housing projects. The logistics of the plan call for the majority of the
residents to relocate to the private market through the Section 8/Housing Choice Voucher
program (HCV). However, a small percentage of the residents will have the opportunity
to relocate to condominiums ranging in market values between $300,000 to $500,000 in
newly developed mixed-income communities located on or near the site of their former
housing project.

The Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation is the ﬁrst large scale
housing poverty deconcentration program of its kind in the nation. An agency brochure
states, “The plan represents the largest reconstruction of public housing in the nation’s
history. Under the Plan, the CHA seeks to: Renew the physical structure of CHA
properties, promote self-sufﬁciency for public housing residents and reform the
administration of the CHA” (Authority, 2002, p. l ). Of the 25,000 units the agency is
redeveloping or rehabilitating, 6,100 family units or roughly 25 percent are slated to be
redeveloped as mixed-income communities. Private companies will construct and

manage the properties and the CHA will help facilitate the transition of public housing

 

residents into these new communities. Generally speaking, these developments will
consist of one-third public housing, one-third affordable housing, and one third-market
rate homes. City ofﬁcials have labeled theses new communities as an “experiment” in
mixed-income living.

There is a great deal of controversy surrounding the doctrine of mixed-income
living as a poverty deconcentration strategy. Opponents argue that this type of housing
strategy pushes lower income workers and the poor out of choice neighborhoods to meet
the needs of the wealthy and set up a market that is highly proﬁtable for politically
connected urban land speculators (Ranney & Wright, 2000, p.6). Proponents of this
approach stress that these new communities eliminate concentrated poverty, reintegrates
marginalized groups back into mainstream society, and give the working poor the
opportunity to change their lives and social capital (Great Cities Institute, 1999). To
complicate the issue, the concept of mixed-income communities, as presented by the
CHA, contradicts previous studies that show the tendency for White middle class,
ﬁnancially secure families to distance themselves from low-income families, speciﬁcally
racial minority groups, a phenomenon more commonly known as ‘White Flight’ (Darden,
1995; Hirsch, 1983; Massey & Denton, 1993; Rubinowitz & Rosenbaum, 2000). In
addition, stark racial residential segregation has been prevalent in Chicago since
European immigrant and Black migrant groups ﬁrst began entering the city in large
numbers. Hence, the very concept of mixed-income communities challenges the city’s
long standing housing patterns rooted in forms of de facto segregation. This housing
experiment raises a number of questions about effective ways to deconcentrate poverty,

housing choice, social mobility, and marginalization based on social constructions of

 

race, class, and gender. The purpose of this study is to examine the lived experiences of
nine low-income Black women who transitioned out of public housing into a newly
constructed mixed-income community under the CHA’s Plan for Transformation. This is
accomplished by ﬁrst, examining the historical and contemporary factors that shape the
sociopolitical aspects of the Plan; and second, capturing the voices and experiences of the
participants in order to understand their relocation experiences.

Statement of the Problem

Numerous studies have outlined the rise and fall of public housing in Chicago,
noting the sociopolitical and economic factors that led to segregated communities
(Hirsch, 1983; Massey & Denton, 1993), rise of ‘problem families’ (Hunt, 2000), harmful
effects on children (Kotlowitz, 1991), guerrilla gang warfare (Popkin et al., 2000), and
overall social difﬁculties public housing residents face (Rubinowitz & Rosenbaum,
2000). Moore (1969) described the high-rise project as a “vertical ghetto” where residents
were living on “segregated islands of poverty.” While these examinations provide a clear
understanding of the multifaceted problems that the CHA is trying to address through the
Plan for Transformation, ﬁrst hand experiences gathered during the investigators’ ﬁeld
research crystallized the severity of the problem. A description follows.

The ﬁeldwork for this dissertation began in the heart of Chicago’s inner city, an
area some might call the ghetto, but a place better known to CHA residents as home.
Walking through Cabrini Green for the ﬁrst time on a hot summer day in July, I was
overtaken by the total and complete disrepair of the buildings and I questioned how
anyone in their right mind could say that they were safe places for people to live. Grafﬁti

Covered the walls, and garbage littered the side walks, buildings, and streets. Though it

was the middle of the aftemoon and sunny, the community seemed dark and gloomy;
years of dirt and grime covered the buildings, inside and out, from top to bottom, and
settled over the area like a thick fog. Rodents, the size of small dogs, staked out their
territory, and the breezeways underneath the buildings were crowded with young Black
men openly selling drugs, posturing, shooting dice, and playing the dozens. The summer
heat raged in the courtyard, where the cement playgrounds housed broken-down play
equipment, and the stench of urine hung in the air. The community school looked more
like an abandoned haunted house than an educational facility for young minds, and I was
unnerved by constant reminders from my guide to beware of random gunﬁre. I soon
came to realize that the physical deterioration that plagued the buildings was among the
least of the problems residents dealt with on a daily basis. Aside from the internal threats
associated with constant gang activity and violent crimes, forms of abuse from external
agents also intruded into their daily lives. During one of my visits, I sat with a resident, a
Black woman, who appeared to be in her late thirties. She described a horrifying
incident that had occurred between her and two male police ofﬁcers. She reported that the
police ofﬁcers, after pushing their way into her apartment, forced her to strip naked in
front of them in order, according to them, to ensure that she was not hiding a weapon.
After complying, she was repeatedly assaulted by the men who grew increasingly
frustrated by her inability to give any information about their suspect, her son, whom she
had not seen in over six months. While the woman is pursing legal action against the
ofﬁcers, the reality is that her environment is unstable and unsafe, and positions her in a

place that many of us could never fathom. My ﬁeldwork often leﬁ me feeling like I was

in a parallel universe experiencing something that was completely foreign, yet somehow
familiar.

Popkin, Gwiasda, Olson, Rosenbaum, and Buron (2000) describe public housing
in Chicago as among the worst in the nation, asserting that it now serves as ‘housing of
last resort’ for vulnerable families. The authors vividly describe CHA properties as urban
guerilla war zones. Popkin et al., state “A complex layering of problems has left the
people who live in these developments mired in the most destructive kind of poverty.
These problems include extreme racial and economic segregation and inadequate public
services, particularly police, schools, sanitation” (p. l ). The problems that saturate CHA
properties are not new phenomena, but rather are rooted in a history of systemic neglect
and calculated marginalization. Despite the communal relationships and the supportive
networks some residents have formed over the years (F eldman & Stall, 2004; Williams,
2004), it is overwhelmingly clear that public housing in Chicago must change. The
CHA’s Plan for Transformation seeks to rectify these problems by facilitating housing
options for their residents.

Through in-depth interviews, document analysis, and ﬁeld research, this
embedded case study investigates the lived experiences of nine Black women who
formerly lived in Cabrini Green and who now live in North Town Village. The study is
grounded in qualitative methods that allow for naturalistic-inductive forms of inquiry,
thus allowing the voices and experiences of the participants to shape and guide the
exploration of this topic. Such an approach shifts the discussion away from dominant
mainstream views of poor Black women, and privileges forms of organic knowledge and

intellectual traditions that come from outside of the academy. Furthermore, this

framework facilitates a micro and macro examination of structural inequality, allowing
for the full consideration of how race, class, and gender shape one’s relationship with
systemic forms of oppression and power.

Since the inception of the Plan for Transformation, it has received considerable
attention from scholars, activists, public policy makers, and the public. While there are
several studies, which evaluate the Plan, few provide a detailed analysis of the residents’
experience with the process. Furthermore, by and large, the voices of African American
women have either been excluded or left out of the larger conversations that shape and
inform this issue. The absence of their voices indicates that Black women’s concerns are
not seen as important, immediate, or worthy of investigation. However, to the contrary,
Black women who live in public housing offer a perspective on housing programs that
seek to de-concentrate poverty through the creation of mixed-income communities that is
not present in the discourse. Their unique social location provides a view of this process
that administrators, city ofﬁcials, and employees at the CHA simply do not have.
Overview of Chapters

Chapter two reviews the previous and current literature that shapes and informs
housing mobility initiatives that seek to de-concentrate poverty through the creation of
mixed-income communities. This includes studies that focus on urban race relations,
concentrated poverty, gender and poverty, and the effects of concentrated poverty. In
addition, chapter two presents the theoretical underpinnings of Intersectionality and
Black Feminist Thought in order to situate the conceptual framework and research
questions that guide this study. Chapter three discusses the methodological components

of the work, situating qualitative methods as the approach that provides the greatest

heuristic value for this study. In addition, in the tradition of reflexivity, this chapter
presents the researchers background so that the reader might understand factors that may
have shaped or inﬂuenced the design and analysis of the study. Finally, chapter three
describes the informant groups and outlines the project design, including the collection
and analysis of the data.

Chapters four, ﬁve, and six represent the data chapters that shape and inform this
study. Speciﬁcally, chapter four introduces the CHA’s Plan for Transformation and as
such reveals the logistical and structural aspects that organize subjugation, which in this
case is largely exhibited through the federal housing polices and legislative mandates.
The chapter begins by briefly contextualizing the CHA’s Plan for Transformation and
then situates the problems the agency seeks to address through their deconcentration
efforts. The Plan for Transformation was conceived during an era of public housing
reform; hence, it is important to understand how federal mandates that emerged from the
National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing and Housing Opportunity
for People Everywhere (HOPE VI) initiatives have shaped the sociopolitical aspects of
the Plan. The data in this chapter comes from CHA documents, primary source materials,
and information gathered from interviews with CHA administrators. In order to
understand the complexity of the participants’ lives and their various experiences, it is
important to understand the structural components of the Plan and the historical context
that it exists within. Chapter ﬁve presents the participants’ voices as they describe their
experiences with the relocation process. The chapter begins with an overview of the
participants. The discussion then shifts to focus on the women’s experiences in Cabrini

Green and their relocation experience in order to capture their reactions to various site-

speciﬁc policies and procedures that they are required to follow in order to remain lease
compliant. The chapter highlights how the women construct notions of homeplace and
gives critical consideration to what happens when the state revamps public policies while
at the same time withdrawing social services, thus leaving poor women ‘embounded’.
Chapter six explores how a ‘New Politics of Containment’ has legitimized policies that
allow management in North Town Village to monitor and regulate virtually every aspect
of the participants lives. In addition, the chapter examines the relationship between social
interaction and improved social capital. This chapter concludes with the women’s
reﬂections about the impact their transition into this new community has had on their
lives. Finally, chapter seven summarizes the major ﬁndings of this study speciﬁcally
pointing out the value of an intersectional analysis and the contribution the women’s

stories make toward further understandings of the nature of structural inequality.

CHAPTER 11
Literature Review
Forms of economic, political, and social marginalization based on social
constructions of race, class and gender has resulted in a racialization and feminization of
concentrated poverty, most readily seen in public housing communities across the nation
(Feldman and Stall, 2004, Spain, 1995). Low-income women head nearly eighty-five
percent of public housing households across the nation, many of which are located in
inner city communities, overwhelmed by high levels of concentrated poverty (Gotez,
2003; Hirsch, 1998; Kotlowitz, 1991; Massey & Denton, 1993; Wilson, 1980, 1987).
Daphne Spain (1995) argues that while scholars have paid attention to how race relations,
de-industrialization, and institutionalized racism have impacted inner city ghettos and
created neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, little attention is given to how these areas
have become predominately female-headed households. Spain posits that “public housing
residents are among, ‘the truly disadvantaged’ who face problems of racial and gender
discrimination, marginal economic position, and isolation in concentrated areas of
poverty from which more prosperous families have escaped” (Spain, 1995, p.361).
However, the scholarship that focuses on concentrated poverty, especially in public
housing communities, has not considered how interconnecting systems of stratiﬁcation
differently situate people based on social constructions of race, class, and gender.
Furthermore, to date few studies represent the everyday lived experiences of low-income
Black women who live in public housing.
The multiple macro-structural and sociopolitical factors that have created

concentrations of racialized and feminized poverty in public housing communities across

the nation, are not new phenomena, but rather, have roots in a history of systematic
neglect and calculated discrimination. Scholars across disciplines have explored a
number of issues associated with urban poverty, particularly as they relate to housing
discrimination (Drake & Cayton, 1945; Hirsch, 1983), segregation (Danziger &
Gottschalk, 1987; Darden, 1981, 1995, 2001, 2004; Darden, Bagaka, & Li, 1997; Davis,
Gardner, Gardner & Warner, 1941; Hirsch, 1983; Massey, Gross, & Eggers, 1991), the
creation of public housing (Hirsch, 1983; Hunt, 2000; Zkoylowitz, 1991; Massey &
Denton, 1993; Vale, 1997; Venkatesh, 2000), gentriﬁcation (Lang, 1982; Mohl, 1993),
urban renewal (Rankin & Quane, 2000; Spear, 1967; Trotter, 1985, 1991), and the
feminization and racialization of concentrated poverty (Davis, 1981; Feldman & Stall,
2004; Freeman, 1980; Miranne, 2000; Peak, 1997; Spain, 1995; Williams, 2004).
Essentially, previous studies on urban poverty have separated race, class, and gender, as
individual units of analysis, focusing on either race relations, economic restructuring, or
the feminization of poverty. Conversely, this study employs the principles of
Intersectionality in order to consider the interlocking nature of race, class, and gender, in
order to understand how these variables simultaneously interact with systems of
domination that perpetuate structural inequality. The purpose of this chapter is to review
the literature that shapes and informs this study. To accomplish this I ﬁrst examine the
pivotal debates and frameworks that initially situated Blacks in the urban environment
including discussions on urban race relations and the culture of poverty thesis. I then
closely examine the contemporary scholarship on concentrated poverty, Black women in
public housing, the effects of concentrated poverty, and housing mobility programs. The

latter part of the chapter situates Intersectionality and Black Feminist Thought as the

10

guiding conceptual frameworks that shape and inform the study. Finally, the chapter
concludes with a presentation of the research questions followed by a list of key terms.
Urban Race Relations

Several scholars (Trotter, 1985; Kusmer, 1991) trace the beginning of urban
studies that focused on the Black experience to the publication of W.E.B. DuBois’ (1899)
The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. DuBois quantitatively explored virtually every
aspect of life for Black residents in Philadelphia and was speciﬁcally concerned with how
the large migration of southern Blacks to the city affected social issues such as housing,
neighborhood conditions, and race relations. One of his primary goals was to move
discussions on race away from the biological deterrninist deﬁnition of Black inferiority
toward an examination of the social issues that impacted the Black community, in hopes
of revealing how systematic forms of discrimination perpetuated oppression. Utilizing
interdisciplinary perspectives to shape his scientiﬁc analysis, DuBois helped to situate the
issues affecting Blacks as not only quantiﬁable but also worthy of investigation. For the
ﬁrst time, housing issues and concerns that faced the Black community were viewed
through a lens of race relations, rather than logic that rested on the inherent inferiority
Blacks.

During the 1920s, a distinctive race relations paradigm emerged among the
sociologists at the University of Chicago, which shaped the direction of urban studies for
nearly a decade. Most notable was sociologist Robert Park’s four-stage model of race
relations, which explained the assimilation process for ethnic immigrant and racial
migrant groups that settled in large urban centers. Park contended that most European

immigrants experienced some level of confrontation and conﬂict with the dominant

ll

_—

 

 

 

group in a society. However, he felt that after the period of initial strife problems would
subside and immigrants would assimilate into mainstream society. With regard to Black
migrants, Park asserted that their migration experience had changed their standing in
society from that of a lower caste, which they experienced in the South, to that of a racial
minority. Therefore, Park perceived the violence and race riotsl that were occurring in
urban centers across the nation, as a representation of the initial second stage of his
assimilation model, and eventually like other immi grant groups, Blacks would peacefully
assimilate into mainstream society. However, contemptuous relationships between Blacks
and Whites impacted the social, economic, and political standing of Blacks and
constrained virtually every aspects of life, especially with regard to housing issues.
Zoning laws, restrictive convents, federal and state legislation, and neighborhood
composition rules established rigid patterns of housing segregation, often limiting Blacks,
regardless of class standing, to the impoverished and rundown slums and ghettos of the
inner cities.

While most of the scholarship at this time identiﬁed race relations as the primary
impediment to full social, economic, and political incorporation of Black Americans;
eventually others, both within and outside of The Chicago School (Park, Burgess, &
Wirth, 1925; Park, 1950), started to question the framework. Critics highlighted the lack
of consideration given to intra-racial class distinctions in the Black community (Drake &

' Cayton, 1945; Frazier, 1932) and the lack of consideration given to structural inequalities

 

' There were many urban riots throughout the nation particularly during the summer of 1919. Raymond
Mohl notes that racial and ethnic tension increased throughout the 19205, as reﬂected in the national
resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. There were vicious race riots in East St. Louis and Houston in 1917, in
Philadelphia in 1918, in Chicago, Washington DC, and elsewhere in 1919, and in Tulsa in 1921 (Mohl,
1993, 5). See William M. Tuttle, Jr., “Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919” (New York:
Athenaeum, 1970); Arthur Waskow, “From Race Riot to Sit-in: 1919 and the 19605” (New York:
Doubleday, 1966).

12

that provided different life chances for European immigrants and Black migrants;
particularly as it involved issues related to housing discrimination and racism (Hirsch,
1983; Massey & Denton, 1993). Still others challenged the notion of Blacks as merely
another ethnic minority group that would eventually assimilate into mainstream society;
but rather positioned the group as a separate ‘caste’ asserting that there could be intra-
class movement but not inter-caste movement among groups (Davis, Gardner, &
Gardner, 1941; Warner & Srole, 1945), thus, shifting the conversation to factors beyond
personal bias that impeded social and economic mobility, towards an examination of
systematic forms of discrimination that had a direct impact on job and housing
opportunities in urban centers across the nation.

It was from this perspective that a group of scholars, led by Gunnar Myrdal
(1944), examined race relations in America. The ﬁndings, published in a multi-volume
work entitled An American Dilemma, indicated that Blacks were locked into a social
caste primarily because of the economic and political constraints that they faced in
society. The researchers found that as a result of systematic and institutionalized racism,
Blacks experienced greater deprivation and social isolation in comparison to European
immigrant groups. Scholars argued that this was evidenced through segregated schools,
racial zoning laws, housing discrimination, and unfounded violence toward Blacks in the
city (Drake & Cayton, 1945; Hirsch, 1983; Massey & Denton, 1993; Mohl, 1993).
Likewise, Drake and Cayton’s (1945) seminal work, Black Metropolis; A Study of Negro
Life in a Northern City, focused on the Black urban experience, evoking a multi-layered
analysis of Black urbanization. The authors considered the complexity of Black life in

Chicago by exploring the lower, middle, and professional classes, thus problematizing

13

how socioeconomic status complicated one’s experience with racism. Furthermore, the
authors’ thoroughly discussed the development of the ‘Black Ghetto’ and the impact of
housing covenants on the overall plight of the Black community. Drake and Cayton
persuasively argued that Black “pathologies” were a product of race and class
discrimination inﬂuenced by irregular employment and job discrimination, thus also
positioning external factors as the primary impetus for the current condition in the Black
ghetto. The authors reconstituted the caste-class model into a discussion on the ‘color-

line’ and adopted the term “ghetto”2

to illustrate the systematic and involuntary
segregation of the Black community. Drake and Cayton challenged the previous
scholarship that focused on personal behaviors and bias, moving researchers toward a
deeper understanding of the sociopolitical and economic factors that created and
sustained structural inequality. It is important to note that during this period, particularly
in the social sciences, Aﬁ’ican-American women’s experiences remained embedded in the
literature on race and thus reﬂected its assumptions (Garber & Turner, 1995; Miranne &
Young, 2000). Likewise, the examinations that focused on gender worked from the
stance of White women (Freeman, 1980; Lerner, 1993; Peake, 1988). Thus, the
experiences of Black women were not represented in the literature nor considered as a
necessary unit of analysis at the time.
Culture of Poverty

Despite the advancement of macro-structural arguments, between WWII and the

19603, the ‘culture of poverty’ thesis dominated urban literature speciﬁcally targeting the

social ills of poor families. Myrdal (1963) described an “underclass” population

 

2 Wirth, L., & Geller, T. (1928). The Ghetto. Chicago, Ill.: The University of Chicago Press. Were among
the ﬁrst to address the concept of the ghetto as it related to American neighborhoods.

l4

comprised of unemployed and unemployable persons at the “bottom of society.” Lewis
(1966) advanced his thesis, which focused on the “defective subculture” of people living
in the slums. His work essentially focused on the emergence and perpetuation of cultural
patterns that he felt promoted behavior inconsistent with socioeconomic advancement
that led to generational patterns of deviance. In The Black Family, Daniel Patrick
Moynihan (1965) argued that the disorganization or breakdown of the Black family,
particularly the female-headed structure, had created a “tangle of pathology,” which was
responsible for most of the problems in the Black community. He asserted that Black
families do not ascribe to certain fundamental American values, which are necessary for
economic stability and social mobility. He went on to argue that these predispositions are
passed onto children and this essentially creates generational cycles of deviance.
Moynihan concluded that the number of improvised Black families would continue to
grow due to the overall cultural deﬁciencies these families exhibited. Sociologist Robin
Jarrett (1994) notes that while several distinct groups were identiﬁed as comprising the
underclass, including criminals, hustlers in the underground economy, the chronically
unemployed, and the long-term working poor; it was the households headed by women
that were most frequently cited as key contributors to the growth of the underclass.

The assertions made by Myrdal, Lewis, and Moynihan about a culturally deﬁcient
underclass, responsible for their own poverty, guided the scholarship at the time. Hence,
conversations shifted away from race relations between Whites and Blacks and macro
structural factors that limited social mobility, towards discussions about the
predispositions and characteristics of the inhabitants of the “Ghetto”. Including: the

effects of absent fathers (Hartnagel, 1970; Hunt & Hunt 1975; Ladner, 1973; Rosen,

15

1969; Schulz, 1968); empirical assessments of female-headed families, which were found
to be heavily represented in impoverished, highly urbanized, and disproportionately
Black populations (Rainwater, 1970); and the reasons why teenage pregnancies were
strongly associated with being reared in poverty-stricken female-headed households,
(Berger & Simon, 1974; Hannerz, 1969; Hyman & Reed, 1969; Rosen, 1969). These
studies tended to conclude that it was the disposition and composition of Black families
particularly the matriarchal structure that perpetuated the problem.

These negative depictions demonized Black women and essentially worked to
legitimize the discriminatory policies and practices that sought to regulate their personal
behavior. Angela Davis (1981) stated:

Creating controlling images of the welfare mother and stigmatizing her as

the cause of her own poverty and that of the African-American

communities shiﬁs the angle of vision away from the structural sources of

poverty and blames the victims themselves. The image of the welfare

mother thus provides ideological justiﬁcation for the dominant group’s

interest in limiting the fertility of Black mothers who are seen as

producing too many economically unproductive children. (Davis, 1981 as

cited in Collins, 2000, p. 80)

As such, Black women became the problem: not sexism which prevented women from
earning equal wages or securing well-paying jobs, not racism, not poverty, not the state
(Williams, 2004). The depiction of Black women as a drain on public resources and

persons engaged in socially destructive culture set the stage for welfare reform that

16

imposed moral conformity, instead of addressing economic disadvantage and protecting
the social rights of the poor.
In her discussion on the urbanization and production of African-American culture,
Carby (1992) argues that since Black women ﬁrst began migrating to urban cities, public
officials have sought various ways to controls their actions, behaviors, and morality.
These modes of “policing the Black women’s body,” often occurred through forms of
planned socialization, such as exposing “social misﬁts” to respectable and law abiding
women of good moral character, controlling their housing arrangements, and creating
‘training schools’ that indoctrinated the women with constructs of acceptable behavior
for both the private and public spheres. Thus, characterizations that represent poor Black
women as deviant supported public policies that focused on moral conformity rather than
correcting structural inequality.
The culture of poverty thesis provided one of the ﬁrst examinations of the
Black female in the urban environment. As such, works that followed tended to
focus on the Black family, thus neutralizing gender and de-politicizing the
struggle against oppressive systems that limited social and economic mobility of
poor Black women (Ritzdorf, 2000). Furthermore, framing the discussion within
context of the family, led to analysis that focused on the relationship between
family structure, race, and poverty (Katz, 1989; Piven et a1, 1987; Wilson and
Aponte, 1985). This again shifted the discussion away from an understanding of
the systems of stratiﬁcation that marginalized poor Black women.
While some offered counterattacks against claims of Black family

deviance (Stack, 1974) it was not until much later, when feminist revisionist

17

(Baca Zinn, 1990; Collins, 1989) encouraged social scientists to move away
from examinations of the individual and toward a re-conceptualization of
stratiﬁcation, that the scholarship began to change.

Concentrated Poverty

While, debates between the cultural deterrninist and the structuralist
continued well into the early 19905 macro-structural arguments eventually began
to take center stage, with examinations of urban poverty and the Black family
focusing on the social, economic, and political factors that led to the creation and
persistence of concentrated urban poverty. Goetz (2003) comments that the
concentration of poverty paradigm was developed and reﬁned during the height
of the nation’s anti-poverty strategies and war on drugs. He stresses that this
framework seeks to explain the factors that have contributed to the increasing
prevalence of concentrated poverty in American inner cities and the effects such
poverty can have on individuals and neighborhoods.

Massey, Gross, & Shibuya (1994) note that there are three basic
hypotheses associated with the creation, persistence, and concentration of urban
poverty. The ﬁrst, advanced by Wilson (1980, 1987, 1996) connects the problem
to the out migration of the Black middle class, and class selective in-migration of
poor migrants that join already poor communities. Next, Hughes ( 1990) and
Jargowsky and Bane (1991) assert that trends connected to the concentration of
poverty reﬂect the general overall downward social mobility for all groups who
stayed in urban centers across the nation when the jobs left. Finally, Hirsch

(1993) and Massey and Denton (1983) advance the idea that concentrated

18

poverty is the direct result of racial segregation in urban housing markets.
Massey, Gross, and Shibuya ﬁnd that these three perspectives are not mutually
exclusive and it is likely that all three operate to some extent to inﬂuence the
class composition of speciﬁc neighborhoods.

William Julius Wilson’s (1980) work in many ways set the stage for the
examination of the systematic factors that contributed, sustained, and perpetuated urban
poverty. Wilson asserted that different systems of production, in combination with state
policies, affect race relations in two aspects; they produce dissimilar contexts, ﬁrstly for
the manifestation of racial antagonisms, and secondly for the racial groups’ access to
rewards and privileges (Wilson, 1980). His discussion considered how both racial
discrimination and class standing affected one’s life-chances. Furthermore, Wilson noted
that the onset of de-industrialization and the transfer of companies to the suburbs resulted
in a mass exodus of the Black middle class. He concluded that these factors produced a
Black “underclass” that has fallen behind in every aspect.

Later in The Truly Disadvantaged (1987), Wilson examined the effects of Black
joblessness asserting:

The growth in joblessness has in turn helped to generate a rise in the

concentration of poor Blacks with accompanying increases in single parent

families, and the receipt of welfare. Particularly noticeable in the inner-city ghetto

neighborhoods of large cities. (Wilson, 1987, p.31)

Thus, multiple factors converged to create “the underclass” which was characterized by
its geographic concentration, its social isolation from the middle class, and its

joblessness.

19

While Wilson situated out-migration and joblessness, as the primary factors that
led to concentrated poverty in the inner city, others focused on the effects of housing
segregation. For instance, Arnold Hirsch (1983) impugned government policies and
White resistance as the primary cause for the creation and maintenance of concentrated
poverty. Hirsch explored the systematic devices that perpetuated housing segregation in
the Chicago, which, he argued, ultimately led to the containment of poor Blacks. He was
one of the ﬁrst scholars to discuss the notion of a “second ghetto,” marked by the
institutionalization of public housing. Hirsch identiﬁed a number of factors that
contributed to the creation of the second ghetto highlighting the rigid enforcement of
housing segregation, which the federal government and local public housing authorities
helped enforce. In addition, he identiﬁes the lack of a strong Black political leadership,
as a key variable, which he ascribes to a willingness to accommodate White
segregationists’ policies in exchange for token power. Furthermore, Hirsch asserts that
urban renewal policies that inﬂuenced the actual design of public housing high-rises,
roads, and highways separating and isolating communities were other important factors.
However, he vigorously attributes the creation of the second ghetto to the violence
Whites exhibited towards Blacks who would try to integrate predominantly White
neighborhoods and predominantly White public housing developments.

In American Apartheid, Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton (1993) take the
discussion one-step further and speciﬁcally identify residential segregation, speciﬁcally,
as the institutional apparatus that supports other racially discriminatory processes. In their

analysis, they argue that concentrated poverty creates social predicaments that make it

20

extremely difﬁcult for the underclass to change their social, economic, and political
standing. Massey and Denton posit:
Residential segregation systematically undermines the social and economic well-
being of Blacks in the United States. Because of racial segregation, a signiﬁcant
share of Black America is condemned to experience a social environment where
poverty and joblessness are the norm, where majorities of the children are born
out of wedlock, where most families are on welfare, where educational failure
prevails, and where social and physical deterioration abound. (2)
The authors note that prolonged exposure to such an environment limits and reduces
one’s life choices. Hence, they establish that racial segregation and housing location is
directly related to how one will experience other structural forms of racial discrimination.
Weather the conversation focused on the effects of economic restructuring, urban
renewal, or housing segregation the work of Wilson, Hirsch, Massey and Denton shaped
key debates in the ﬁeld, especially as it related to understanding the creation,
maintenance, and persistence of concentrated poverty in urban center across the nation.
Public Housing
Public housing communities have been main foci for studies that examine various
aspects of concentrated urban poverty. Speciﬁcally, scholars have focused on the
problematic aspects of public housing communities addressing issues associated with
location and design (Hirsch, 1983; Massey & Denton, 1993; Moore, 1969; Vale, 1997),

tenant selection policies (Hirsch, 1983; Hunt, 2000), the increase of “problem families”3

 

3 Problem families were identiﬁed as those, which were completely dependant on public aid, exhibited
behavioral, mental or physical disorders, which included children born out of wedlock, husbands or son in
jail for assault, problems of rape, narcotics, alcoholism, vandalism, or more seriously mental illness. (Hunt,
2000, p. 401)

21

and changing demographics (Spain, 1995; Massey & Denton, 1993 ), and the devastating
effects of crime, drug activity, and gang violence (Kotlowitz, 1991; Popkin et al., 2000;
Venkatesh, 2000). When public housing programs in America ﬁrst began in the 19305,
they were designed to provide temporary relief to working class families who needed
assistance. Over time, the tenant population of public housing became primarily
composed of low-income, single parent families, headed by Black women. During the
Great Depression, central cities experienced problems associated with extreme poverty,
deplorable housing, and joblessness. In order to handle these emerging and omnipresent
social ills, slum reformers called for large-scale government intervention that would
facilitate “social upliﬁment” for all people. In 1937, the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act
passed and instituted public housing as a permanent national program. Initiatives were
designed to provide ﬁnancial assistance toward slum clearance and the development of
adequate, safe, and sanitary housing for low-income families. The idea was that the
program would speciﬁcally target the lowest third of the population. In many cities
throughout the nation, the ﬁrst public housing project was undertaken by the Public
Works Administration’s housing division. However, over time, the responsibilities
shifted over to local authorities. By 1940, there were over 450 local housing authorities
across the nation.

The Chicago Housing Authority. In 1933, the CHA assumed responsibility for the

 

leasing and management of three housing projects, which had previously been under the
management of the Public Works Administration. The Authority was ﬁilly incorporated
into the city structure in 1937 after the Illinois General Assembly State Housing Board

identiﬁed the need for an agency to administer the construction and management of

22

public housing in Chicago. Daphne Spain (1995) notes, “The demographic composition
of public housing has changed signiﬁcantly in the last 40 years. Three-quarters of all
households living in public housing in the 19505 consisted of married couples and three-
quarters of households had an employed head. By contrast, in 1989, three quarters of all
public housing households were maintained by women and only one-third of households
had an employed head” (p. 358). Spain argues that “welfare regulation, site decisions,
and eligibility criteria are all examples of ways in which deliberate government actions
contributed to the feminization of public housing” (p.8). The changes that have occurred
in public housing over the years reﬂect the result of national and local policies that have
neglected and marginalized low-income women who live in public housing.

In Chicago, the CHA fought political, social, and economic battles that mirrored
the sociopolitical battles over race, housing, and poverty occurring throughout the nation.
When the authority was fully incorporated in 193 7, the ﬁrst CHA director, Elizabeth
Wood, and the board chairman, Robert Taylor, envisioned integrated public housing
communities that provided relief for the city’s most distressed residents. Newspaper
reports from the 19305 note that the CHA was devoted “to improving people’s lives by
building subsidized housing for low-income urban families unable to obtain decent, safe,
and sanitary dwelling units within their income-paying ability” (Wit, 335). However, the
political imprudence exhibited by many of Chicago’s Aldermen and City Council
members, along with resistance from predominantly White communities, and institutional
racism impeded the agency’s ability to select public housing sites outside of slum and
ghetto areas that already existed in the city. Despite Wood’s and Taylor’s efforts, the City

Council repeatedly and effectively blocked many of the agency's initiatives and site

23

selection plans in order to maintain the segregated housing patterns already in place. An
Illinois state law, applicable only in Chicago due to its large population, necessitated that
the City Council approve each public housing site which the CHA was considering, thus
allowing the city government to manipulate and orchestrate the agency’s every move. If
and when an Alderman did allow public housing construction in their ward, it was made
clear that he/she did not want the CHA to use the project as leverage to integrate the
community. In order to protect against such acts the city adopted a “neighborhood
composition rule” which required any public housing development to retain the racial
composition already present in the community (Hirsch, 1998; Hunt, 2000). Under this
mandate, the ﬁrst public housing projects in Chicago were predominantly White. When
Wood and Taylor tried to integrate all White public housing developments, Black
residents repeatedly faced extreme resistance that often escalated into violence.

For example according to an inter-ofﬁce memo sent to Carol Wood in 1953 by
Albert G. Rosenberg, Supervisor of Community and Tenant Relations, the Howards, a
Black family, faced a slew of violent acts that culminated on November 1 1, 1953.
Rosenberg outlined the problems the family had been experiencing, starting with an
incident that occurred on November 7, when the rear kitchen windows of the Howard
apartment were broken after rocks were thrown. Four days later after being called to the
scene, Rosenberg observed a mob of approximately 200 people surrounding the
apartment. He writes:

I observed clusters of people across the street from the Howard apartment around

11:30 pm. loudly jeering and shouting about how they were going to get the

“niggers” out of the project. Some were also shouting that they were going to

24

blow up the project. The also called out all kinds of abuse to the police detail in

9, ‘6

front of the Howard unit—“nigger lovers, you haven’t seen anything yet”.
(Rosenberg, 1953)
Similar acts of terror continued into the 19605. Whenever the CHA would try to integrate
public housing projects, various forms of mob violence would erupt (Hirsch, 1998). A
culture of violence and resistance against Black residents gained legitimacy in the city as
such efforts received support from the city government and community vigilantes. As
Hirsch notes, this inherent and institutionalized racism impeded the progress the CHA
was able to make toward changing the plight of the urban poor. Given city politics and
the ingrained housing discrimination that permeated the city, Blacks in need of safe and
affordable housing found little solace from the CHA. In fact, of the ﬁrst 2400 public
housing units built in 1938, Blacks gained access to only 60 units (Rubionoiwitz and
Rosenbaum, 2000, p.19). Later when developments were built in predominantly Black
communities with the primary objective to serve Black residents, the demand far
exceeded the supply. The Ida B. Wells Homes, completed in 1940, was the ﬁrst all Black
development located in the heart of the city’s Black belt. The site received 18,000
applications for 1660 apartments (Hunt, 2000, p.387). The earlier patterns of housing
segregation, which had contained Blacks in the south side and small pockets on the near
north side, resulted in continued segregation and isolation during an era of reform.
Massey and Denton and (1993) and Hirsch (1983) point out that the early decisions about
the location and design of public housing in Chicago laid the foundation for what has
become a preponderance of concentrated poverty in public housing today. By 1960, little

inroads toward integration had been made. City politics had effectively kept housing

25

projects segregated and for the most part, dictated that any new buildings for Blacks
would have to be built in already existing Black communities.

An agency brochure reveals that from 1955 to 1968, the CHA built nearly 19,000
low-income residences in high-rises across the city. These high-density projects were
erected in low-income, African American neighborhoods on the city’s Near West and
Near North sides, as well as along South State Street. The large-scale construction of
public housing in impoverished neighborhoods did little to dismantle the structural
aspects of the ensuing ghettos; instead, horizontal ghettos were replaced with vertical
ghettos (Hirsch, 1983; Massey & Denton, I993; Mohl, 1993). Hirsch contends that the
politics and policies enforced by the city council, the CHA, and neighborhood vigilantes
in White communities ultimately controlled the workings of public housing, leading to
the creation of a “second ghetto.” Hirsch goes on to state, “Whites in outlying residential
neighborhoods were able to shape the policies of the CHA and transform that agency
from one that tinkered with the status quo into one that served as a bulwark of
segregation” (Hirsch, 1998, p. 213). All of these factors culminated into what Hirsch
identiﬁes as “ghetto maintenance” where “resistance to desegregation, from both the
public and the private sector, prevented any fundamental alteration in Chicago’s
established residential patterns” (Hirsch, 1998, p. xvi).

Ghetto maintenance tactics perpetuated structural inequality and further
marginalized public housing residents in Chicago. While public housing initially served
the working poor, by 1948, 60 percent of new CHA tenants reported no wage earner.
CHA administrators claimed that this new clientele was maladjusted and exhibited

undesirable social behavior and thereafter labeled this clientele as “problem families.”

26

Problem families were identiﬁed as those, which were completely dependent on public
aid, exhibited behavioral, mental or physical disorders, which included: children born out
of wedlock, husbands or sons in jail for assault, problems associated with rape, narcotics,
alcoholism, vandalism, or more serious types of mental illness (Hunt, 2000, p. 401). As
late as 1959, the agency enforced evictions of single mothers who had more than two
children born out of wedlock. An excerpt from a letter sent to a resident in 1959 reveals
the agency’s position:

According to our records you and or another member of your family have given
birth to at least one child out of wedlock or while there was supposedly no
husband legally in your household. As you know, we cannot tolerate this type of
conduct because it tends to corrupt the reputation of the community and invites
adverse criticism of public housing. We are, therefore, warning you that if you or
any member of your household again become involved in such a situation, your
dwelling lease will more than likely be terminated and you will be asked to vacate
your apartment. (CHA, letter, 1959)

Different entities throughout the city voiced their concern about the CHA’s policy. In
particular, an advisory committee to the CHA from the Welfare Council of Metropolitan
Chicago noted:

Illegitimacy is a social fact, and its incidence is not likely to be affected by a
family living within a housing project. From the general community point of
view, action to evict tenants for illegitimacy makes the same sense as trying to
cure a headache by decapitation. It should also be recognized whereas the general

public has a highly moralistic and negative attitude about illegitimacy; it is not

27

viewed as a problem by the vast majority of housing project tenants. The cultural

pattern, particularly among much of the Negro community, is more one of general

acceptance and certainly does not place onus of any kind upon an illegitimate

child. (Ballard, 1959, p.2.)

While the CHA changed its policy toward illegitimacy in the 19605, the ideological
constructs that depicted single mothers who relied on public assistance as deviant and
problematic, had already taken root in the public psyche. These images contributed to
demoralizing portrayals of low-income Black women, thus helped to legitimize their
subjugation.

Due to a number of factors including corruption, neglect, and the lack of building
upkeep and maintenance, residents found themselves trapped in deteriorating, rat infested
buildings, suddenly overwhelmed by gang warfare. Much of the scholarship focused
heavily on the troubled environment in public housing communities (Kotlowitz, 1988,
Popkin et al., 2000) painting a picture of the social ills and public malice poor people
were subjected on a daily basis. Scholars explored the complex layering of problems
public housing residents experienced, highlighting the ways in which gangs and criminal
activity governed the residents and undermined efforts of grassroots organizers who
fought for change. For instance, Popkin, Gwiasda, Olson, Rosenbaum and Buron (2000)
found that public housing residents in Chicago often would not discuss criminal activity
or report crimes because of fear of retaliation. Furthermore, the authors found that
residents tended to only associate with a small group of trusted friends as a way to protect
themselves and their families from gang activity. The authors characterize these

behaviors as necessary coping strategies but ones that ultimately undermined the CHA’s

28

attempts to organize a community crime-prevention program. Their study revealed that a
unique set of circumstances govern public housing communities in Chicago, thus
problematizing the examinations of structural inequality by revealing both internal and
external structural impediments that inﬂuenced the lives and daily activities of public
housing residents. While studies such as the above-mentioned provide a much-needed
understanding of public housing communities, the analysis often situated residents as
passive objects, enduring the trials and tribulations of life.
Black Women in Public Housing

Works focusing on the examination of the social, political, and economic factors
associated with urban poverty have convincingly proven the necessity for situating race
and class within the larger discussion of the creation and maintenance of concentrated
poverty. However, little attention is given to the examination of how gender also operates
as an organizing principle. Current works (Feldman & Stall, 2004; Williams, 2004) that
seek to give voice to the experiences public housing residents are primarily corrective, in
that the authors seek to dispel popular stereotypes and reframe the lives and daily
activities of low-income Black women through a framework of agency and activism.
Rhonda Williams’ (2004) book, The Politics of Public Housing is one such contribution.

Through the presentation of the collective biographies of Black women who lived
in Baltimore’s public housing, Williams recasts the historical understanding of the
relationship between cities, poverty policy, poor people, and activism. She incorporates
the voices of low-income Black women into the historical narratives of Black liberation,
as well as the women’s and working-class movements. Williams also challenges public

conceptions of low-income Black women by showing their tenacity, strength,

29

compassion, and morality as it relates to grassroots community activism. She states,
“Poor Black women in Baltimore not only engaged in battles for daily subsistence, but
also fought against societal marginalization and dehumanization” (Williams, 2004,
p.229). Williams discusses the activist spirit of low-income Black women who lived in
Baltimore’s public housing, noting that each generation from 1940-1970 fought for a
humanistic agenda, social rights, progressive change, and fairness. She highlights the fact
that during the 19305 most public housing tenants were working class families, many of
whom were concerned about the public images associated with public housing and its
residents. Williams argues that in order to counter negative stereotypes, Black women
who lived in public housing participated in social organizations throughout the city. She
asserts that participation in the “Black Women’s Club Movement”4 not only helped these
working class women maintain the appearance of middle class moral standards, but
involvement in the organizations also provided a platform for them to politicize their
concerns. Evoking a radical feminist framework, Williams argues that both Black and
White women who lived in public housing politicized their private lives through their
public struggles for necessities such as heat, hot water, and sanitary living conditions. She
highlights the gender and class alliances between Black and White women, brieﬂy noting
how race differently situated working class Black women, as their ﬁght included a
mission to be recognized as full citizens.

During the 19505, the tenant population in public housing changed as did the
public’s perception about the perceived values and morality of public housing residents.

Williams argues that due to the inﬂux of problem families even upstanding women were

 

4 For further discussion on the Black Women’s Club Movement, see Belinda Robnett ( 1997) “How Long?
How Long?” (New York: Oxford) and Stephanie Shaw (1996) “What A Women Ought to Be and to Do:
Black Professional Women Workers During the Jim Crow Era” (Chicago: University of Chicago).

30

forced to carry the ‘daily baggage of poverty’ in which they were portrayed to outsiders
as incorrigible and dangerous. Williams states, “Social scientists and politicians
increasingly described poor black people as participants in a culture of poverty and black
single motherhood as a quintessential sign of cultural pathology” (p.127). Some of the
women sought to distance themselves from the labels of disrupt by becoming tenant
activist, role modeling effective parenting and moral standards to young teenage mothers,
and setting up community policing committees to protect the residents. Furthermore, the
Baltimore Housing Authority started a Resident Aide Program, utilizing a number of the
older residents to evoke a sense of self-help among the younger and newer residents.
However, Williams notes that this tactic focused on rehabilitating poor people’s behavior
without also examining the structural impediments that affected people’s daily lives. The
systematic marginalization of poor Black people, coupled with acts of corruption that
sphenoid off federal money allocated for building repairs and maintenance, prompted the
further decline of public housing communities.

During the 19605, the battles for basic life necessities was fought primarily
through the organized Resident Management Councils, which formed food and economic
cooperatives, participated in welfare rights protests, formed welfare rights chapters, and
became the leaders in the struggle for daily subsistence. Williams comments that many of
the confrontations and battles with management were intra-racial conﬂicts, thus
highlighting how class differences shaped the nature of the relationship and interactions
with management and administrators at the housing authority. In her analysis Williams
dismantles essentialist ideology of Black deviance among poor Black women and

reconstructs the narrative to include generational pictures of agency and activism. She

31

demonstrates that even though social, political, and economic impediments did not
subside over the years, activist leaders evoked the power and resources they had at their
disposal to inﬂuence change in their communities.

Working from a similar framework, Feldman and Stall (2004) present a
comprehensive case study covering four decades of public housing residents’ grassroots
activism. The study focuses on the activities of women who lived in the Chicago Housing
Authority’s Wentworth Gardens development. In their examination of resident activism,
the authors identify two modes of resistance, which include everyday resistance that
expanded into the private sphere; and transgressive resistance, largely demonstrated in
the public sphere (p.11). Everyday resistance included crusades for internal community
improvements such as youth programs, tenant security measures, local fund raising,
preschool and daycare programs, a new play area for children, a Laundromat, and local
grocery store, all of which resident activists fought for, developed, and in some cases,
eventually managed. F eldman and Stall argue that through these acts, the women activists
pressed for social reproduction needs and in doing so extended their household labor into
their community. The leadership’s transgressive resistance is more readily identiﬁed as
the ﬁght to save the community from gentriﬁcation. The authors contend that the skills
and experience resident leadership gained during their everyday acts of resistance, shaped
and inﬂuenced their approach to transgressive resistance. Feldman and Stall state “With
each new act of everyday resistance the activist gained new skills, obtained new
information, and increased their resources, demonstrating their growing strategic
capacities as grassroots organizers. They increased their self-conﬁdence, built upon and

expanded their social bonding and social-bridging capital and augmented their leadership

32

and management skills” (p. 346). F eldman and Stall conclude “In resisting the destruction
of their home place and community, Wentworth activists have contested the dominant
ideologies of their identities as poor Black women and deﬁed the boundaries that
separated them from the white male-dominated public sphere” (p. 12). The authors focus
on the importance of “homeplace” noting that it connects and bonds a person to the
ideology and emotions that are attached to the environment. So much so, that one’s home
place becomes the channel or ﬁlter for a variety of life experiences.

Feldman and Stall also build on previous works (Saegert, 1984; Leavitt &
Saegert, 1990; Stack, 1974) that highlight the importance of social networks and the link
between domestic activities and community activism. The authors contend that in these,
‘community households,’ personal concerns grew into larger concerns about the overall
community. F eldman and Stall connect women’s work in extended family networks like
cooking and sharing food, neighboring, and information sharing in order to demonstrate
how community households served as the foundation for everyday resistance. The
authors argue that social networks are rooted in experiences of domestic and social
organization therefore rearing children, cooking, laundry, and grocery shopping all lead
to norm setting and conﬂict resolution skills, which the women used to build
relationships and cohesiveness in the community. Feldman and Stall once again
demonstrate that low-income Black women were not simply passive objects, but rather
active participants in changing situations for their families and their communities.

Feldman and Stall situate grass roots activism as their primary analytical device
from which to examine how groups of women in a public housing community fought

against forms of systematic oppression. In a similar effort, Jarrett (1994) focused on how

33

African-American women, who live in high poverty or economically transitional
neighborhoods in Chicago, adapted to conditions of poverty. Through focus group
interviews with 82 never married low-income Black women, she explored four issues
pertaining to marriage, the ideal; marriage, the reality; economic impediments to
conventional marriage; and alternatives to conventional marriage. Jarrett found that these
women responded to poverty in three ways: they extended domestic and childcare
responsibility to multiple individuals; they relaxed paternal role expectations; and they
assumed a ﬂexible maternal role. Speciﬁcally Jarrett’s ﬁnding supported those of other
scholars (Anderson, 1990; Burton, 1991; Feldman & Stall, 2004; Holloman & Lewis,
1978; Liebow, 1967; Stack, 1974) that have commented on the importance of domestic
kin networks that allow for the extension of domestic and childcare responsibilities
beyond the nuclear family. Furthermore, Jarrett’s analysis revealed that single women
often lowered their expectations of men and extended the paternal role to non-biological
fathers as a way of facilitating the involvement of men in childcare. Finally, she noted
that the women who participated in her study demonstrated strength and levels of high
competency as mothers, able to provide for their families under extreme circumstances, a
trait and characteristic that was highly revered throughout the community. Jarrett
contends that macro-structural frameworks can document changes in households and
family formation patterns as they relate to economic factors, however, this approach
ignores alternative family arrangements and omits the role of personal agency in
understanding poverty among the poor. Williams, F eldman, Stall, and Jarrett all work
from a revisionist standpoint and ultimately seek to correct the historical narrative and

redeﬁne the life experiences of poor Black women through their examinations. Their

34

work provides a new scaffolding for understanding the lived experiences of poor Black
women through a framework of agency, activism, and personal efﬁcacy.

The scholarship that reﬂects the experiences of Black women in urban centers is
just beginning to unfold. Many of the contributions come from disciplines other than
urban studies. Miranne and Young (2000) contend that the ﬁeld of urban studies has long
reﬂected a gender bias in both the construction of theory and avoidance of research that
directly addresses women’s lived experiences. In addition, Judith A. Garber and Robyn S.
Turner (1995) note that urban scholars are greatly unaccustomed to thinking about
gender, let alone uncovering cities as sites of institutionalized patriarchy”(xv). Neglecting
the role gender marginalization plays in the creation and maintenance of urban
concentrated poverty leads to policies and practices that do not adequately consider the
needs of low-income Black women.

Neighborhood Eﬂects
Currently, scholarship that focuses on the urban environment is still concerned

with issues of concentrated poverty, however rather than debates surrounding its creation
and persistence; conversations now focus on the long-term effects of living in said
communities. Danziger and Gottschalk (1987) deﬁne concentrated poverty as existing in
neighborhoods in which more than 40 percent of the population is below poverty level.
Scholars note that the prevalence of widespread concentrated poverty in urban centers
across the country began to increase in the 19805 and by 1990; the problem was ever-
present (Jargowsky, 1996; Goetz, 2000; Rankin & Quane, 2000). Jargowsky (1996)
states that from 1970 to 1990, the number of persons living in neighborhoods of

concentrated poverty increased from 4.1 million to 8 million. Given the prevalence of the

35

problem, current scholarship focuses on bridging the macro/micro chasm in order to
consider how macro-structural barriers impact the daily lives and choices of individuals
conﬁned to these areas. This approach shifts the discussion away from cultural
determinism toward an examination of systems of domination that perpetuate inequality.
Hence, rather than placing the blame on the individuals or family structure,
neighborhood effects scholars argue that where one lives inﬂuences his/her economic,
social, and political standing as well as opportunities for social advancement.

For instance, urbanist Ingrid Gould Ellen and Margery Turner (1997) advance a
neighborhood effects argument, which asserts that neighborhoods with high levels of
concentrated poverty are plagued with problems associated with school delinquency,
withdrawal from school, teenage pregnancy, out of wedlock childbirth, violent crime,
and drug abuse. The authors ﬁnd that neighborhoods impact residents in a number of
ways including: the quality of public services available; the socialization of young
people; peer inﬂuence; social networks; and physical distance from employment. In
addition, Goetz (2003) comments that impoverished communities suffer from aggregate
community effects, which manifest themselves as disinvestments from private
companies, ultimately leading to dysﬁinctional communities (p. 3). Rankin and Quane
(2000) also assert that when a critical mass of the social stratum, such as the middle
class, is lacking, as is the case in many high-poverty neighborhoods, key community
institutions such as businesses, schools, churches, social clubs, voluntary associations,
and community organizations, decline and often disappear, leaving residents cutoff from

the beneﬁts of institutional resources (p. 141).

36

Neighborhood effects scholars also suggest that there is a positive relationship
between neighborhood characteristics and: employment rates and earnings (Datcher,
1982; Case & Katz, 1991; Massey, Gross, & Eggers, I991), sexual activity, and teenage
pregnancy (Hogan & Kitagawa, 1985; Crane, 1991; Mayer, 1991; Brooks—Gunn,
Duncan, Klevanov, & Sealand, 1993), the percentage of female headed households in the
community (Hogan & Kitagawa, 1985; Crane, 1991; Massey, Gross, & Eggers, 1991;
Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klevanov, & Sealand, 1993), joblessness (Massey, Gross &
Eggers, 1991), school drop out rates (Crane, 1991; Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klevanov, &
Sealand, 1993), 1Q (Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klevanov, & Sealand, 1993), annual
earnings (Corcoran, Gordon, Laren, & Solon, 1990), and participation in politics (Cohen
& Dawson, 1993). These scholars ultimately conclude that there is strong evidence that
growing up in a poor neighborhood shapes individual experiences at both the macro-
structural and personal level of development.

Sampson, Morenoff, and Gannon-Rowley (2002) suggest, “One of the driving
forces behind much of the research on neighborhood mechanisms has been the concept
of social capital, which is generally conceptualized as a resource that is realized through
social relationships” (p. 457). In addition, Lin (2000) states that inequality in different
types of capital, such as human capital and social capital, contributes to social inequality,
in aspects such as socioeconomic achievement and quality of life. Social capitalist are
concerned with the level of density or social ties between neighbors, frequency of social
interaction among neighbors, and patterns of neighboring. Xavier de Souza Briggs

(1997) discusses the importance of social capital leverage in building social networks for

37

job opportunities and other activities that might lead to economic stability. He notes that
the key is to increase one’s social capital without undermining sources of social support.
Small and Newman (2001) contend that there are several limitations to trying to
deﬁne and measure neighborhood effects. First, they argue that people are not randomly
distributed across neighborhoods; next, it is difﬁcult to deﬁne and measure
neighborhoods; and ﬁnally they contend that scholars find it challenging to deﬁne what
characteristics should be employed to measure disadvantage (Small & Newman, 2001, p.
30). In the same vain Sampson, Morenoff, & Gannon—Rowley comment that studies on
neighborhood effects “overwhelmingly measure social processes at the individual rather
than neighborhood level, making it difﬁcult to offer a summary assessment of which, if
any, neighborhood-level mechanisms are important” (p. 459). The authors go on to note
that the study of neighborhood effects presents several methodological challenges,
among which is the differential selection of individuals into communities, indirect
pathways of neighborhood effects, measurement error, and simultaneity bias. (p. 465).
While there are still some theoretical and methodological concerns with regard to
the neighborhood effects framework, policy makers at both the federal and state levels
have embraced the idea that neighborhood composition, especially as it relates to high
poverty neighborhoods, inﬂuences quality of life. As such recent housing programs are
now focusing on income mixing with the assumption that exposing low-income families
to mixed-income communities will increase their social capital and provide economic
stability, which will ultimately lead to sustained self-sufﬁciency. To a large extent

poverty deconcentration housing programs today are modeled after the Gautreaux

38

relocation program, which was one of the ﬁrst large-scale race based relocation
initiatives to test neighborhood effects arguments.
Gautreaux

In 1966, public housing residents in Chicago sued the Chicago Housing Authority
and the department of Housing and Urban Development, claming that the agencies
employed racially discriminatory polices in the administration of Chicago’s low rent
public housing program. The lawsuit charged that public housing residents were forced to
live in segregated areas of the city by virtue of the CHA’s tenant assignment and site
selection plan. Dorothy Gautreaux, a Black community activist and public housing
resident who lived on the south side of Chicago, lent her name to a class action suit ﬁled
on behalf of more than forty thousand African-American families who were residents of,
or applicants for, Chicago public housing (Rubinowitz and Rosenbaum, 2000). In 1969,
the court ruled in favor of the Gautreaux plaintiffs, making the case one of the largest
court-ordered desegregation efforts in the nation’s history. Over the course of twenty-ﬁve
years, seven thousand low-income families moved out of public housing; while some
moved within the city limits, the majority, most of whom were women and children,
moved to surrounding suburbs. Rubinowitz and Rosenbaum (2000) examined resident
experiences based on location. The ﬁndings suggested that children of families moving to
less segregated suburban locations saw measurable improvements in their lives. The
children were less likely to drop out, more likely to take college track courses, and attend
a four year college than their counterparts who remained in the inner city. Furthermore,
the authors asserted that for the most part, suburban movers were able to adapt to the

middle class communities they relocated to and experienced varying degrees of social

39

interaction with their neighbors. The authors note, “When asked about the frequency of
contact on speciﬁc activities, the suburban mothers reported signiﬁcantly more
interaction with neighbors than the city group. Compared with reports by city movers,
suburban movers reported more frequently visiting with neighbors, talking on the
telephone with neighbors, sharing babysitting with neighbors, eating at a neighbor’s
home and having a neighbor over to their homes for lunch or dinner” (Rubinowitz &
Rosenbaum, 2000, p.105). The ﬁndings lead one to conclude that overall, suburban
movers had more contact and interaction with their neighbors than the city movers did.
Rubinowitz and Rosenbaum state, “Some women who moved to the suburbs reported
ﬁnding a sense of community that they felt was lacking in their city neighborhoods. The
participants noted that they often felt isolated in the city, had withdrawn from the
community and had even become suspicious and fearful of their neighbors.

While the authors note that most of the participants reported positive outcomes,
they also highlight some of the problems suburban movers experienced, which included
indirect and overt forms of racism. Some women commented that neighbors maintained a
“social distance” from them and often obstructed friendly relationships. The authors’
state, “While the exclusion that mothers felt was unpleasant, their most painful
experiences were seeing their children encounter racial prejudice and exclusion” (p. 1 14).
Much of the overt racism and discrimination that children who moved to the suburbs
experienced came from adults. Rubinowitz and Rosenbaum’s examination represents one
of the only longitudinal mobility studies that thoroughly considers the reaction and
experiences of low-income Black women who have transitioned into predominantly

white middle class communities.

40

Building on the reported success of the Gautreaux program, within the last decade
Congress has aggressively advanced the notion of de-concentrating urban poverty
through resident relocation to less improvised neighborhoods. It is important to note
however, the philosophy behind recent initiatives focuses on income mixing rather that
racial integration. The relocation of public housing residents has taken primarily two
forms: movement into the private market through the Section 8/ Housing Choice
Voucher program (HCV) and movement into newly created mixed-income mixed
ﬁnanced communities (MIMF). Figure 1 is a graphic representation of the MIME

response to concentrated poverty.

41

 

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42

As depicted in the ﬁgure on the previous page, analysts have identiﬁed a number of
factors that will inﬂuence the type of “success” public housing residents will experience
in MIME communities. These factors include the ability to maintain or establish social
networks and social cohesiveness with new neighbors, adherence to rules and
regulations, ﬁnancial stability, and overall comfort in the new community. In addition,
several macro-structural factors also inﬂuence one’s success in a mixed-income
community including the location of housing, government funding, access to resources,
available social services, management, racial and economic mix of the neighborhood,
and the physical design of the community.
Mobility Programs

There are two types of deconcentration strategies, which the federal government and
local public housing authorities have implemented to promote resident mobility, housing
choice, and poverty de-concentration. The ﬁrst initiative, and most widely utilized, is the
Section 8/Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, which Congress created in 1974.
Serving approximately 1.7 million households in 2000, the program provides tenant
based assistance in the form of a voucher, which then allows residents to transition from
public housing into the private market. Program participants pay 30 percent of their
monthly income toward rent and the government subsidies the remainder of the rent, as
long as the resident’s house or apartment falls within the fair market value range for the
area and meets other speciﬁed criteria. The second deconcentration strategy ultimately
seeks to create mixed-income communities through a number of different approaches.

The three most common include the Mixed-Income New Community (MIN C) strategy;

43

Move to Opportunity experiment; and Housing Opportunities for PeOple Everywhere
(HOPE VI) initiatives.

Congress authorized MINCS to promote economic integration in public housing as
part of the National Affordable Housing Act of 1990. The philosophy behind this
strategy is to lure working and middle class families into public housing developments in
order to create a greater income mix. Thus, public housing authorities are given the
leeway to modify income limits in order to target moderate and low-income working
families.

Drastically different from the MINC approach, Move to Opportunity (MTO) was
designed to test many of the neighborhood effects arguments. The Move to Opportunity
for Fair Housing Demonstration Program, a $234 million dollar HUD initiative, which
began in 1994, was a 10-year experimental study that included ﬁve cities (Baltimore,
Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York). Using the poverty rate of the receiving
community as the operating variable, residents in each of the ﬁve cities were given the
opportunity to move to less improvised neighborhoods using housing choice vouchers.
After indicating their interest in the program, residents were randomly assigned to one of
three groups. In the experimental group, they were offered a housing voucher that could
be used only in census tracts with poverty levels below 10 percent. This group also
received housing mobility counseling and housing search assistance from a counselor.
The second group, Section 8, included families that were offered a regular Section 8
certiﬁcate with no additional support. As a result, they could relocate to any community.
Finally, the control group remained in their current housing and received no Section 8

assistance at all (Popkin et al, 2000b, p. 930). The experiment was designed to measure

the effectiveness of housing mobility counseling and the effects of placement in low-
poverty neighborhoods in order to assess what factors contribute to resident mobility and
self-sufﬁciency.

The last strategy, HOPE VI, emerged from recommendations made by the National
Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing.6 Under the HOPE VI program,
public housing authorities in large metropolitan areas can apply for grants to cover
revitalization efforts in three general areas, which include physical improvements,
management improvements, and social, and community services. The ﬂexibility of the
grant allotments enables public housing authorities to rehabilitate old buildings or create
newly developed mixed-income communities. The ﬁrst HOPE VI grants were awarded in
1993 and reports from HUD indicate that at the end of 2003, approximately 5.5 billion
dollars was awarded to revitalize 217 developments nationwide.7 Table 1 presents HOPE
VI funding allotments for the Chicago Housing Authority, identifying funds, which are

being used to ﬁnance The Planfor Transformation.

Tablel: Hope VI Funding for the Chicago Housin Authority 1994-2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chich Housi_ng Authority Development Year Funding
Cabrini Green 1994 50,000,000
Henry Horner 1996 18,435,300
Robert Taylor 1996 25,000,000
ABLA Brooks 1996 24,483,250
Extension
Madden/Wells 2000 35,000,000
Darrow
Robert Taylor 2001 35,000,000
Rockwell Gardens 2001 35,000,000
Total 198,435,300

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Department of Housing and Urban Development Chicago Housing Authorities HOPE Vl grants
through November 2004

 

6 Findings from the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing are discussed in chapter

four.
7 HUD’s FY 2005 budget does not include any funding for HOPEVI initiatives.

45

Several studies have examined the overall success and failure of the three above-
mentioned housing mobility strategies from various perspectives (Cunningham, Popkin,
Godfrey, & Dendnaz, 2002; Goering & F eins, 2002; Popkin & Cunningham, 2002;
Rosenbaum, Harris, & Denton, 2003). For instance, Rosenbaum, Stroh, and Flynn (1996)
examined the degree and type of social interaction among residents at Lake Parc Place, a
MINCS community in Chicago. This rehabilitated housing project targeted very low-
income residents, who fell below 50 percent of the area median income, and low-income
families with at least one working adult with an income between 50 to 80 percent of the
area median income. The study revealed that an economically diverse but racially
homogeneous tenant group was attracted to the site, and initially housing was safer and
better maintained than other CHA properties. In addition, researchers discovered that
residents interacted, but often on superﬁcial levels. While the situation for very low-
income residents at Lake Parc Place improved initially, over time and after a change in
management, that was more lax with enforcing the rules, the social environment began to
deteriorate. Rosenbaum, Stroh, and Flynn assert that in order to maintain an economic
mix in such communities’ external factors such as, building upkeep, attention to safety,
and strict enforcement of policies and procedures are needed in order to keep higher
income families in the development.

In addition, focusing on factors needed for successful mixed-income communities,
Paul Brophy and Rhonda Smith (1997) analyzed seven mixed-income communities
across the country. The authors concluded that: developments must be well located and
have attractive design features; must have a sufﬁcient number of units aimed at higher

income residents; there can be no difference in the type of units for low-income residents.

46

Furthermore, activities are needed to help engage the upward mobility of low-income
residents, and income mixing is simply not enough. Their ﬁndings indicate that the
success of these communities for low—income residents is determined by not only the type
and quality of the housing available but also depends on the amount and type of social
cohesiveness that develops among the residents in the community.

In addition, MTO researchers have found that public housing residents who move
into the private market with the assistance of housing counselors experience better
neighborhoods (Rosenbaum, Harris, Denton, 2003; Popkin, Harris, Cunningham, 2002),
and safer housing (Rosenbaum, Stroh, & Flynn, 1996). Emily Rosenbaum, Laura Harris,
and Nancy Denton (2003), surveyed the Chicago MTO participants in order to measure
differences in neighborhood improvements for the experimental—those who had housing
assistance—and comparison or Section 8 ——those who did not have assistance—groups.
Special attention was given to participants’ ability to adjust to their new neighborhoods.
The evaluation revealed, that almost all MTO families and Section 8 families reported
housing problems, neighborhood problems, and fears for personal safety while residing in
Chicago’s public housing projects. However, reports of such problems dramatically
declined after families moved to their new neighborhoods (p. 301). The data also show
that all participants improved their housing and neighborhood condition, with
experimental groups obtaining greater improvements. The authors note that “while all of
the families originated in tracts that were highly isolated, in terms of racial composition,
and social and economic opportunities, the tracts to which they moved appear to differ
greatly depending on the group they were assigned to,” with the experimental families

moving to the most potentially advantageous environments (p. 284). It was determined

47

that the experimental families ended up settling in neighborhoods where there was greater
ethnic and economic diversity than the section 8 relocatees. Finally, Rosenbaum, Harris,
and Denton (2002) concluded that the adjustment process played a key role in the overall
comfort residents’ experienced in their new neighborhood. This included receptivity of
new neighbors, social interaction, and the maintenance or creation of supportive
networks.

Popkin, Harris, Cunningham, (2002) also found that the type of supportive
services residents utilize correlates to their placement in ‘opportunity neighborhoods’ or
neighborhoods with low levels of poverty. However, the authors’ ﬁndings from their
qualitative study with 97 participants from all three MTO groups, experiment, section 8,
and control, in all ﬁve cities, also found that those who relocated were having difﬁculty
paying rent and utility costs, and frequently experienced personal conﬂicts with
management. With regard to the social environment, participants often commented on the
differences between the social world in their new neighborhoods and the public housing
communities they had left behind, stating that while they felt safer, they also felt less
connected to their neighbors and as a result, preferred to keep to themselves. Speciﬁcally,
the authors ﬁnd that “Racial, language, and cultural barriers sometimes prevent
respondents from forming relationships, often leaving them feeling isolated and lonely”
(p vii). This could explain why the authors found that a number of the respondents
maintained contact with ﬁiends, family, and supportive networks from their old
neighborhoods.

While there are a several studies that focus on MINC communities and the MTO

experiment there are, far fewer studies that examine poverty de-concentration through the

48

creation of newly developed mixed-income communities. Current studies primarily focus
on the type and quality of supportive services public housing authorities offer to residents
who are going through the relocation process and even still tend to focus on the HCV
program. The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago (NORC)
surveyed public housing leaseholders in the second phase of the CHA’s Plan for
Transformation. The study was designed to inform the CHA about areas for future
improvement and to assess housing preferences. In addition, the study sought to
understand which services leaseholders found most helpful and what areas could be
improved. Respondents included more than 900 leaseholders relocating in 2002 and early
2003, representing approximately 83 percent of the total target population. The survey
revealed that over two-thirds of the respondents decided to relocate through the Housing
Choice Voucher program. Additionally, more than two-thirds of the respondents attended
a “Good Neighbor Clinic”,8 which over 90 percent found helpful. Results also indicated
that over two-thirds of the respondents had contact with the Service Connector program,
of which 85 percent found helpful. One-third of the respondents thought the relocation
process was difﬁcult citing as primary factors, confusion about the process, insufﬁcient
time to pack, difﬁculty in ﬁnding a suitable apartment, and lack of assistance.

In another study that examined tenant services, Mary Cunningham, Susan Popkin,
Erin Godfrey and Beata Dendnaz (2002), in collaboration with researchers at the

University of Chicago and the Urban Institute, undertook two baseline surveys to

 

8 Good Neighbor Classes are facilitated workshops that provide guidance and instruction to participants on
managing a household and the importance of remaining lease compliant. Workshop topics include moving
to a new neighborhood, getting established, budgeting for a new environment, understanding neighborhood
values, adopting neighborhood etiquette, understanding your responsibilities as a neighborhood resident,
and being of service to the community. The program is a one-day workshop that most residents are
required to attend prior to signing their lease.

49

evaluate the CHA’s relocation counseling and mobility assistance programs. Researchers
found a number of areas where counselors needed to do a better job of providing services
to residents. For instance, it appeared that a number of residents repeatedly got “lost in
the system,” and improper tracking made it difﬁcult for counselors to follow-up with
residents that they placed. Furthermore, time constraints limited the amount and quality
of relocation counseling advisors were able to provide to residents thus, the authors
suggest that many of the neighborhoods that public housing residents relocated to shared
many of the same characteristics and problems as the communities that they left. Hence,
the authors express concern that “voucher clustering,” is occurring in low-income
neighborhoods throughout the city, thus the agency is simply redistributing poverty, not
deconcentrating it.

Popkin and Cunningham (2002) also examined the CHA’s relocation counseling
services focusing on residents who went through the relocation process from 1999
through 2001. The data reveals that many residents face personal and institutional
barriers that exacerbate the relocation process. These include health-related issues, low
levels of personal efﬁcacy, and very low expectations of their ability to improve their
circumstances. Popkin and Cunningham identiﬁed several key issues in their
examination. First, lease compliance issues were widespread among residents to a point
where qualifying for assistance became a labor-intensive process. Second, it was
important to track residents who had the right to return. Third, many residents needed
more intensive preparation for the private market. Fourth, there needed to be consistency
and coordination among service providers. Finally, ongoing evaluation, more intensive

services and long-term follow-up were needed (p. 4). The authors indicate that while the

50

CHA has made a number of improvements and adjustments to their relocation process,
there are still many serious challenges, “including the pace of relocation and demolition,
the adequacy and effectiveness of services, and the complex needs of the remaining
residents-including those who are living in CHA developments illegally” (p.5). With
regard to the logistics of the C HA’s plan, the authors questioned whether there was
adequate funding to carry out the entire plan and meet the needs of the residents. The
authors express concern about the pace of the demolition exceeding the creation of new
housing, relocation assistance, and development of needed support systems for residents.
Furthermore, the ﬁndings illustrate that “C HA relocatees face substantially more barriers,
particularly substance abuse, depression, gang afﬁliation, domestic violence, and lack of
private market experience” (p. 9). In addition, there is increasing concern about the
thousands of illegal residents, either homeless squatters or people living “off the lease,”9
that will be impacted by the demolition of CHA high-rises. Finally, programmatically
speaking, there is widespread concern about the lack of accurate information regarding
residents’ status including information about the number of remaining residents, their
lease compliance status, and their status in the relocation process. Popkin and
Cunningham note that these problems seem to be connected to the issue of coordinating
uniﬁed services among the multiple agencies that provide counseling to CHA residents.
The authors conclude, “Lack of coordination creates the potential risk that families will
get lost in the process and not receive the services to which they are entitled” (p. 9).
While the above-mentioned evaluations provide useful information about the type and

quality of relocation services available to residents in Chicago, there is a need for more

 

9 Off the lease refers to people who live with CHA leaseholders that are not listed on the lease. This could
include signiﬁcant others, family members, and friends.

51

information about what residents’ experiences after they relocate to mixed-income
communities.

Furthermore, it is important to note that poverty deconcentration programs that
relocate low-income residents to the suburbs, versus those that place them in mixed-
income communities at the site of their former public housing communities, present a
very different set of circumstances with the potential for vastly different outcomes for
families, a factor, which has received little attention. Furthermore, public housing
residents who relocate to mixed-income communities at the site of their former public
housing units often ﬁnd themselves in the midst of revitalizing neighborhoods with many
new amenities; however, they are still challenged by the same macro-structural
impediments. Notwithstanding institutional discrimination and structural oppression,
placing public housing families in mixed-income communities at the site of their former
public housing developments changes their physical living space; however, this does not
change the social problems that exist in the community such as exposure to violence,
gang activity, and the omnipresent issues associated with poverty. Providing an overall
assessment of mobility programs, Rosenbaum et al. (1997) states, “Given the
preponderance of structural factors that have not changed, these innovations may not be
enough to stem the poverty, joblessness, poor education and violence and vandalism that
characterize public housing in Chicago and the nation (Rosenbaum etal., 1997, p.712).

It is evident that more research is needed on the various aspects of mixed-income
living especially as it relates to residents who remain at the site of their former public
housing development. Goetz (2003), contends that “as the country's most recent

antipoverty strategy, de-concentration raises a number of public policy controversies,

52

ranging from the federal government's culpability in prevailing patterns of racial and
class-based residential segregation to the proper role of public authority in shaping
residential communities for both the poor and non-poor” (p. 1 ). As such, continued
research on mixed-income communities is necessary in order to determine the extent to
which these new policies actually reverse the structural inequalities that have plagued
public housing residents over the years. Furthermore, there is a need to analyze this issue
from the residents’ perspective so that one might fully understand their experiences. It is
important to keep in mind that that the experiences of women in high poverty urban
environments differ from the experiences of men, and as such calls for examinations and
reforms that consider their unique social location. Therefore, it is necessary to embrace a
framework that considers not only the impact of racism, but also reveals how gender
discrimination and economic marginalization in the housing market continues to funnel
low-income female heads of households into areas of concentrated poverty.

Miranne (2000) asserts that welfare and public housing reforms leave poor
women vulnerable to further subjugation especially when federal reforms do not consider
the “in between spaces” that poor women occupy; as such, public policies present more
challenges for these women in caring for themselves and their families. She suggests that
poor women, particularly those who receive welfare and live in public housing are
“embounded”; they are isolated when the state revamps policies and withdraws resources.
Miranne notes that federal housing programs are essentially “women’s programs”
because “more than 80 percent of non-elderly public housing residents live below the
poverty line and female-headed households now constitute 85 percent of the families with

dependent children in public housing, in some cities this number exceeds 95 percent” (p.

53

127). While it is true, that public housing across the nation has become racialized and
feminized spaces of concentrated poverty, very little is written about the lived
experiences of low-income Black women who live in these communities.
Conceptual Framework

The CHA’s Plan for Transformation is guided by a set of federal directives that
have a direct and immediate impact on the lives of low-income Black women who live in
public housing. As such, this program exempliﬁes the relationship between social,
political, economic, and cultural factors that shape public policy and the impact on
individuals at both the macro structural and micro level of personal biography. Therefore,
this study calls for a conceptual framework that allows for a structural analysis of macro
systems while still providing enough ﬂexibility to consider an individual’s place within
this structure. Such a framework must take into consideration how macro structural
elements inﬂuence everyday interactions and how individuals relate to and inﬂuence the
structure. An intersections framework allows for such an examination.

Intersectionality. Intersectionality examines the interlocking nature of race, class, and

 

gender and considers how these variables are socially constructed and simultaneously
interact with systems of domination that perpetuate systematic forms of inequality. This
framework considers how representations of race, class and gender are simultaneously
experienced, as it refuses to separate or categorize oppression into hierarchies (Andersen
& Collins, 2001; Brewer, 1999; Zinn & Dill, 1994). Furthermore, the framework is
transgressive in that it goes beyond traditional universalizing and essentializing
perspectives and reveals the unseen hegemonic assumptions that perpetuate inequality.

An intersections approach asserts that depending on one’s social location, his or her

54

experience with the system will differ. Aida Hurtado (1996) states that an intersections
approach refuses to place oppression in hierarchies or fragmented identities. She posits
that it emphasizes personal and collective accountability, and subject-positionality.

One of the greatest strengths of this approach is that it allows one to consider how
power is organized, maintained, and experienced in what Patricia Hill Collins (2000),
Maxine Baca Zinn, and Bonnie Dill (1994) identify as the Matrix of Domination. The
authors advance the Matrix of Domination as an organizing mechanism that considers the
structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and interpersonal domains of power, thus allowing
for an examination of how individuals are differently situated and interact with various
forms of power and subjugation.

Race, class, and gender are overlapping and cumulative variables, different but
interrelated axes of social structure. Therefore, Collins and Anderson state, “thinking
about race, class and gender need not entail thinking about all groups at one time. Rather
it means understanding the experiences of only one group in context” (p. 3). They assert
that an analysis grounded in race, class, and gender can be complete even when centered
on the experiences of a single group as long as the framework recognizes the inﬂuence of
race, class, and gender on the group’s experience (p.7). Thus, by acknowledging how the
structure operates, it sheds new light on the nature of structural inequality, revealing how
inequality can be replicated for various groups, repeated across different structures, and
repeated in many different contexts.

Sociologist Assata Zerai (2000) notes, “One cannot understand domination and
resistance, social inequality, and thus the social world without considering the ways race,

class, and gender operate as interlocking systems ofdomination”(p. 184). Since

55

intersectionality does not compartmentalize race, class, or gender as separate units of
analysis, the framework provides heuristic value in that it allows scholars to gain a more
accurate picture of how individuals interact with social systems. Intersectionality
challenges urban scholars to engage in a more critical form of inquiry by recognizing that
race, class, and gender are social constructions that are experienced simultaneously.
There are several overarching principles associated with Intersectionality. First, it
deconstructs and challenges dominant paradigms. Second, scholars contemplate how
individuals simultaneously experience and negotiate race, class, and gender and in so
doing generate new forms of critical analysis. Third, Intersectionality is concerned with
the structure of systems that grant and deny privilege. The framework recognizes that
systems are constantly changing and that race, class, and gender are social constructions
with meanings that can change across time and space depending on social, economic, and
political factors. In addition, the framework critiques negative hegemonic images and
assumptions associated with gender and race. Next, intersectionality embraces non-
traditional forms of knowledge. Finally, this approach is committed to social activism and
building coalitions across communities. Speciﬁcally focusing on Black women, Rose
Brewer (I999) posits that an intersectional analysis also: critiques dichotomous,
oppositional thinking; reconstructs the lived experiences, historical positioning, cultural
perceptions and social construction of Black women; and develops a feminism rooted in
class, culture, gender and race interaction as its organizing principle (p. 33). These
principles challenge social scientists to engage in a more holistic form of inquiry,
presenting complete rather than fragmented depictions of social relations. It is only by

employing an Intersections framework that one can adequately examine the interlocking

56

nature of race, class, and gender and consider how these variables are socially
constructed, and simultaneously interact with systems of domination that perpetuate
systematic forms of inequality. Since this framework does not compartmentalize race,
class, or gender as separate units of analysis, intersectionality allows scholars to gain a
more accurate picture of how individuals interact with social systems, thus helping
scholars and practitioners reassess how they view the relationship between public
housing reform and its impact on the lives of low-income Black women.

One of the important principles of Intersectionality is the consideration of social location.
In recognizing the interconnectedness of race, class, and gender, scholars pay particular
attention to how social location is shaped by both privilege and oppression (Andersen &
Collins, 2001; Collins, 2000; Zinn & Dill, 1994; Mullings, 1997; Webber, 2001). An
intersections approach asserts that depending on one’s social location, his or her
experience with the system will differ. Thus, how one interacts with the system is
relationally determined by social location (Andersen & Collins, 2001a; Brewer, 1999;
Lerner, 1993). Social location refers to one’s position in society; it is a place where one is
located in the social order based on race, class, and gender. It takes into consideration
hierarchal systems that grant or withhold social opportunities. In addition, social location
is ﬂuid and depends on context. It refers to where one stands in the world and determines
how he/she sees, experiences, and explains it. Andersen and Collins (2001) note that
one’s interaction with a structure of different systems of domination, results in different
systems of privilege and disadvantage. Intersection scholars note that recognizing one’s
social location forces one to realize that there are no pure victims or oppressors.

Depending on the context, the socially constructed variables that deﬁne one’s privilege in

57

one situation might implicate one’s subjugation in another. Hence, acknowledging that
social construction of race, class, and gender create hierarchies that grant and deny access
to social, political, and economic resources based on social location is highly important.

Collins (1998) asserts that Black women’s social location signals a new politics of
containment, but not in the historical sense of being hidden away in racially segregated
neighborhoods with their inferior public services but rather a system that relies much
more heavily on surveillance tactics that ﬁx Black women in the public eye. Collins
states, “What we now seem to have is a curious reversal: practices of racial segregation
that foster Black women’s subordination seem increasingly hidden and invisible, where
as poverty and other effects of racial segregation on Black women become increasingly
subject to public scrutiny. In this context, freedom represents not the move into the public
sphere but the move out of it” (Collins, 1998, p. 35). She goes on to say, “Surveillance
seems designed to produce a particular effect- Black women remain visible yet silenced;
their bodies become writings by other texts, yet they remain powerless to speak for
themselves” (Collins, 1998, p. 38).

As a result of systems of privilege and disadvantage that are regulated by social
constructions of race, class, and gender, groups that share similar characteristics gain
different perspectives about the nature of inequality. Collins (1991) states that the
“outsider within” status has provided African American women a special perspective on
self, family, and society. Systems of domination require Black women to know the
language, norms, and culture of the dominant society. However, individuals who control
access to resources do not necessarily have knowledge of the language, norms and culture

of marginalized groups. Thus, oppressed groups have a different worldview than

58

privileged groups. Moreover, although every interaction has an element of power, power
dynamics are not seen by everyone, especially those who beneﬁt from their position. As
such, those in power or privileged positions who cannot “see” systems of domination are
unable to ﬁilly explain social reality. It is for this reason that Collins (2000) advances the
use of “Black Feminist Thought” as a way to reveal the unseen hegemonic assumptions
that shape and design the structure of privilege and subjugation.

Black Feminist Thought. Collins, describes ‘Black Feminist Thought’ as a critical
social theory that relies on a paradigm of intersecting oppressions to analyze Black
women’s experiences. She emphasizes that Black feminist thought’s purpose is to foster
both Black women’s empowerment and conditions of social justice (Collins, 2000, p. x).
Collins notes that the theory contains the following six distinguishing features. First, it
recognizes that the experiences of Aﬁican American women provide scholars and
practitioners with a unique angle and vision concerning Black womanhood unavailable to
others. Second, the theory acknowledges that experiences with struggle or oppression
encompass all Black women, and even though it might manifest itself in different ways,
these experiences create a particular worldview of structural dynamics. Third, employing
this theory manifests the power of self-determination, which Collins notes is the key to
empowerment. Fourth, Black feminist thought allows Black women to create their own
political, scholarly, and social agendas. Next, it recognizes that change is inevitable and
conditions cannot remain static. Finally, Black Feminist thought works toward the
upliftment of humanity (p.41). It is important to note that Black feminist thought does not
seek to universalize the experiences of Black women. Collins herself acknowledges that

there is a great deal of diversity among Black women. However, she argues that there are

59

commonalities among Black women, grounded in experiences with struggle, and it is
these commonalities, which generate a unique “Black consciousness.” Collins asserts,
“Oppression creates a reoccurring pattern of experience.” Thus, for Black women in the
United States, the legacy of struggle forms Black women’s collective consciousness and
as such, views and standpoints African American women occupy allows them to see
things differently (p. 25). Collins notes that not all Black women experience things the
same way and that some US. Black women suppress others, but generally this common
experience with struggle encompasses three interdependent dimensions. The ﬁrst
dimension relates to exploitation in the labor market; the second identiﬁes systematic
barriers that withhold equity in the political realm; and the third dimension addresses the
social construction of Black women. Collins maintains that the subjugation that occurs in
the labor market and political realms are supported and sustained by negative images
such as the mammy, jezebel and welfare queen, that denigrate Black women as a whole.
Furthermore, Collins (1998) states:

The ﬂuidity that accompanies intersectionality does not mean that groups

themselves disappear, to be replaced by an accumulation of

decontextualized, unique individuals whose personal complexity makes

group based identities and politics that emerge from group constructions

impossible. Instead, the ﬂuidity of boundaries operates as a new lens that

potentially deepens understanding of how the actual mechanisms of

institutional power can change dramatically even while they reproduce

long-standing group inequalities of race, class, and gender.” (Collins,

1998,p.205)

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In this sense, African-American women’s group history and location can be seen
as points of convergence within structural, hierarchical, and changing power
relations. A Collins (1998) asserts that the construct of intersectionality works
well with issues of individuals’ agency and human subjectivity and thus has
surface validity in explaining everyday life. Black feminist thought offers two
important contributions to the way that one views micro and macro levels of
structural inequality. First, it establishes a fundamental paradigmatic shift in how
one thinks about unjust power relations. Second, it challenges current ideas about
what counts as knowledge (Collins, 2000, p.273). Collins includes the voices of
women who are not usually considered scholars, such as musicians, artists, and
community leaders. She notes, “Developing Black feminist thought as critical
social theory involves including the ideas of Black women not previously
considered intellectuals many of whom may be working-class women with jobs
outside academia... The ideas we share with one another as mothers in extended
families, as other mothers in the Black communities, as members of Black
churches, and as teachers to the Black community’s children have formed a
pivotal area where African American women have hammered out a multifaceted
Black women’s standpoint (Collins, 2000, p. 17). She also states:
As critical social theory, Black feminist thought encompasses bodies of
knowledge and sets of institutional practices that actively grapple with central
questions facing U.S. Black women as a group. Such theory recognizes that U. S.
Black women constitute one group among many that are differently placed within

situations of injustice. What makes critical social theory “critical” is its

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commitment to justice for one’s own groups and for other groups. Within these
parameters, knowledge for knowledge’s sake is not enough. Black Feminist
Thought must both be tied to Black women’s lived experiences and aim to better
those experiences in some fashion. When such thought is sufﬁciently grounded in
Black feminist practice, it reﬂects this dialogical relationship. Black feminist
thought encompasses general knowledge that helps U.S. Black women survive in,
cope with, and resist our differential treatment. (Collins, 2000, p. 31)
This study employs the concepts of Intersectionality and Black Feminist Thought in order
to reveal the lived experiences of low-income Black women who have transitioned from
public housing into a mixed-income community in Chicago. Such an analysis shifts the
discussion away from dominant mainstream views and focuses on the experiences of
Black women. It also embarrasses organic knowledge and intellectual traditions that
come from outside of the academy. Furthermore, this framework allows for a micro and
macro examination of structural inequality and for the ﬁrll consideration of how race,
class, and gender shape one’s relationship with systematic forms of oppression and

power.

 

Systems of Domination. Zinn and Dill (1994) contend that patterns of hierarchy,
domination, and oppression based on race, class, gender and sexual orientation are built
into the structure of our society. Thus, inequality is grounded in social constructions that
are used to create hierarchies of power and privilege. The authors work from a social
constructionist framework as they posit that race, class, and gender hierarchies situate
people differently, where those at the top of the hierarchy are dependent on the

exploitation of those at the bottom (p.5). They go on to state that race, class, and gender

62

create a Matrix of Domination that women of color experience at the levels of personal
biography, group cultural levels, and social institutions.

In Black Feminist Thought Collins (2000) presents the Matrix of Domination as a
way to analyze the structural components of intersectionality. She stresses that
intersectionality refers to particular forms of intersecting oppressions, for example race,
class, and gender. However, the Matrix of Domination refers to how these intersecting
oppressions are actually organized regardless of the particular intersections involved. The
Matrix of Domination reveals four domains of power: structural, disciplinary, hegemonic,
and interpersonal. The structural domain organizes oppression, for example federal
housing policies at the legislative level. Disciplinary domains manage oppression through
forms of surveillance and social policies. This domain is most readily seen in policies and
procedures that regulate the lives of public housing residents. The hegemonic domain
justiﬁes oppression as natural and controls ideology, culture, and consciousness as
evidenced by the images and perceptions of low-income families, their neighborhoods,
and assumptions about their moral character. Finally, the interpersonal domain refers to
the inﬂuence of everyday interactions at the micro level of social organization, for
example looking at the everyday lived experiences of public housing residents. Each
domain is interrelated, reappears across different forms of oppression, and serves a
particular purpose (p.18). Collins points out that the conﬁguration contains few “pure”
victims or oppressors (287). The Matrix of Domination positions power, not as something
that groups possess, but rather as an intangible entity that circulates within a particular

Matrix of Domination and to which individuals stand in varying relationships.

63

An intersections framework grounded in the principles of Black feminist thought
changes how African American women are studied because it places Black women at the
center of analysis, deconstructs racist and sexist images of Aﬁican American women, and
allows for self-deﬁnition. Andersen and Collins (2001) provide several reasons why it is
important to shift the center of inquiry in order to reconstruct knowledge. First, learning
about other groups helps one realize the partiality of his/her perspective. In addition,
when people have misleading or incorrect knowledge, this leads to the formation of bad
policies, and when this happens marginalized groups do not receive the social, economic,
and political resources needed to maintain a quality standard of living. Finally, what you
know frames how you behave, think, and feel about yourself and others (p.15).
Examining the lived experiences of Black women who formerly lived in Cabrini Green
and now live in North Town Village in order to reveal their relationship with the process
of policy reform, contributes to the work that is being done on mixed-income
communities. It considers how structural, disciplinary, hegemonic and interpersonal
domains of power intersect race, class, and gender to shape the everyday lived
experiences of these women. Furthermore, grounding the study in an lntersectional
framework challenges research that isolates race, class, or gender as independent
variables and thus, acknowledges the need for continued scholarship that examines the
interconnectedness of race, class, and gender oppression.

The purpose of this study is to examine the lived experiences of nine low-income
Black women who transitioned out of public housing into a newly constructed mixed-
income community under the Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation.

This is accomplished by ﬁrst, by examining sociopolitical factors that inﬂuence logistical

64

aspects of the Plan; and second, by capturing the voices and experiences of the
participants in order to understand their relocation experiences. The study is guided by

the principles of Intersectionality and Black Feminist Thought.
Research Questions

1. How does viewing low-income Black woman as agents of knowledge inform
one’s understanding of the Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for
Transformation?

2. How do logistical and programmatic aspects of the Chicago Housing Authority’s
Plan for Transformation impact the participants of this study?

3. What strategies do the participants employ to overcome the structural inequalities
and limitations they may face as a result of recent housing policy changes?

4. Do the participants relocation and transition experiences align with the Chicago
Housing Authority stated goals and objectives as presented in the Plan for
Transformation?

65

Key Terms and Concepts

Central Advisory Council (CAC) - The CAC is comprised of the presidents of the local residents
councils at each CHA development. This council serves on the behalf of all CHA residents in an
effort to mediate residents’ concerns with the CHA administration.

CHA- Chicago Housing Authority

Concentration of Poverty- A term used to describe a community that consists primarily of low-
income, poor, and improvised individuals and families where 40 percent or more of the
population is impoverished. These are generally communities that have been isolated from vital
resources including social services, jobs, and infrastructure. Theorists contend that prolonged
exposure to such an environment limits and reduces one’s social capital and life chances (Goetz,
2003).

CopingStrategy- Behaviors or acts that individuals or groups engage in to subvert dominate
systems and discriminatory practices.

 

Domains of Power - Intersections theorists acknowledge that inequality is grounded in social
constructions that are used to create hierarchies of power and privilege. The Matrix of
Domination reveals four domains of power: structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and
interpersonal. The structural domain organizes oppression; the disciplinary domains manage
oppression through forms of surveillance and social polices; the hegemonic domain justiﬁes
oppression as natural and controls ideology culture, and consciousness; and the interpersonal
domain refers to the inﬂuence of everyday interactions at the micro level of social organization
(Collins, 2000; Zinn & Dill, 1994).

 

Good Ngghbor Class — This program was established in 1999 as part of the CHA's Plan for
Transformation. The purpose of the class is to help residents make a successful transition from
public housing into their new communities. Workshop topics include: Moving to a new
neighborhood, getting established, budgeting for a new environment, understanding
neighborhood values, adopting neighborhood etiquette, understanding your responsibilities as a
neighborhood resident, and being of service to the community.

 

General Area- Deﬁned as an area where less than thirty percent of the population is Black. This
deﬁnition emerges from the Gautreaux court settlement.

Emboundment — A concept that explains what happens federal reforms do not consider the “in
between spaces” that poor women occupy. Thus leaving them vulnerable to further subjugation
especially when the state revamps policies while also withdrawing resources (Miranne, 2000).

Everyday Resistance - Daily acts of community activism that marginalized groups engage in, that
challenge forms of oppression and domination (Feldman & Stall, 2004).

Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere QIOPE Vl)— A housing program sponsored by the

federal government which covers expenses related to public housing demolition, construction,
and social services for public housing residents. The ﬁrst HOPE VI grants were awarded in 1993.

66

Intersectionality- A theoretical framework that examines the interlocking nature of race, class,
and gender and considers how these variables are socially constructed and simultaneously interact
with systems of domination that perpetuate systematic forms of inequality (Collins, 2000; Zinn &
Dill, 2000).

 

Limited Area- An area where more than 30 percent of the population is Black.

Matrix of Domination - An organizing mechanism that considers the structural, disciplinary,
hegemonic, and interpersonal domains of power (Collins, 2000).

Mixed-Income Communities — A current housing strategy that seeks to reduce concentrated
poverty through the creation of housing developments where varieties of social economic groups
are represented. Generally speaking, these developments consist of one-third public housing, one-
third affordable housing, and one third-market rate homes

 

North Town Village — mTV) A newly created 70 billion dollar mixed income community located
in the Near North Section of Chicago adjacent to Cabrini Green, bordering the Gold Coast and
Lincoln Park.

@3611 Gallery Style High-Rises — Public housing building with eight or more stories with
hallways and elevator entrances that are fully or partially exposed. These buildings have no
internal hallways.

Plan for Transformation- The Chicago Housing Authority’s housing initiative that seeks to
deconcentrate poverty by redeveloping and rehabilitating 25,000 units of their public housing
stock.

Private Management Company (PMC) — Under the Plan for Transformation, the CHA transfers
responsibility and governance of their properties and residents to private management companies.
As such PMCs are now responsible for screening public housing residents in order to determine if
applicants will make suitable community members.

Scattered Site Public Housing- Projects of fewer than 15 units located in non-minority
concentrated neighborhoods.

Section 8/Housing Choice Voucher Program - A government subsidy program that provides
tenant-based housing assistance to low-income families in order to facilitate housing choice. The
program was originally entitled Section 8; however it is now referred to as the Section 8 Housing
Choice Voucher Program. Section 8 and HCV are used interchangeably throughout the text.
While under the Section 8 system individuals were limited to ﬁnding an apartment listed at the
determined fair market value, under the Housing Choice voucher system, individuals can rent a
place that exceeds fair market rent as long as they are willing to pay the difference between the
government subsidy and the management determined rent.

Social Capital- Deﬁned as the investment and use of embedded resources in social relations for

expected returns. This may include the quantity and/or quality of resources that the actor or a
group can access or use through its location in a social network (Lin, 2000).

67

Social Location — Social location refers to one’s position in society; it is a place where one is
located in the social order based on race, class, and gender. It takes into consideration hierarchal
systems that grant or withhold social opportunities. In addition, social location is ﬂuid and
depends on context. Where one stands in the world determines how he/she sees, experiences, and
explains it (Andersen & Collins, 2001; Collins, 2000; Zinn & Dill, 1994; Mullings, 1997;

Webber, 2001).

 

68

CHAPTER III
Methodology

Through in-depth interviews, document analysis, and ﬁeld research this
embedded case study investigates the lived experiences of nine Black women who
formerly lived in Cabrini Green, a Chicago public housing development, and now live in
North Town Village, one of the newly created mixed-income communities created under
the Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation. The study ﬁrst, examines
factors that shape the logistical aspects of the Plan and then presents the voices and of the
participants in order to understand their experiences and reactions to the Plan. The
following questions shape the study: ( 1) How does viewing low-income Black woman as
agents of knowledge inform one’s understanding of the Chicago Housing Authority’s
Plan for Transformation? (2) How do logistical and programmatic aspects of the
Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation impact the participants of this
study? (3) What strategies do the participants employ to overcome the structural
inequalities and limitations they may face as a result of recent housing policy changes?
(4) Do the participants relocation and transition experiences align with the Chicago
Housing Authority stated goals and objectives as presented in the Plan for

Transformation?

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the methodological framework and
investigative approaches used in this study. To accomplish this I ﬁrst highlight the
importance of using a method that allows for naturalistic forms of inquiry. 1 then discuss

the importance of viewing the researcher as a tool that shapes and informs the study thus,

69

stressing the need for reﬂexivity. The latter part of the chapter unpacks the study design

highlighting data sources, collection, and analysis.

Since its inception, the CHA’s Plan fbr Transformation has received considerable
attention from scholars, activists, public policy makers, and the public. While there are
several surveys that evaluate the program and tenant satisfaction (Popkin, Harris &
Cunningham, 2002; Rosenbaum, Stroh & Flynn, 1996; Rosenbaum, Harris & Denton,
2002), very few studies provide a detailed analysis of the impact the Plan has had on
residents nor do other assessments seek to understand the residents’ experience with the
process. By and large, the voices of African-American women have either been excluded
or left out of the larger conversation that shapes and informs this issue. However, Black
women who live in public housing offer a perspective on this topic that transcends other
forms of inquiry. Their unique social location gives them a view of this process that

administrators, city ofﬁcials, and employees at the CHA do not have.

Patricia Hill Collins (2000) highlights the importance of viewing Black women as
agents of knowledge. She discusses how African-American women have developed their
Own worldview from interactions in family, community, jobs, and from their outsider
Within social location (p.1 1). Since people create and negotiate meanings based on their
Social location, others can only come to know and understand these meanings when the
Person discloses or reveals these meanings to another. Thus, it is important to collect and
Present the voices of these women so that one might form a more complete and holistic

View of the CHA’s Plan.

70

Qualitative Approaches

A research method that allows for the consideration of reality as a social
construction is an essential part of the project. Furthermore, the method must recognize
that there are multiple constructed realities that cannot be understood in isolation from
their contexts. Clough and Nutbrown (2002) note “Qualitative researchers stress the
socially constructed nature of reality, the intimate relationship between the researcher and
what is studied, and the situational constraints that shape inquiry” (p.19). Researchers
note that qualitative methods permit the investigator to engage in an in-depth and detailed
study of selected issues and real people. In addition, the method allows the investigator
to structure the study in such a way that valuable data is produced while still maintaining
enough ﬂexibility to allow for a creative process of re-constructing meaning. Michael
Patton (1990) asserts that a qualitative inquiry emphasizes and builds on several
interconnected themes. First, qualitative inquiry concerns itself with naturalistic inquiry,
Studying real world situations as they unfold naturally. It is also an inductive analysis,
immersed in the details and speciﬁcs of the data to discover important categories,
dimensions, and interrelationships. Furthermore, it assumes each case is special and
uIlique as it respects and captures the details of the individual cases being studied.
FIll'therrnore, qualitative research is also concerned with situating ﬁndings in a social,
hiStorical, and temporal context. In addition, the approach recognizes that complete
Obj ectivity is impossible and pure subjectivity undermines credibility. Patton asserts that
the researcher’s passion is understanding the world in all its complexity—not proving
Something, not advocating, not advancing personal agendas, but understanding. An

important part of the process is the personal experience and empathic insight that the

71

researcher includes. Finally, in qualitative investigations the design of the study is
ﬂexible, open to adapting inquiry as understanding deepens or the situation changes. The
researcher avoids being locked into rigid designs that eliminate responsiveness and

pursues new paths of discovery as they emerge (Patton, 1990).

Over the years feminist scholars have readily employed qualitative methods to
raise consciousness about women’s subjectivity (MacKinnon, 1982) and also
acknowledge that there are multiple forms of knowledge (Anzaldua, 1987; Chow, 1987;
Collins, 1990; Davis, 1981; Dill; 1979; Green, 1990; hooks, 1990) generated by an
individual’s unique social location. Writings by and about women of color (Collins,
1986; Hurtado, 1989; Zinn, 1990; Zinn & Dill, 2000) moved feminist research toward a
greater recognition of the interplay of race, class, and gender in shaping women’s
Oppression. Scholars assertively addressed the absence of women’s experiences from
mainstream discourse noting that the importance of situating individual experiences
1‘ ather than perpetuating essentialist assumptions. Olsen (2000) contends that the concept
0f the essentialized, universal women disappeared as standpoint theorist articled the need
t0 examine various perspectives within context. Researchers (Smith, 1974; Collins, 1998;
HEslr'tsock, 1983; Harding,l997) argued that all knowledge claims are socially located and
that some social locations, especially those at the bottom of social and economic

hierarchies, are better than others as starting points for seeking knowledge.

Qualitative methods best ﬁt the scope of this study because they allow for the
Consideration of multiple social realities and privilege the rich data that comes from an
irl-depth analysis. In addition, these approaches do not seek to provide generalizations but

rather ﬁnd value in the representation of individual experiences. Qualitative approaches

72

employ inductive analysis meaning that the patterns, themes, and categories of analysis
come from the data; they emerge out of the data rather than being imposed on them prior
to data collection and analysis (Patton, 1990). Furthermore, organizing the project as an
embedded case study allows these women’s stories to be placed in their proper context
and understood in relation to the sociopolitical processes that shape their experience. The
embedded case study design acknowledges the primary program, in this case the CHA’s
Plan for Transformation, but also seeks to understand how additional aspects, or
subunits, are inﬂuenced or inﬂuence the program. Thus, this approach allowed the
researcher to use the experiences of the participants in the program as a way to
understand and evaluate aspects of the program’s overall effectiveness. Patton notes that
case studies become particularly useful when one needs to understand some special
people, particular problem, or unique situation in great depth, and where one can identify
cases rich in information where a great deal can be learned from a few exemplars of the
Phenomenon in question (Patton, 1990). A case study can be a person, an event, a
PrOgram, an organization, a time period a critical incident, or a community. Regardless of
the unit of analysis, a qualitative case study seeks to describe that unit in depth and detail,
in context, and holistically (Patton, I990). Utilizing in-depth interviews, document
analysis, and ﬁeld research, this embedded case study embraces the principles and

Strategies of qualitative inquiry.

Qualitative studies generally consist of three kinds of data collection: (1) in-
depth, open-ended interviews; (2) direct observation; and (3) analysis of written
documents (Patton, 1990, p.10). Interviews generate unique data, which is based on

People’s experiences, opinions, feelings, and knowledge. These allow the researcher to

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collect more nuanced information about the lives and experiences of the participants.
Furthermore, informants are not locked into a closed question with predetermined
answers, but are given the opportunity for openness and uninhibited discovery.
Speciﬁcally, McCracken (1988) advocates the use of the long interview for data

collection in qualitative studies:

The long interview is one of the most powerful methods in the qualitative armory.
For certain descriptive and analytic purposes, no instrument of inquiry is more
revealing. The method can take us into the mental world of the individual, to
glimpse the categories and logic by which he or she sees the world. It can also
take us into the life world of the individual, to see the content and pattern of daily
experience. The long interview gives us the opportunity to step into the mind of

another person, to see and experience the world as he/she do themselves. (p. 9)

This form of interviewing can be implemented in structured, semi-structured, or
unstructured formats. Hence, depending on the subject and the context, individual
interviews allow for optimal adaptability. This approach helps investigators recreate
individual experiences so that they may be shared and understood by others. In addition,
anchoring interviews with in-depth critical document analysis, which yields excerpts,
quotations, or entire passages from organizational, records, memoranda, and
correspondence, allows the researcher to present a more holistic assessment of the issues

under evaluation.
Role of the Researcher

An essential component of qualitative approaches is acknowledging the

researcher as an instrument that directly and indirectly shapes and inﬂuences the study

74

(Frankenberg & Mani, 1993; Millen, 1997; Phoneix, 1994; Reay, 1998; Rissman, 1987).
Understanding the researcher as an instrument is a useful metaphor in that it emphasizes
that the investigator cannot fulﬁll qualitative research objectives without using a broad
range of his or her own experiences, imagination, and intellect in ways that are various
and unpredictable (Denzin & Linclon, 2000; Miles, 1979; Patton, 1990). Maxine Baca
Zinn (1979) considers the problems and advantages minority investigators face when
researching minority groups, especially when they are an “insider” or member of the
group. There are two prevailing opinions regarding insider-outsider usefulness and
validity when it comes to research with minority populations. Opponents argue that non-
minority researchers are better qualiﬁed for such investigations because minority scholars
may lack the required objectivity. Baca Zinn notes however, that this view fails to
consider issues such as minority people’s distrust and resistance to research in general,
more speciﬁcally when this involves White researchers. Baca Zinn acknowledges that
researchers who are insiders can fall into the same trap of exploiting their participants;
however, minority scholars have some empirical and methodological advantages in the
situation. One of the unique advantages of insider ﬁeld research is that it is less apt to
encourage distrust, hostility, and exclusion from the community. It also prevents
researchers from “seeing” only what the participants want them to see (212). With regard
to critiques about insider researcher subjectivity, Baca Zinn states that “as long as
researchers follow established procedures and logically relate their conclusion to the data,
they are systematically guarding against bias, whatever their background” (213). The
overarching idea is that researchers must carry out research with ethical and intellectual

integrity.

75

Focusing speciﬁcally on Black female researchers that interview Black female
informants Few, Stephens, Rouse-Amett (2003) note that even when researches share
race and gender with their informants, barriers are still possible because of differences in
class, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or nationality. The authors contend that the ‘isms’ of
daily life—racism, sexism, and classism, for example, must be negotiated with
informants throughout the research process. They argue that sharing certain identities is
not enough to presume an insider status because idiosyncrasies are embedded in our
identities that inevitably create moments of intimacy and distance between informant and
researcher. Few, Stephens, Rouse-Amett (2003), offer ﬁve suggestions for researchers to
consider when interviewing Black women. These include (a) contextualizing research, (b)
contextualizing self in the research process, (c) monitoring symbolic power in the
representation of the process, ((1) triangulating multiple sources, and (e) caring for the
informants in the research process.

Given that the researcher is a critical part of the study design, data collection, and
analysis in qualitative studies, it is important for the investigators to engage in processes
of reﬂexivity in order to critically examine and explore the analytical nature of the
research process (Collins, 1998; Fonow & Cook, 2005; Few, Stephens, Rouse-Amett,
2003). Collins asserts, “Qualitative researchers must take care to develop and maintain
an informed reﬂexive consciousness. To contextualize skillfully their own subjectivity in
the data interpretation and the re/presentation of metanarratives in the research process”
(as cited in Olesen, 2000, p.219). Likewise Few, Stephens, Rouse-Amett (2003) contend
that the researcher must be reﬂexively attuned to dynamics of the informant-researcher

relationship with the goal of minimizing the hierarchies of differential power. The

76

authors declare, “As Black women who study Black women, we must remember that our
informants are not mere subjects of research but active agents in deﬁning who we are and
have been and why we do things the way we do as a diverse yet collective group” (Few,
Stephens, Rouse-Amett, 2003, p.210). The tradition of reﬂexivity has roots in feminist
traditions especially those approaches that allowed for the examination of women’s ‘lived
experience,’ as a way to recover what had been omitted or distorted in academic
knowledge about women and gender thus giving women a voice in the construction of
new knowledge (Allen, 2000; Bell-Scott, 1982; Collins, 1998, 2000; Dilworth-Anderson,
Burton, & Johnson, 1993; Fonow & Cook, 2005; McAdoo, 1991). Furthermore, Fonow
& Cook (2005) comment that reﬂexivity also allows researchers to consciously write
themselves into the text and reﬂect on the meaning of the research. Therefore,
understanding the researcher’s social location helps to reveal the process of knowledge
production. It is within these above-mentioned traditions that I take the time to
acknowledge my social location so that reader might understand how my position shaped

the design of this study.

Background of the Investigator. I was born in South Bend, Indiana and at the age
of ﬁve, my family moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Both cities are similar in that they are
small urban cities, comprised primarily of working and middle class families, and
situated in predominantly White communities. In Iowa, my family lived in a
predominantly White neighborhood where I attended a predominantly White school, and
had mostly White friends. Looking back, I do not recall any overt incidents with racism,
yet I do recall inherently understanding that there was a “difference” between Black and

White people. My parents had a strong support system comprised primarily of other

77

Black people in the city and my father was extremely active with civil rights issues and
the local NAACP. Thus, even though I was surrounded by Whiteness, early on I
developed a racial consciousness and was able to recognize forms of differential

treatment based on race.

My parents divorced when I was twelve and when I turned fourteen, my mother,
sister and I moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. For the ﬁrst time, I was exposed to a large urban
community with a substantial Black population. However, despite, or maybe in spite of,
the fact that there was more ethnic diversity in Cincinnati, the city was riddled with more
obvert forms of institutional racism, most evident in the segregated school system, and
housing patterns in comparison to Iowa. In Cincinnati, I distinctly recall the Klu Klux
Klan holding several rallies in a popular downtown area known as “The Square,” located

just a few blocks away from my high school.

Not only did my racial awareness change as a result of sociopolitical factors in the
city, I was also exposed to a type of poverty that I had not known before. We lived in a
working class section of the city known as Mt. Airy and the high school I attended, The
School for the Creative and Performing Arts, was located in downtown Cincinnati, an
area surrounded by poverty, blight, and buildings that had fallen into disrepair. The move
to Ohio and separation from my father also placed a great deal of ﬁnancial hardship on
my mother who was able to secure a job as an assistant manager at McDonalds, a drastic
change from the professional accountant position she held in Iowa. When we ﬁrst moved
to Cincinnati, we initially leased a room in a house from a family friend. Later, we moved
into a three-bedroom apartment in a low and moderate-income housing complex where

rent varied according to income. At that time, I did not recognize the “hazards” of the

78

community such as the unkempt property, the drug dealers in the park, or the security
issues connected with the other part of the complex just around the comer. From my
teenage perspective, our apartment seemed nice, especially when I compared it to the
area that surrounded my school. Reﬂecting back now, I can appreciate my family’s
delicate ﬁnancial situation and I now realize how close to the poverty line we lived.
While I understood the difference between wealth and poverty, 1 never felt like my
family was poor. However, sociologists today would certainly characterize our situation
as such. Thanks to my mother’s direction early in life, I developed an appreciation for
books and the type of opportunities an education afforded. After high school, I went on to
attend Ohio University and from there pursued both a Master’s and Doctorate degree at
Central Michigan University and Michigan State University respectively. My
socioeconomic standing throughout my educational pursuits did not change; however, the
prestige associated with attaining educational degrees shifted my social capital and the
opportunities afforded me. As a Black woman who grew up in a single parent working
class family and who later in life was immersed in the world of academia, my social

location inﬂuences the insight and perspectives that I bring to the study.
Project Design

I ﬁrst became aware of the public housing changes occurring in Chicago after
viewing an episode of 60 minutes 11. Detailing the CHA’s Plan for Transformation, the
show tackled the agency’s intention to tear down all public housing high-rises in the city
and create new mixed-income communities where residents would live next to
homeowners who paid full market value—more than $300,000— for their home. I was

intrigued by the documentary and left with a number of questions about the impact that

79

this new policy would have on public housing residents, communities, and race relations
in general. I started discussing the issues with friends, family, and colleagues and soon

the research possibilities began to materialize.

After some initial investigation, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of
information on the topic. However, I also began to notice that the voices of the residents
and their reactions to and experience with the changes that were occurring were missing
from the discussion. While there was a great deal of information about the programmatic
aspects of the Plan provided by the CHA and news reports, the residents’ voices were

obscured.

The CHA’s transformation is a ten-year project that was approved in 1999 and
formerly began in 2000. When I started my ﬁeld research, the agency was in its third year
of the plan and at the time that I was making critical decisions about which community I
would focus on, there were only ﬁve mixed-income developments completed. North
Town Village, the ﬁrst community completed under this plan, emerged as a better choice
because of its size, the number of years it had been in operation, and the fact that the

community was being held up as a national model for other mixed-income communities.

Prior to going into the ﬁeld, I had done a great deal of secondary reading and had
a good understanding of the issues that surrounded the topic and the questions I would
have wanted addressed. However, because I wanted to honor the principles of qualitative
investigation, I also wanted to allow enough ﬂexibility to let the issues emerge from my
discussions with the informants. Therefore, I did not want to limit or set parameters to the

research questions.

80

Initially my focus was on the tenant selection process for mixed-income
communities. Given the limited amount of space available in these communities for
public housing residents, I was interested in how some residents were selected over
others. While I was able to secure a number of documents that detailed the policies and
procedures associated with tenant selection from the CHA, I was not able to observe the
process nor interview residents who had recently undergone the process. After I
recognized that I would not be able to gain direct access into this part of the program, I
decided to triangulate the data sources with documents from the CHA, newspapers, and
reﬂections that residents could offer during interviews. It was not until the actual
interviews unfolded that I quickly realized that participants were more interested in
discussing their present day experiences and concerns, rather than the tenant selection
process and transitions that had occurred several years prior. Rather than try to conﬁgure
their narratives to my predetermined categories, I let their stories emerge and unfold so

that the essence or totality of their experiences could be understood.
Gaining Entry

Gaining access to the project site was one of my greatest concerns, especially
since I was not from the Chicago area and had no established connections in the city.
While researching the subject, I kept a list of key people and organizations that might
be able to help facilitate access to the residents 1 was interested in interviewing. Since
I was not able to obtain contact information about the residents from the CHA, I
decided to send letters to these possible liaisons. I explained the nature of the project
and asked for their assistance. Out of the twenty letters sent, 1 received one response

from a housing activist who while not afﬁliated with the CHA worked from on of

81

their properties. My conversations with this individual provided a great deal of
information about key people to contact and public meetings that I could attend. I
started attending the CHA committee and board meetings that were open to the public
and during these meetings; I took notes on the discussion and Observed the interaction
among board members and residents. These efforts provided valuable information

about the Plan and the administration’s attitude toward the Plan.

The CHA estimates that by the Plan '5 completion, they will have rebuilt or
rehabilitated 25,000 units of public housing. Given the enormity of the project, the
agency divided work ﬁrnctions into timeframes according to project site. During
various aspects of the work plan, the CHA is required to hold public comment periods
where residents or other interested parties can ask questions or voice their concerns.
While in Chicago, I attended a number of these meetings and while the meetings did
not speciﬁcally relate to the project site that I was investigating, it gave me the
opportunity to conceptualize the larger issues that were inﬂuencing the CHA’s
decisions and the community response to the initiative. Furthermore, I was able to
make contact with administrators at the CHA, which later proved to be beneﬁcial in

connecting with residents at North Town Village.

During the summer of 2003, I lived in Chicago so that I could conduct
interviews and ﬁeld research. I returned to the project site in May of 2004 and
remained until October of the same year. Even when I was not living in Chicago, I
frequently made extended trips to the city to continue my investigations. The
extended stays in the area gave me the opportunity to immerse myself into the

community and become more familiar with the project site. As part of my ﬁeld

82

research, I frequented the community library, parks, grocery stores, and participated
in community activities like National Night Out and community block parties. These
events gave me the opportunity to experience the community, make connections with

residents and identify participants for the study.

I ﬁrst gained full access to the community through the assistance of an
administrator at the Chicago Housing Authority. Her assistance proved to be
invaluable as she helped arrange interviews with employees at the CHA and residents
who had relocated. Furthermore, she answered a number of questions I had about the
Plan and its process, and escorted me to a number of CHA sites that were undergoing
revitalization. My interactions with her helped me understand her commitment to the

Plan and her sincere desire to make a difference in the lives of the residents.
Sources of Data

Multiple data sources shape and inform this study. However, the most salient
data comes from interviews conducted with former Cabrini Green residents who now
live in North Town Village (NTV). In order to place the participants’ stories in their
proper context, I used primary source material from the CHA, which includes memos,
brochures, meeting minutes, annual reports, and policy and procedure manuals to
supplement the interviews. In addition, I also used articles from local newspapers,
ﬁeld notes and additional interviews conducted with CHA employees, a housing
activist, and homeowners in North Town Village. The study moves from a macro to
micro level of analysis in order to provide a more holistic view of the issues under

investigation.

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North Town Village is a 70-million dollar development with 261 condominiums
ranging in market value from $300,000 to $500,000. The housing mix consists of 1/3
market rate homes, 1/3 affordable housing, and 1/3 public housing, which means that 79
units in North Town Village are speciﬁcally earmarked as public housing. I conducted in-
depth interviews with nine Black women who relocated from Cabrini Green to North
Town Village. Ambert, Adler, Adler and Detzner (1995) note, “An adequate sample
depends on the type of questions poised, the complexity of the model studied, and the
availability of informants or of text. .. and the purpose of the study” (p. 885). Since the
project does not seek to represent the totality of the experiences of all residents who have

transitioned, the sample size works well for the purposes of this study.

Quantitative and qualitative evaluations inherently seek to answer different
questions. Over the years scholars have worked vigorously to establish and justify the
credibility of qualitative approaches (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, Patton, 1990) arguing that
signiﬁcant difference in epistemological constructions negating comparison or
discussions about the effectiveness of one approach over the other. Nonetheless,
qualitative studies continue to be criticized for the lack of objectivity and generalizabilty
(Stake, 1980) or the degree to which the ﬁndings can be generalized from the study

sample to the entire population.

However, it is important to note that qualitative studies are not generalizable in
the traditional sense of the word, nor do they claim to be (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000;
Donmoyer, I990; Patton, 1990). Partial generalizations may be possible to similar
populations however, Myers (2000) notes that this is not the primary concern of

qualitative research, for the knowledge generated by qualitative research is signiﬁcant in

84

its own right. Furthermore, Denzin & Lincoln (2000) contend that the value of the case
study is its uniqueness; consequently, reliability in the traditional sense of replicability is
pointless. The experiences of the participants in this study are not intended to represent
the experiences of all low-income Black women who have gone through the Chicago
Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation. Rather their stories are meant to provide
valuable insights about the Plan that are not available from other sources and more
importantly to honor the perspectives, insights, and knowledge that these women offer to
the discussion of the viability mixed-income communities as poverty deconcentration

strategy.

The women who are included in the study indicated an interest in participating by
responding to a ﬂyer that was circulated in the community, thus representing a
convenience sample. Going into the study, I knew that in order to honor these women’s
stories given my resources, I would need to work with a small sample size. By the time
that I reached interview number nine, I knew that the data I had collected was rich in
detail and provided a level of understanding about the topic that I had not garnered from
other sources. Furthermore, this was a manageable number to work with, given my
resources. Ambert et al., (1995) note that evaluators should consider the fact that
qualitative research generally requires a great deal of time expenditure on the part of the
researcher. The authors go on to assert, “the problem with qualitative research is not that
of limited data generated from a small sample but rather the sheer quantity of the data
that must be analyzed. Resources, time, depth and purpose of the research place
practical limitations, often on sample size requirements” (p. 886). Patton (1990) notes

the validity, meaningfulness, and insights generated from qualitative inquiry have more

85

to do with information richness of the cases selected and the observational/analytical
capabilities of the researcher than with the sample size. It should be noted however that
the researcher made repeated efforts to try and ascertain demographic information about
the public housing residents living in North Town Village in order to better understand
the context of the study. However, despite numerous attempts she was never able to

gather this information from the Management company.

A total of 17 interviews with participants in four different categories were
conducted. The categories are as follows: nine interviews with public housing residents
who had transitioned into North Town Village; ﬁve interviews with homeowners and
renters that live in North Town Village; two interviews with CHA administrators; and the
ﬁnal interview was with housing activist. The interviews ranged in length from 30
minutes to two hours. When necessary, follow-up telephone interviews were conducted.
The participants in the ﬁrst group were given $25.00 for their participation; the other
interviewees were not monetarily compensated, but rather were offered copies of the ﬁnal

analysis if they so desired.

The ﬁrst interview that I conducted with a participant from the ﬁrst category
helped to reﬁne the interview schedule and my interview techniques. I found that a
number of my questions were too broad; it helped the participants get started if I
identiﬁed a speciﬁc aspect of the Plan or incident for them to talk about. (Interview
schedules for all groups are presented in the appendix). Furthermore, after this ﬁrst
interview, I discovered that because I was extremely concerned with building common
ground and connecting with the participants, 1 did a great deal of the talking. While I was

not opposed to sharing my story, the goal of the project was for me to elicit the

86

participants’ stories. In later interviews, I became more aware of what I was contributing
to the discussion and worked at building trust and rapport in a way that supported the
participant in sharing their story. This involved taking time to interact with them before
the interview through activities that included walking around the neighborhood, playing
with their kids, looking at family photos, and talking with grandchildren. I found that
these interactions allowed me to step out of the story and allow the participants’

experiences to come to the forefront.

All nine participants in the ﬁrst group were African-American women who had
formerly lived in Cabrini Green and now live in North Town Village. They ranged in age
from 31 to 62. Each of them has children; ﬁve were employed; two were on disability,
and one was working toward completing her GED. The second group consists of three
homeowners and two renters who live in North Town Village. All are White and range in
age from 26 to 35. One is an investment banker in his late twenties who lives with his
ﬁancé. One woman is a homemaker in her mid-thirties who lives in the community with
her husband. Another woman in her late thirties has two jobs, which she did not specify.
The two renters are graduate students in their late twenties. I talked with two CHA
administratorsl—Kate Murray a White woman in her mid-thirties, and Lisa Jones a Black
woman in her mid thirties. Finally, I also spoke with investigative reporter who was also

a public housing resident advocate.
Data Collection

All interviews took place during a ﬁfteen-month period between July 2003 and

October 2004. At the beginning of each interview, I went over the participant consent

 

I Pseudonyms are used to protect the participants’ identities.

87

form, which explained the nature of the study, the manner in which conﬁdentiality would
be handled, and the name of the person they should contact if they had any questions or
concerns about the procedure. Consent forms were divided into two categories, resident
and non-resident, both of which are included in the appendix. The University Committee
on Rights Involving Human Subjects at Michigan State University approved the study
and consent forms. All of the interviews were audiotaped in order to ensure accuracy
when reviewing and transcribing the interviews. While an interview schedule was used,
the questions were designed to be open-ended in order to allow participants to go into
depth and detail with their responses. In addition, there were a number of items
discussed, which were not part of the original questions but those which participants were
encouraged to explore. With almost every interview, after the tape recorder was turned
off, regardless of the individual, people became more candid and “comfortable” with the
discussion. To accommodate this, I took notes after each interview, often recording my
own thoughts, reactions and summaries of what the participants shared. Finally, thank-

you cards were sent to the participants within two weeks of each interview.

Primary source materials were collected from agency materials including meeting
minutes, reports, brochures, and published materials. In addition, historical documents
were collected from special collections at the Chicago Historical Society and the Harold
Washington Library. Newspaper reports spanning the 19505 to the present also shaped
and informed the study. Finally, while in the ﬁeld, I kept a research journal where I
recorded my observations, reactions, research challenges, and post interview reactions.

When relevant, this information is presented in the analysis.

88

Analyzing the Data

Once the interviews were completed, each interview was transcribed in its
entirety. When the initial transcription was completed, it was checked several times
against the original audio recording to ensure accuracy. After all of the interviews in
participant groups had been completed, each individual transcript was coded in order to

identify themes, commonalities, and differences among stories that were shared.

For the initial coding, each transcript was examined separately. There were no
predetermined categories that were created; rather the categories emerged from the
participants statements'. For each statement, a summary phrase was assigned and this was
based on the content of the statement. Summary phrases were broad in language, yet
uniquely designed to ﬁt the statement. Examples of the categories created include
perceptions of self, motivating factors for staying on the North side, and home
inspections. For the Black female participants who had formerly lived in Cabrini Green
and now live in North Town Village, this initial process produced 133 categories for all
nine transcripts. Each category was then checked for frequency to determine how many
times the same category had been used to describe different statements among the
interviewees. For the most of the items, there was a great deal of overlap. The next step
was to reduce the number of categories in order to provide some organization to the data.
Using the 133 categories, I created nineteen broad categories under which all of the
statements could be organized. Examples of these categories include demographic
information, community, and children. Once these broad categories had been created,
each individual interview transcript was reorganized in order to group like-content

statements together. Once this was completed for each individual, the same process was

89

used to group all of the women's statements together under the nineteen areas. There were
statements, which were unique and did not relate to other statements. In such cases, they

were not grouped, and instead, appear within the data chapters when appropriate.

The purpose of this study is to present the voices and experiences of low—income
Black women who have been excluded from the public discourse on the CHA’s Plan for
Transformation. It has been previously noted that employing an Intersections approach
helps one consider how individuals interact with systems of power. Therefore, the four
domains of power represented by the Matrix of Domination provide a useful framework
to help situate the data. Chapter four presents the logistics of the CHA's Plan for
Transformation and as such reveals the structural domain, which organizes subjugation,
which in this case is largely exhibited through federal housing policies and legislative
mandates. The disciplinary domain, which manages oppression through forms of
surveillance and social policies, is used to help situate chapter ﬁve and six, which
presents the residents’ experiences with the relocation process and site-speciﬁc policies
and procedures. The interpersonal domain of the matrix that refers to the inﬂuence of
everyday lived experiences at the micro level of social organization, also frames chapter
six, which presents the women's experiences from a view of containment practices and
social capital. The hegemonic domain of the matrix, which justiﬁes oppression as natural
and controls ideology, culture, and consciousness, is seen throughout chapters four, ﬁve,
and six. It is important to note that the four domains of power represented in the Matrix
of Domination are not mutually exclusive, but are rather interconnected and overlap, so
that one may examine the multiple interlocking levels of domination that stem from

societal conﬁgurations of race, class, and gender.

90

CHAPTER IV

Building New Communities
Shaping a New Vision of Public Housing in Chicago

The CHA Plan for Transformation was conceived of during an era of public
housing reform; hence, it is important to understand how federal mandates that emerged
from the Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing and HOPE V1 initiatives
have shaped various aspects of the Plan. The purpose of this chapter is to present the
logistical and programmatic components of the Plan for Transformation. To accomplish
this CHA documents, primary source archive materials, and information gathered from
interviews with CHA administrators are used to understand the multifaceted components
of the Plan and the social political context that it emerged from and currently exists in.
Context for the Plan for Transformation

In Chicago, neglected maintenance and upkeep of public housing projects coupled
with poor administration left residents trapped in deteriorating, rat-infested buildings,
which eventually fell into disrepair (Feldman & Stall, 2004; Kotlowitz, 1988; Popkin et
al., 2000). By the 19805, gangs had overtaken a number of the developments, essentially
imprisoning residents in their own communities (Popkin et al., 2000). The former chief
executive ofﬁcer of the CHA, Vincent Lane, proclaimed:

In the late 19805, the Chicago Housing Authority was the worst public

housing authority in the country. Its crime rate was three times that of the

city as a whole. It seemed as if public housing had a monopoly on nearly

every example of inner-city rot: shootings, open-air drug deals, assault,

poverty and fear. (Lane, 1994, p. 1)

Faced with the task of reforming the public housing system, Lane asserted that

91

simultaneous attacks on several fronts including welfare reform, job training, education,
and crime management were needed in order to create a change.

In 1980, the CHA began efforts to deconcentrate public housing residents through
“scattered site” units placing residents in neighborhoods throughout the city. In addition,
Lane recognized the need for mixed-income developments and self-sufﬁciency
programs that would help integrate residents back into the city. He asserted that public
housing provided its residents no choice in terms of location or type of housing. He
disagreed with those who criticized the high-rise design and cited the numerous luxury
high-rises on Lakeshore Drive as proof that the concept could work. Lane argued that
the concentration of poverty in CHA hi gh-rises was the primary reason for the failure of
the projects, and called for a holistic approach to solving the CHA’s housing problems.
Lane (1994) asserted, “It’s not enough to build these units and integrate them into
neighborhoods that are socio-economically mixed. You can’t just take a family out of an
old apartment, put them into a new apartment, and expect them to make it on their own”
(p.5). He envisioned a comprehensive reform for the agency that would not only provide
a stable home but also help individuals change their lives. While Lane had a number of
marked successes in his pursuits including the redevelopment of Lake Pare Place into a
mixed-income mixed-ﬁnanced community and the use of a private security force
contracted through members of the Nation of Islam, these achievements were short
lived. In 1995, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) took control
of the CHA's management and operations after claims of fraud forced Chairperson Lane

and other board members to resign.1

 

' During Vincent Lane's tenure as CHA Chairperson from 1988- 1995 he was praised for his visionary
leadership and efforts to reform public housing which included mixed-income approaches and a crackdown

92

The Plan for T ransformation

When the CHA was returned to local control on June 1, 1999, the new
administrative team led by Chairperson Terry Peterson faced the challenge of reforming
the agency. In addition, several new federal mandates forced the CHA to reevaluate its
overall mission and the way in which they served residents. During federal policy
reforms, beginning in 1989 under the ﬁrst Bush administration, Congress established
“The National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing.” The commission
was created to explore the problems plaguing public housing developments across the
nation. As such, members of the commission were charged with devising a plan that
would help eradicate the problems in public housing communities. The commission’s
investigation focused on the concentration of extremely poor and troubled families in
neglected, high-crime developments and cited a number of factors that contributed to the
problems. These included placing developments in poor isolated inner-city areas, poor
design and construction that made buildings difﬁcult to maintain and secure, and long
histories of poor management and inadequate maintenance (CSDPH report, 1992).
Members of the commission asserted that six percent or 86,000 public housing units
were “severely distressed.” Additional data gathered from the commission showed that
public housing residents, excluding the elderly, were disproportionately comprised of
long-term welfare recipients who were extremely poor and who lacked formal education
and marketable skills. Congress and HUD’s responded with the creation of Housing
Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE) initiatives. Under the HOPE VI program,

public housing authorities in the forty largest metropolitan areas were able to apply for

 

on crime. In 2001 Lane was convicted by a federal jury on two counts of making false statements in
connection with a 1.9 million dollar reﬁnancing of the Continental Plaza shopping center, a project he

93

grants, to cover demolition and/or construction and social services. The ﬁrst HOPE VI
grants were awarded in 1993 and by 1999, HUD had awarded 3.5 billion dollars to
revitalize 130 developments nationwide. The funding continued throughout 2003 at
approximately 570 million dollars a year. However, according to HUD documents in
2004, HOPE VI funding was drastically cut to 149 million and under the FY 2005,
budget President Bush initially zero-funded the program only to reinstate with
substantially less funding at just 50 million dollar.

Furthermore, the 1998 Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act (QHWRA)
mandated the demolition of approximately 18,000 units of CHA housing. Section 537 of
the QHWRA requires Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) to identify distressed public
housing developments that must be converted to tenant-based assistance. The regulation
asserts:

If it would be more expensive to modernize and operate a distressed

development for its remaining useful life than to provide tenant-based

assistance to all residents, or the PHA cannot assure the long-term

viability of a distressed development, then it must develop and carry out a

plan to remove the development from its public housing inventory and

convert it to tenant-based assistance. (Federal Register Online).

In addition, the act repeals the one-for-one replacement housing statue, which had
mandated a one-for-one replacement rule, in order to maintain the number of public
housing units, and provide protection to residents who could become victims of urban
renewal projects and land grabs. Rather, the new mandate stated that for every

demolished unit, there had to be a replacement unit, which could either be new hard units

\

Dursued as a private developer. In 2001 Lane was sentenced to 2""2 years in prison.

94

or soft units such as tenant-based Section 8 assistance through certiﬁcates, or vouchers,
which transfer residents into the private market. As a result of this legislation, there has
been a push toward the implementation of tenant-based assistance rather than project-
based assistance. This approach fundamentally changes the nature of public housing and
housing assistance in America. When hard units are present, there is at least the guarantee
of a physical structure for low-income housing. However, the budget for Section 8
/Housing Choice Vouchers must undergo yearly scrutiny, increasing the likelihood of
budget cuts that would essentially take housing subsidies away from low-income families
and have a direct and profound impact on individuals who rely on this type of housing
assistance.

The QHWRA also allows for stricter screening policies, advocating agencies to
conduct criminal background checks and giving them the authority, under the federal
‘one-strike and your out’ provision, to evict any household with a member who uses
illegal drugs or is involved in drug-related criminal activities. A CHA publication notes
that the combination of new federal regulations, concerns about high concentration of
extremely poor families, and owning a large stock of physically obsolete family housing
plagued by crime and drugs, necessitated large-scale changes. Moreover, the new
administration recognized that there were several internal problems such as excessive
overhead costs, lack of competence among internal resident managers, and overlapping
programs, which were poorly coordinated, and lacking substantive performance measures
and outcomes. Acknowledging all of these factors and the inevitable need for change, the
CHA developed the Plan for Transformation to address the staggering problems the

agency faced (CHA Annual Plan Year 1, 2000).

95

Federal mandates and the CHA’s Plan advocate movement away from project-based
public housing toward private market rentals with vouchers and the creation of mixed-
income communities. The transition from “public” to “private” spaces changes the
structural dynamics of housing assistance, as well as the way low-income residents
interact with systematic barriers. Massey and Denton (1993) argue that residential
segregation is the institutional apparatus that supports and sustains other forms of
discrimination. To some degree, the Plan embraces Massey and Denton’s position and
sets out to help facilitate housing de-segregation with the intention of changing the
relationship CHA residents have with systematic forms of oppression. However, it is not
clear if changing one’s housing will change other sociopolitical factors that continue to
marginalize low-income public housing residents.

Simply stated, the CHA’s Plan for Transformation is a 1.5 billion dollar
undertaking which intends to rebuild or rehabilitate 25,000 units of public housing. The
agency expects a net loss of approximately 13,000 units. However, the CHA asserts that
given the current conditions in their public housing developments and the recent federal
mandates, there is no other alternative but the demolition of existing high-rises and
redevelopment of new communities. An agency brochure contends that when the Plan is
completed at the end of the decade, the new CHA will stand as the national model for
public housing in the 21"t century. The agency asserts that the Plan will offer people in
public housing a better standard of living and greater economic opportunities. Their
motto is “Building New Communities Shaping a New Vision of Public Housing in
Chicago.” Overall, it is projected that 6,000 households will need to be relocated to the

private housing market through the Housing Choice Voucher program. While most of the

96

displaced residents will relocate under this program, some will have the opportunity to
live in newly created mixed-income communities or rehabilitated public housing
developments.

On October 1, 1999 the CHA owned and managed 38, 776 units of public
housing, 24,500 (or 64 percent) of which were occupied, serving 50,321 residents. Out
of the total housing stock, approximately 15,000 units were contained in open gallery
style high-rises, deﬁned as eight or more stories with hallways and elevator entrances that
are fully or partially exposed. In addition to the residents living in CHA projects, there
were 29,071 Section 8 vouchers serving 81,813 residents in place. Thus, there were
approximately 132,134 people in 1999 utilizing CHA services. The Plan calls for 22,000
units to be demolished, including all “gallery style” high-rises and other units that cost
more to repair than replace, leaving approximately 17,000 units. Approximately 7,000
units or a little more than 1/3 of the original stock is slated to be rebuilt as mixed-income
communities throughout the city. In the midst of all of the changes and the reduction of
actual hard units, the CHA maintains that there will be enough housing for every resident
who was lease compliant as of October 1, 1999 and will be allowed to return to public
housing following redevelopment (Annual Plan, 2000, p.13). These rights have been
outlined in the Residents Right to Return Contract, a document resident leadership fought
to obtain during the initial planning stage of the Plan. Table 2 lists the overarching goals

and objectives of the CHA’s Plan for Transformation as indicated by the agency.

97

Table 2: Goals and Objectives Outlined in the Plan for Transformation

 

1

Provide quality housing opportunities to very-low and low-income households in
mixed-income settings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 Afﬁrmatively further fair housing and assist in creating communities that are
intolerant of discrimination.

3 Assure that residents have access to local, state, and federal resources for which
they are eligible.

4 Contribute to the improvement of the neighborhoods and communities where
public housing is located

5 Provide greater housing choice.

6 Assure a smooth transition for families relocating as part of the CHA's
redevelopment activities minimize the disruption on the lives of CHA families.

7 Offer all lease compliant families the right to return to a new or rehabilitated
public housing unit.

8 Achieve standards of excellence in the delivery of services and in the
administration of programs

9 Expand the number of accessible units and comply with all applicable federal,
state, and local disability laws.

10 Encourage business development opportunities for minorities and disadvantaged
ﬁrms and job opportunities for residents, resident owned businesses and other
low-income workers.

11 Maintain existing occupied units in a decent safe and sanitary condition during

 

the implementation of the plan.

 

Source: The Chicago Housing Authority Plan for Transformation (2000) p. 11-12.

In addition to the above-mentioned items, the agency was also determined to

reintegrate public housing residents back into the city. In order to achieve this, one of the

ﬁrst steps the new administration took was to eliminate all CHA social service programs

and rely on “service connectors” to help residents identify and utilize city resources.

Agency documents state:

Residents of public housing will be treated as full citizens of the City of
Chicago and will have access to the same level of services. Rather than
attempt to replicate those services, a strategy that only serves to isolate
public housing and its residents, and for which the CHA has neither the

resources nor the skill, the Agency will invest in development-based

98

outreach workers who will help residents to access services in the

community. (CHA Annual Plan Year 1, 2000, p.3)
The reorganization of services also extended to privately contracted security ﬁrms that
used to govern their properties. Upon inception of the Plan, the agency transferred
policing functions back to the Chicago Police Department. Furthermore, the agency also
transferred all property management responsibilities to private management companies.
By the end of the ﬁrst year, the CHA had reduced its staff from 2,622 to 492. CHA
documents report:

This Plan contemplates much more than the physical transformation of public

housing. It envisions a new role for the CHA. In the past, the CHA was primarily

the owner and manger of public housing. In the future, the CHA will be the

facilitator of housing opportunities. It will oversee a range of housing investments

and subsidy vehicles. Where appropriate, it will own housing, but it will just as

likely provide ﬁnancial assistance to other private and non-proﬁt development

organizations to expand housing opportunities. (Annual Plan Year 1, 2000, p.6)
The CHA’s Plan represents the largest housing mobility initiative undertaken by any
public housing authority in the nation. The CHA is charged with managing the interests
of a number of different stakeholders including the federal government, city ofﬁcials,
private development and management companies, and last but certainly not least, their
residents. Balancing all of these interests, which often times are in contradiction with one

another, has proven to be quite a challenge for the CHA.

99

CHA ’s Tenant Selection Process

The CHA estimates that approximately 7,000 of the hard units that are returning,
as public housing will exist in newly created mixed-income communities. These sites will
combine market rate homes, affordable housing, and public housing in the same
development. In order for public housing residents to qualify for residency in a mixed-
income community, they must undergo an intense screening and selection process, which
is outlined in the agency’s “Minimum Tenant Selection Plan for Mixed-Income/ Mixed
Finance Communities.” While the tenant selection plan for mixed-income communities
establishes the minimum level of screening criteria for newly created communities,
private management companies are also allowed to supplement the rules and apply
stricter screening polices if desired. The CHA insists that, "each site speciﬁc screening
criterion adopted by a mixed-income/ mixed ﬁnance developer must be applied equally to
all applicants applying for public housing, affordable, and market rate rental units"
(Minimum Tenant Selection Plan, 2002, p. 1). It is important to note however, that the
screening criteria and subsequent policies for continued occupancy do not apply to
individuals who purchase their homes; instead, this applies to only renters and public
housing tenants.

The minimum criterion outlined in the document includes practical guidelines
such as conditions for payment of rent and utility bills, and background checks. However,
it goes a step further to explicitly outline expectations of acceptable behavior,
employment requirements, and responsible parenting directives. Some aspects of the

minimum criteria are listed in Table 3.

100

Table 3: Selected Aspects of the Minimum Tenant Selection Plan

 

1

Income can not exceed 80 % of the area median income (Which was 67,000 in 2001
for the Near North Side district).

 

2

Rent is based on 30 % of the residents’ income or a tenant can claim a hardship
exemption in which case the family is required to pay at least $25.00.

 

The head of house hold must be at least eighteen years old with a good credit and
ﬁnancial standing.

 

The head of household can not have any delinquent debts or have ﬁled bankruptcy in
the past two years.

 

Residents must care for and avoid damaging the unit and common areas.

 

Use facilities in a reasonable way, respecting the right to peaceful enjoyment of others.

 

Avoid damaging the property of others.

 

Refrain from any activity, including drug-related or other criminal activity that
threatens the health, safety or right to peaceful enjoyment of other residents or staff.

 

Comply with necessary and reasonable property rules for health and safety codes.

 

10

All household members over the age of 18 must either work 30 hours a week or be
engaged in some form of economic self-sufﬁciency, which may include: employment,
enrollment and regular attendance in an economic self-sufﬁciency program, veriﬁed
job search and/or employment counseling, basic skills training or enrollment and
regular attendance in a program of education, including GED classes, secondary or
post secondaryeducation, or English proﬁciency or literacy classes.

 

11

All household members over the age of 18 must undergo a criminal background check.

 

12

The Property Manger is required to prohibit admission of an applicant for three years
from the date of eviction if any household member has been evicted from any federally
assisted housing for drug-related criminal activity.

 

13

A property manager must prohibit admission if it is determined that anyone in the
household is engaged in: illegal drug use, drug production, is a sex offender, has
patterns of irresponsible alcohol use, arson, or criminal activity.

 

14

Applicant must provide documentation that the family member over age six and
through age sixteen who live in the household attend school regularly.

 

15

 

 

Fifty percent of all new admission will be for households with annual incomes of not
more than 30 % of area median. 50 % will be for families between 31 % and 80 % of
the area median income. (The CHA is permitted to skip families on the waiting list to
assure that an income mix is achieved. The policy also includes preferences for
upwardly mobile families thus, a family who 'meets' the work obligation will be
considered before a family that is categorized as 'working to meet' the criteria).

 

Source: Chicago Housing Authority Minimum Tenant Selection Plan, 2002, p. 6 and Chicago Housing
Authority Annual Plan, 2000, p. 32.

101

 

In addition to the above-mentioned stipulations, the CHA enforces the federal “One-
Strike Policy” handed down on March 26, 2002 in the HUD v. Rucker verdict. This
states that public housing agencies have the right to evict public housing tenants for
criminal or “drug-related activity by any household member or guest, even when the
activity takes place outside of the apartment and without the tenant's knowledge”. The
policy is broad in scope and is not limited to convictions, but also includes arrest. Since
the enforcement of this policy, the number of evictions related to arrest has increased
drastically. The CHA’s Arrest Statistic by Development for FY 2000 reveals that the
Cabrini Green development had the second highest arrest rate out of all of their
developments and was the leading development for arrest on the North Side with 1,424
arrests made during the year. In the ﬁrst year of the Plan '5 implementation, FY2000, the
Sheriff executed 36 one-strike evictions and an additional 35 tenants moved out on their
own because of a one-strike notiﬁcation (Plan, December 2000, p.24). Popkin (2002)
critiques the CHA's enforcement of the One-Strike Policy and asserts that the agency
applies a liberal interpretation to the policy that may ultimately infringe on individuals'
civil liberties.

One of the ﬁnal aspects of the screening criteria includes participation in the
“Good Neighbor Program,” established in 1999 as part of the CHA's Plan. According to
the CHA, "The purpose of the Good Neighbor Program is to help residents make a
successful transition from public housing to new communities” (Plan, December 2000, p.
17). Good Neighbor facilitators conduct workshops that provide instruction to
participants on managing a household and the importance of remaining lease-compliant.

Workshop topics include moving to a new neighborhood, getting established, budgeting

102

for a new environment, understanding neighborhood values, adopting neighborhood
etiquette, understanding responsibilities as a neighborhood resident, and being of service
to the community. The program is a one-day workshop that residents are required to
attend prior to signing their lease. All in all, if a CHA resident desires to live in a mixed-
income community, the must remain lease-compliant, qualify under the criteria
established by the Minimum Tenant Selection Plan, attend the Good Neighbor class, and
then go on to meet the site-speciﬁc criteria of the development.

The CHA advances that rules for residency and continued occupancy in mixed-
income communities are fair, ﬂexible, and necessary if residents are going to thrive in
these new communities. However, critics (Paulson, 2004) contend that the requirements
are unreasonable for a population with little work experience, especially in an economy
that is faltering. Other concerned parties see the Plan as a way of "creaming" off the
most desirable residents for their model mixed-income communities while pushing the
rest of the less desirable residents out into more isolated parts of the city. While it is not
yet clear what type of beneﬁts will accrue for public housing residents that decide to
seek residency in newly created mixed-income communities, it is clear that there are a
number of variables that determine who will live in these new communities.

Near North Side Redevelopment
Cabrini Green, one of the CHA’s developments, was one of the ﬁrst project sites
in the city to undergo transformation. The agency received a HOPE VI grant in 1994 for
the redevelopment of Cabrini Extension North. However, planning, demolition, and

redevelopment were halted in 1996 when CHA residents ﬁled a lawsuit claiming the

103

reconstruction violated their rights as outlined in the Gautreaux settlementz. Four years
later, on August 15, 2000, the CHA entered into a settlement agreement with the
plaintiffs allowing redevelopment to proceed. The Near North Redevelopment Plan,
once completed, will provide 776 rental or homeownership units, 197 of which will be
designated for public housing families. In addition, there will be new schools, stores,
parks, and a library added to the community.

North Town Village (NTV) is one of the completed developments that currently
exist in the community. As part of the negotiations for NTV, the city sold seven acres of
its land to Holsten Real Estate Development Corporation and Kenard Corporation at a
reduced rate of 5.5 million in exchange for their commitment to develop the property as a
mixed-income community. Phase one of NTV, which was ﬁnished in 2001, consisted of
l 16 units: 39 CHA, 39 affordable and 38 market rate units. Phase II, which was
completed in 2002, consists of 145 units: 40 CHA, 12 affordable and 93 market rate
units. NTV is a 70-million dollar development with 261 condominiums; market rate units
start at $146,900 for a one-bedroom condominium and climb to almost 500,000 for a
three-story town house. While several of the Cabrini Green high-rises have already been
demolished, a signiﬁcant number of buildings still remain in the community and are
located just a few feet away from the perimeter of NTV.

With just 79 units speciﬁcally earmarked for former Cabrini Green residents,
applicants underwent an intense screening process in order to qualify for residency. Prior
to relocation, they were subjected to home inspections, criminal background checks,
mandatory drug tests, and “lessons” on appropriate community behavior. Under the Plan,

the CHA transfers responsibility and governance of their properties and residents to

 

2 The speciﬁcs of the settlement decree are outlined in chapter two.

104

professional property management companies. The agency requires professional property
mangers and resident management corporations to screen residents in order to determine
if applicants will make suitable community members. Therefore, in addition to CHA
screening policies, North Town Village managers enforce their own site-speciﬁc rules for
residents.
Relocation Process

At the end of the ﬁrst year of the Plan, the CHA created the Relocation
Department, "to ensure that the relocation process was conducted in a compassionate yet
efﬁcient manner" (MTW Annual Plan, 2001, p. 3). CHA documents assert that the
Relocation Department provides residents with personal outreach, ongoing
communication and support throughout the moving process. The agency's tracking
system, The Relocation Management Tracking System (RMTS), was incorporated in
FY2003, approximately three years into the Plan. The relocation process is divided into
two stages, Move-out and Move-in. Figure 3 outlines this process by highlighting key

steps.

105

Figure 2: Relocation Process

 

 

RESIDENT FILLS OUT

RESIDENT ATTENDS AND RETURNS

 

 

RESIDENT INITIAL RIGHT OF HOUSING CHOICE
$219310” RETURN SURVEY AT THE

. RECER TIFICA TION HOUSING CHOICE
RIGHTS
CONTRACT SURVEY CLINIC OR To
TRAINING PROPERTY MANAGER

 

 

 

 

 

RESIDENT PICKS UP

RES'DENT RELOCATION PACKET

ATTENDS RESIDENT

GOOD AT THE RELOCATION RECEIVES
PLANNING MEETING

NEIGHBOR 180/120 DAY
OR FROM THE PROPERTY GENERAL

WORKSHOP ‘
MANAGEMENT OFFICE INFORMATION

RESIDENT RECEIVES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

90 DAY NOTICE OF RESIDENT MOVES

MOVE AND TO TEMPORARY

TEMPORARY ORW IIIIIIIIII‘

HOUSING OFFER HOUSING :
IF APPLICABLE L
RESIDENT
RECEIVES NOTICE PUBLIC HOUSING

' OF PROPERTY h IS REHAEBED OR
SPECIFIC REDEVELOPED
SCREENING
I REQUIREMENTS

 

 

 

 

I

RESIDENT RESIDENT
RESIDENT ‘ RECEIVES MOVES TO
ATTENDS FINAL 90 DAY NOTICE OF ‘ PERMANENT
RIGHT TO MOVE AND HOUSING
RETURN PERMANENT
RECERTIFICATI HOUSING OFFER

 

 

 

ON (EACH LEASE
HOLDER Is
ENTITLED TO 2
OFFERS)

 

 

RELOCATION
PROCESS IS
COMPLETE

 

 

 

 

Source: Adopted from the CHA’s MTW Plan for Transformation (2004)-Year 5 p. 33

106

One's relocation experience is directly related to her choice of permanent housing. If a
resident decides to go into the private market through the Housing Choice Voucher
program, it is possible that the ﬁrst move that she makes will end up being her permanent
housing. However, if one decides that they would like to live in public housing that has
been rehabilitated or redeveloped, he/she will ﬁrst move, either to a “make ready” public
housing unit in a development not scheduled for demolition or to the private market with
a temporary Housing Choice Voucher. Once units are completed, the resident will have
to go through site-speciﬁc screening in order to qualify for tenancy.

In instances where the CHA is rehabilitating or developing a site, a work group
comprised of representatives from the CHA, resident leadership, City of Chicago,
community partners, the Gautreaux plaintiffs, and the development company oversees the
project from start to ﬁnish. While the workgroups focus on getting the developments
ready and outlining site-speciﬁc screening criteria, there are a number of city agencies
charged with helping to facilitate a residents’ transition into permanent housing.

In order to gain a better understanding of the relocation process, in—depth
interviews were conducted with CHA administrators Kate Murray and Lisa Jones3.
Murray described how the agency decides which properties to demolish.

There is a decision made from the CHA perspective that is based on either

operational issues, meaning that the buildings are in such bad repair, it is

just not ﬁnancially feasible to continue operating them through the winter
season. Alternatively, from a development standpoint, which means that in
order to redevelop the site there is a certain portion of the site that needs to

be cleared. So once that decision is made, we go in and start working with

107

residents to move them out of the existing public housing.
The Relocation Rights Contact entitles every lease-compliant household that legally
occupied a CHA apartment on October 1, 1999 the right to return to public housing
following rehabilitation or redevelopment. To exercise this right, the resident must
remain lease-compliant throughout the entire process until the time of return to a CHA
unit which can take anywhere from one to seven years. The contract also requires the
CHA to track residents through the relocation process (Annual Plan, 2003, p. 38). The
tracking process begins with the Housing Choice Survey. Murray explains this process:
They (the residents) have choices in the process, so they ﬁll out a Housing
Choice Survey (HCS) and they get to choose where they'd like to go
temporally and that means basically while rehabilitation/redevelopment is
occurring. And then where they'd like to come back to permanently after
the redevelopment or rehabilitation has occurred. Their temporary choices
are basically three: they get to choose to stay in other public housing; they
get to choose to move into Section 8; or they can choose unsubsidized
housing, which means they go live with a family member or friend. Most
often that's not chosen. I would say maybe less than two percent of our
people across the board have chosen unsubsidized housing.
With regard to permanent housing, residents can make three different
development choices, which include mixed-income communities for which
residents must meet site-speciﬁc criteria, rehabilitated public housing, which, for
the most part, only encompasses senior housing, or public housing that has not

been rehabilitated. If a resident does not select one of these three options, he/she

 

3 Pseudonyms are used to protect the identity of the participants.

108

will move into the private market through the Housing Choice Voucher program.
While the agency tired to achieve one hundred percent completion of the HCS
early in the Plan 's implementation, an agency document reveals that two years
into the plan, just 87 percent of the residents had completed the survey. Normally
this would be considered a high rate of return; however, this survey is an
important ﬁrst step because it clariﬁes the residents’ housing preferences and
allows the CHA to assess how it should proceed with future revitalization efforts.
As of August 8, 2002 with 87 percent of the residents accounted for, the
HCS reveals that 90.1 percent want to return to public housing after rehabilitation
or reconstruction and just 9.9 percent want to use a Housing Choice Voucher in
the private market. These ﬁndings indicate a much different trend than what was
reported in the NORC study, which analyzed residents going through the
relocation process at roughly the same time period. NORC data indicated that
over two-thirds of the respondents indicated a preference to relocate into the
private market through the Housing Choice Voucher program rather than return to
public housing. This may simply be a case of residents changing their mind later
in the process or representations of different data sets. However, it is important to
know which depiction of resident preference is accurate. First, to help facilitate a
smooth transitional process and second, while it is highly probable that residents
will change their minds about the choices they make for permanent housing once
they begin the transition process, it is still important to assess why they are
changing their minds. It is extremely problematic that two years into the Plan, 13

percent of the residents still had not been asked where they wanted to relocate.

109

Given the actual number of hard units that are retuning in comparison to the total
number demolished, it seems obvious that the CHA is relying on more residents
deciding to move into the private market through the Housing Choice Voucher
program. However, as long as a resident remain lease-compliant, it is their right
to return to public housing and this right is protected in the Residents Right to
Return Contract. In order to help residents make informed decisions about their
housing choices, they are assigned a housing counselor. If there are areas of
concern, which may make them ineligible for housing they have selected, then
they are referred to a “Service Connector,” which as Murray explains, is designed
to help residents meet site-speciﬁc criteria:
The vision is that all residents will have a case manager, regardless of
where they are in relocation, but specialized in where they are in
relocation. There are different buckets of where people fall in terms of
services. All of those buckets will have variations based on where they are
in the process but there will be a baseline of services all geared toward
residents meeting the site-speciﬁc criteria. In cases of mixed-income
communities, the service providers are contracted through the developers.
So I give to a service provider a list of 100 people and say okay these 100
people want to return to your development. Now here's some funding, we
want to agree your provider, we want to do the negotiations with your
provider, but this is your contractor to get these people ready, and then
their only paid on, the outcomes of the residents who move into the

development.

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Site-speciﬁc criteria will automatically exclude some residents from eligibility from
certain developments, which then inherently seems to violate resident rights speciﬁed in
the Right to Return contract. Essentially screening plans and developers can come in and
effectively obliterate the guarantees of the residents’ Relocation Rights Contract. Despite
this, Murray maintains that residents have a variety of opportunities to work toward site-
speciﬁc criteria; however, it is important to note that the onus is placed on the resident.
He/she must initiate the process, attend all required meetings, and do whatever needs to
be done to meet site-speciﬁc criteria and diligently follow up with their case manger.
Murray revealed that a number of residents chose different options after learning about
the site-speciﬁc criteria:

We already are housing circumstance where residents are saying, I don't

want to pay more rent so I don't want to go there. Or I had someone tell

me yesterday, “I pay my rent and I don't want you to tell me that I can't be

in my apartment eight hours a day if I want to so I don't want to go there.”

So ultimately, the services will be there but it still will be up to the

resident to make that choice and that commitment to reach those levels Of

eligibility if they want to. If they don't, they can keep their voucher, so

they still keep their subsidy, it's just that they keep it in the Section 8

program or there are other developments that are not going to have

specialized site speciﬁc criteria, there will be public housing that has basic

public housing eligibility. So they could potentially go to one of those

locations. The service connectors, whole goal is to take this set of people

and do two things with them; one get them ready to move in and then two

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help them navigate a choice that's best for them. So it may not mean that

you come back to meet site-speciﬁc criteria, although we want people to

and that's a choice that they have. It may mean that you enter into a

supportive housing location because you've got some serious issues that

you need to work on, and you need to be in a place that's going to support

you working on that. Or it may mean that you get into a home ownership

program and you don't come back to public housing. Or it may mean that

you stay out on section 8, because the fact of the matter is, you don't want

to work, you don't want to do this, and you know what, you should stay

there and let someone leave you the hell alone. It's to support the decision

that is best for that family as long as that decision will move you to a more

stable and more permanent housing option.

While Murray notes that the goal of all concerned parties involved in the relocation
process is to support the best decision for the resident, there are a number of logistical
factors, which to this point, seems to contradict this objective.

First, the CHA has revamped a number of strategies and approaches to serve their
residents. However, this has Often occurred in retrospect rather than in initial planning
stages. A prime example is the relocation department, which was not created until a year
after the Plan had been implemented. Ideally, it seems like this would have been one of
the key areas to focus on before building demolition began. In addition, this lack of
foresight means that residents who underwent relocation during the ﬁrst year received
imperfect service or even worse, completely lost contact with the CHA and were not even

aware of their rights in relation to the relocation process. Whenever any type of large-

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scale systematic change of this magnitude takes place, it is expected that some
adjustments are going to occur. However, the critical issue in this situation is that
mishaps or lack of foresight impact people’s lives at a very real and personal level. These
mistakes and oversights have the potential to affect a resident’s housing choice, which
could ultimately determine the quality of education her children will receive, and the
degree of social mobility that she will later achieve. As the impact of federal mandates
and social reform materialize for CHA residents, it is evident that right now, the only
safety net they have is the Plan as presented by the CHA. Therefore, if the system is
ﬂawed and more care is not taken with the process, the CHA will continue to marginalize
their residents, further perpetuating the cycles of generational and concentrated poverty
they report to be concerned about ending.
Service Connectors

Another factor that has prevented smooth transition for residents relates to the
service connector program. As previously noted, the CHA has moved away from
providing social services to residents, redirecting this responsibility back to the city in an
effort to reintegrate residents back into the city. In order to help residents make the
transition, the agency contracted “service connectors” to help residents identify and
utilize city services. The service connector program has received considerable criticism
from a number of different entities; however, the most comprehensive evaluation of the
program comes from the Sullivan Reports.

Thomas Sullivan, an Independent Monitor hired by the CHA to examine the
relocation process, oversaw the daily operations of the Plan for Transformation during

phase II of the process in 2002. The provision to obtain a monitor was negotiated by the

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Central Advisory Council (CAC), the governing body of resident leadership, in the
residents’ Relocation Rights Contract. The monitor's purpose was to ensure an objective
critique of the CHA's relocation process. The ﬁrst report was disseminated on July 24,
2002, two and half years after the implementation of the Plan, and the ﬁnal report for
phase II was presented on January 8, 2003, several months after the planning and
budgeting for FY 2003 was completed. Sullivan identiﬁed several problems with the
complex processes associated with the Plan, including: bureaucratic red tape that led to a
breakdown in communication between the CHA, property managers, and the CHAC, the
agency responsible for the placement of Housing Choice Voucher participants;
inadequate number of housing counselors to effectively meet the needs of residents; a
demolition plan that appeared overly aggressive and more concerned about buildings
coming down than the “compassionate relocation of residents;” poor implementation of
the HCV program with the potential to replace vertical ghettos with horizontal ghettos
due to the lack of time and effort given to the placement of residents; and the safety of
residents being compromised because of the placement of rival gang members in the
same development. Sullivan concluded that the overarching problem stemmed from the
CHA's unrealistic timetable for demolitions. The completion and demolition schedule by

plan year is presented in Table 4.

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As of January 1, 2005, 16,637 units have been demolished; however only about 9 percent
of the hard units, or 1857 units, have actually returned. The agency projects that by the
end of 2005, approximately 14,393 units will have been either rebuilt or rehabilitated,
allowing the agency to reach 58 percent of its goal of rebuilding/rehabilitating 25,000
units.

Sullivan noted that the demolition schedule placed a great deal of strain on the
people who were responsible for helping residents throughout the transition process. In
order to meet the goals and objectives outlined by the CHA in the Plan, there were a
number of critical steps that housing counselors were instructed to take in assisting
residents with relocation to the private market. First, residents are extended help in
obtaining lease compliance for the HCV program. Once compliance occurs, notiﬁcation
is sent to a relocation manger who in turn, forwards the information to the CHAC, the
external contractor responsible for the Chicago Housing Choice Voucher Program. At
this point residents are slated to meet with a housing counselor in order to begin
reviewing possible rental units in the private market. Each resident is supposed to have at
least five rental units shown to them and program rules stipulate that the apartments must
pass predetermined safety criteria. Furthermore, the intention is to show residents rental
units in “upwardly mobile” communities deﬁned as less than 30 percent African
American and a poverty index below 20 percent. Once a resident approves the unit and it
has been determined that it meets pre-established criteria, the resident then receives
assistance with the actual physical move out and move in.

Sullivan found that there simply were not enough staff members to handle the

large demand of placing dislocated residents in a way that adhered to the above-

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mentioned procedures. He discovered that staff members were cutting comers, which
included placing large number of displaced residents in communities that were already
overrun with poverty and not allowing residents to preview units before their placement.
As a result of the time constraints, residents were often forced to either take whatever
housing was offered them or relocate to ready-made public housing in developments that
were not slated for demolition (Sullivan Report 4). The aggressive demolition schedule,
transfer of CHA services to outside contractors, and the new responsibility placed on
CHAC staff left residents subject to a failing relocation process. Moreover, city agencies
were not able to meet the needs of CHA residents who sought their services. The
responsibility of preparing residents to meet site-speciﬁc criteria either fell on city
agencies or on companies sub-contracted by the developer to work with residents. This
often translated into limited and poor execution of resident services, which ultimately
limited housing options. The process caused a great deal of skepticism among residents,
causing them to question the CHA’s motives. Murray was asked to describe her
perception of the residents’ response to the Plan.

Initially it was a lot more negative, there's a lot of distrust that the

residents have about the CHA. Well I would say it's gone in phases, I

think the ﬁrst thing was outrage. One, people didn't believe it was going to

happen, and two, certainly didn't believe that they were going to be

relocated, they thought that it was a land grab. Then it went to people

moving although not wanting to. “So we've accepted the fact that we’re

going to have to move, we see that were going to have to go, we’re going

to ﬁght it but we’re going to go”. Then it went to, which I think is where it

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is now, “okay I want to get the hell out of here, give me my Section 8
voucher, and I want to go now”. I get more and more calls from people
who want to leave public housing everyday, so I think it's at that stage.
When asked what she thought was stimulating the change of attitude among
residents, Murray replied:
I think that it's a couple of things: one, people realize that it's for real. I
mean I think if people had trust in CHA initially there wouldn't have been
as much. . .. “You say you’re going to relocate me and bring it back and
I've lived in this shit hole my whole life, and you haven't done anything.” I
think anybody is going be like “No, I‘m not leaving cause even though this
is bad, this is the only thing I know.” So I think people actually see that
the Plan is happening so they’re much more willing to take a chance on
doing something different, and I think ultimately I believe in my heart I
truly believe that taking Section 8 and getting out in the private market is a
better thing for these families. I mean public housing is ridiculously
disgusting and atrocious. I mean people knew this already, but not
realizing that we were for real in terms of offering other housing. I think
they were still willing to stay where they were. People probably still don't
believe, even though right now people know that the buildings are coming
down, and they know Section 8 is okay, and they want to go, they don't
necessarily believe that the units are coming back still, I think that they
still think that there's no public housing coming back or they think if it's

coming back it's going to be so difﬁcult to get in, that no one is going to

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get in. I think that's probably the stage of where they are until people
actually start moving in to the new housing.
A number of factors indicate that the CHA has not supported residents during the
relocation process. Not only did the agency fail to implement proper safe guards
to ensure that residents’ rights are protected; the aggressive demolition schedule
has leﬁ residents subjected to inferior counseling services.
Relocation
Despite systematic breakdowns, there are some CHA administrators, like
Murray and Jones, who appear to be genuinely concerned about the lives and
futures of the residents. Their comments about the relocation process illustrates
the disconnect between the idealisms of helping residents relocate to better
neighborhoods and the actual practice of making this happen. Murray shares this
sentiment as she discusses her overall thoughts about the Plan:
It's amazing, because really truly, the Plan for Transformation is
happening. And it's sort of been this year that I've been like this Plan is
going to happen and there's nothing that's going to stop it, and thank God
it's going to happen. I think that we'll see an end to that fear when people
start seeing their friends or their old neighbor in the community, or when
people say “You know what, I'm ﬁne I want to stay out here I like it out
here, my kids are situated in school, they love it.” Then people, everybody
that says all the negative stuff they say because it's the easy stuff to say,
are going to realize that this really was the plan, and people really came in

and made the Plan happen. At the end of the day, it's going to be a

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phenomenal thing. The Plan is going to happen and new units are going to
come, but if the only thing was that those buildings come down and people
end up in better housing. Because of that, that in itself is successful. And I
say this and I believe it. Some people will slip through, some people will
not beneﬁt from the Plan, and I know that, and I would have to be
ridiculous to claim to anybody that they are not going to, but the fact that
the buildings are coming down and people have at least a half way if not a
one hundred percent more decent place to live is like majorly successful,
and that's frustrating when you have these people out there that just have
no clue.

Addressing the criticism that the Plan has received, another administrator at the

CHA, calls for skeptics to consider the set of circumstances that have come

together to allow such a Plan to even be a possibility.
You can criticize the Plan for Transformation all you want, but let's look
at this realistically. Never again in our lifetime will the stars align in the
way that they have for the Plan for Transformation. So if you want to
complain about all the things that you think are not right for the Plan for
Transformation, I want you to come back and give me a list of things that
you think we can do that will still allow us to move forward and make a
difference in people's lives. Because if you complain about this enough
and if all of your focus and attention is on the fact that there are some
horrible, ugly, dilapidated, disgusting, buildings that are coming down,

these buildings are absolutely deplorable, they are deplorable, and the idea

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that anybody could adjust their mindsets, and not so much because they
love these buildings. “1 don't have anyplace else to go.” Or even worse

'99

“I'm not good enough to have anything better. So when you talk about all
of this stuff, my question is, if the Plan for Transformation had stopped
when people wanted it to stop where would we be at this juncture? And at
what point do you start to pay attention to some of the other issues? If you
talk to Terry Peterson, Terry Peterson will tell you, the question is not
whether or not the Plan for Transformation can succeed. The Plan for
Transformation will move forward, as long as we have the dollars, we can
do this, we can do this. So the people who are complaining are
overlooking a major fact. This will never happen again because we were
so far into it now that if we were to stop, if this were to go bye-bye,
everybody would take a look at this and say, “Well, this obviously isn't the
solution because we did this, we did this, we did this, we asked the city to
get on board we did that, it didn't work.” So that's what concerns me when
I hear people who have nothing but negative things to say. I don't think
they’re looking at this holistically you know and what has occurred and
what has happened, and the change in administrations in Washington and
how much has been able to stay in place. We are on an incredible journey.
So my question is, what is the alternative?
Acknowledging the fact that there has been a great deal of skepticism and criticism about

the Plan, Murray echoed the words of CHA Chairperson Terry Peterson noting that not

all of people who challenge the CHA have the residents’ best intentions in mind.

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Terry Peterson so very eloquently tells the residents, "Don't let anyone

keep you poor, don't let anybody keep you down." I mean I ﬂat out call

them poverty pimps, because there are some who make money on either

keeping the residents there or trying to hold CHA's hands behind their

back so that they can't move forward, and make money off it.

A number of CHA staff members see their job as much more than tearing down buildings
and transitioning people into new homes. They see themselves more along the lines of
helping people and their children change their lives. Six years into the Plan it remains to
be seen if these adjustments will change the nature of discrimination, isolation, and
segregation that has affected public housing residents over the years.

In the broader scope of things, the creation of new mixed-income communities,
screening residents, and transitioning them into these communities may prove to be the
easiest part of the task. Adjusting to new norms and expectations and remaining lease-
compliant may prove to be a bigger hurdle for some residents than their relocation
process. Every year the CHA produces an annual report to highlight the agency's
achievements as they work toward their goals. In addition, outside entities have examined
various aspects of the Plan for Transformation. However, there are very few studies that
represent the impact the Plan has had on the residents who have moved into mixed-
income communities or seek to understand the residents’ experiences in these new
communities. Black women who live in public housing offer a perspective on this topic
that transcends other types of analysis. Their unique social location gives them a view of
this process that administrators, city ofﬁcials, and employees at the CHA do not have.

Chapters ﬁve and six present the voices of nine Black women who have moved out of

122

public housing and into a newly created mixed-income community in order to provide a

different view of the C HA’S Plan/or Transformation.

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CHAPTER V
“Embounded”

Chapter four presented the logistic and a programmatic aspect of the Chicago
Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation. This examination revealed the disciplinary
domain of the Matrix of Domination, uncovering how structural barriers and
organizational inefﬁciency place CHA residents in vulnerable positions. Chapter four
also demonstrated how systems that support inequality are built into the tenant selection
process. The purpose of this chapter is to present the experiences of nine women who
have gone through the CHA’s relocation process. To accomplish this I ﬁrst provide the
reader with background information on each one of the participants. 1 then present the
conversations the women had about their former lives in Cabrini Green, highlighting the
expressed connection to their homeplace. The discussion then focuses on the participants
experiences’ with the CHA’s relocation process noting the difﬁculties the women
experienced as a result of a system that revamped social policies while at the same time
removing social services or what Miranne (2000) refers to as a state of emboundment.
The chapter ends with a presentation of the coping strategies the women employed to
subvert these barriers.

Proﬁles
Caroline: Caroline is thirty-one and has lived in North Town Village for three

years in a three-bedroom two-bathroom town home. She has three children; two girls
ages seventeen and thirteen, and one boy age ﬁfteen, who has autism. Caroline had her
ﬁrst child at age fourteen and consequently did not ﬁnish high school. While she does not
have a formal education, her demeanor would lead anyone to believe that she is a college

graduate. Caroline is what the elders might call an ‘Old Soul,’ her relationship with her

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mother is more parental than what one would traditionally consider a mother daughter
relationship to be in that Caroline is the one who generally has to care for her mother.
During the interview, she discussed her mother’s drug addiction and the difﬁculties that
she had protecting her family from her mother’s reckless and careless behavior. During
the conversation, Caroline frequently reverenced God, demonstrating her trust in a higher
power to lead her and her family to a better life. At the time of the interview she was not
working, however she was taking classes to earn her GED and spoke of aspirations of
going on to pursue a college degree. Her oldest daughter goes to Lincoln Park High
School, a good school where the students have performed well on state examinations.
However, her youngest daughter attends Schiller, where students scored at less than a 20
percent proﬁciency rate in reading and math competencies on a recent state achievement
examine. Caroline, who moved to Cabrini Green as a teenager, chose to take a Section 8
voucher during the relocation and moved into an apartment on the South Side of Chicago.
She was not aware that North Town Village was an option until after she read an article
in a local newspaper that was talking about the CHA’s Plan. Due to a number of different
circumstances, she had to move a total of three times before she ﬁnally settled into her
place at North Town Village.

Tiffany: Tiffany is a kind person with a youthful and playful disposition. While
she is thirty-one years old, however she could easily be mistaken for a teenager or a
young woman in her early twenties. During the ﬁrst part of the interview, she held back
and was a little reserved and timid. However, as she became more comfortable she
passionately shared a number of her life experiences. Tiffany works at the new White

Sox stadium, US Cellular, formerly known as Comiskey Park, but at the time of the

125

interview, she was looking for a job that paid a better wage. She is a single mother with
three children: two boys and one girl ages fourteen, thirteen, and eleven, respectively.
She frequently goes back to Cabrini Green to visit with family and friends. One week
before our interview, a man that she had been dating on a regular basis was murdered in a
gang related shooting. Needless to say she was shaken by the event but noted that she
found it comforting to have company and talk about the things going on in her life.
Tiffany explained that living in this new community has given her a new lease on life and
helped her to reevaluate her priorities. It took eight years for her to make the complete
transition from Cabrini Green to her new town home.

Chante: C hante has lived in a town house in North Town Village for one year.
She is thirty-four years old and cares for a total of ﬁve kids, two girls of her own, ages
fourteen and seven and her ﬁancée's three children ages eleven, twelve, and thirteen that
visit on the weekends. She is a preschool teacher at Sojourner Truth Elementary School,
located in the middle of the remaining Cabrini Green high-rises. It took Chante a while to
warm during the interview, it was easy to see that she questioned the interviewer’s
motives, and her body language communicated that she would rather not be bothered.
However, once again, by the end of the interview, a rapport had been established and she
had warmed up a great deal and openly talked about her life and experience in North
Town Village. She currently lives in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, two-story walk—up,
condominium, and has a neighbor, who happens to be an Aﬁican American male
homeowner, who lives below her. Chante’s mother and aunt also live in North Town

Village and provide the crux of her social network and support system.

126

Roxanne: Roxanne is thirty-ﬁve years old, married, and has ﬁve children;
however, she describes herself as a mother of nine. Unfortunately, after four miscarriages
only ﬁve of her children survived. After her ﬁrst pregnancy and miscarriage with twins at
the age of sixteen, Roxanne turned to drugs as a form of self-medication. While her drug
habit dominated her live for some time, she eventually stopped because she realized what
her addiction was doing to her children. This year marks her thirteenth year of sobriety.
Roxanne has four boys and one girl, her oldest son is nineteen and is in the US. Navy
currently stationed in Saudi Arabia. The other boys are ages thirteen, twelve, and eight.
Her daughter is ﬁve years old and named “Miracle,” because it was miraculous that she
was born after all the trauma Roxanne experienced during the pregnancy. Roxanne grew
up in Cabrini Green with her mother, brother, and sister. Her mother moved there when
she was one month old and Roxanne stayed there until she was forced to move at age
twenty-six. Roxanne’s mother, who suffered from sugar diabetes, high blood pressure
and several strokes, almost lost custody of her and her sister and brother because
authorities questioned whether her mother was healthy enough to take care of the
children. Roxanne remembers her mother suffering from poor health all her life and says
that the family did not have much, but her mother always made sure that the kids were
taken care of ﬁrst before she met her own needs. It is evident, from the way she cares for
her own children, that Roxanne has carried this sentiment into her own life. Roxanne
lives in a spacious three-story unit with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. The
apartment furnishings are sparse, old, and worn, but it all belongs to her and it is easy to

tell by how clean the apartment is that she takes pride in all that she does have.

127

Vate: Vate is forty-six years old and moved into Cabrini Green in 1964 when she
was six. She has one grown up daughter, and is a recent newlywed. She and her husband
live in a one bedroom unit in what is known as 'the quiet' part of North Town Village, she
has lived there for over two years. Vate used to volunteer at a local church performing
various administrative tasks but at the time of our interview, she was unemployed and
looking for work. On several occasions, Vate walked me around the neighborhood,
introducing me to people, pointing out things in the community and openly answering
any questions that I had. At the end of the interview, she thanked me for coming and said
that it was therapeutic for her to talk about these issues and get things off her chest.

Beverley: Beverley is forty-six years old and has lived in North Town Village for
two years. She spoke of one son, a grandchild, and a husband and she works for the
police department as a crossing guard. Beverley is a statuesque woman whose presence
immediately commands a certain degree of respect. She is a watchful and observant
woman who looks out for the best interest of her friends and family. She is well respected
in her circle of friends and exudes a type of strength that one recognizes immediately
upon meeting her. She is a woman who stands by her convictions and is not afraid to
speak her mind. Our interview occurred outside after a neighborhood block party and as
various neighborhood children played close by she kept a close watch on them,
disciplining and consoling them when necessary. Her boisterous voice could be heard
throughout the neighborhood commanding people to listen to her when she spoke.

Sharon: Sharon is ﬁfty-four years old and has two daughters one, who is twenty-
four and Chante, thirty-four, and also a participant in the study. Sharon lived in Cabrini

Green since she was a teenager and recalls a time when the development was a much

128

different place, where people respected one another and took care of the community. She
noted that even when the gang activity was going on in the 19803 the gangs would warn
people before they started any trouble or shooting so that innocent bystanders could take
cover. However, she stated that today, gang members do not care who is caught in the
crossﬁre and shoot and kill without regard. Sharon is a very kind woman with a quite
disposition, the type of woman who is happy to serve and give of herself without
attention or reorganization. Sharon has lived in North Town Village for three years and
previously had a job with the Board of Education but is now unemployed.

Louise: Until her relocation Louise had lived in Cabrini Green her entire ﬁfty-
seven years of life. She worked as a volunteer at a neighborhood school until just recently
when she began to have trouble with her knees. Eventually the pain became so sever that
she could not walk up and down the stairs or around the building. At the time that we
talked she was scheduled to go in for knee surgery, the following week. She has one son
that is thirty-four years old and he has two children. She was happy to announce that her
oldest grandchild is graduating from high school next year. Louise suffers from arthritis,
diabetes, and frequently has to visit the doctor. She receives 881 but notes that it is
extremely difﬁcult to make ends meet from month to month. She lives in a one-bedroom
apartment in a two-story building, which has four units in the building.

Laura: Laura is the oldest participant in the study. At sixty years old she is
commonly referred to as grandma by the neighborhood kids. Her mother was born in
Mississippi and came to Chicago with her father, who also happened to bring along his
mistress and all of the children he had fathered between the two of them, nineteen to be

exact. Laura was born and raised in Chicago, she has two children a son and a daughter

129

and three grandchildren, two of whom currently stay with her. Her oldest grandson was
present during the interview and participated in the discussion, offering some insightful
perspectives, which have been included in the narrative when appropriate. Laura is in
very poor health; she goes to dialysis three days a week and also has heart problems. She
notes that her health began to deteriorate about three years ago; the same day that her
mother passed away she experienced heart failure. Laura ended up receiving a heart pacer
and during the procedure the doctors discovered several problems with her kidneys. She
also volunteered at the neighborhood school as a parent helper for nine years and now she
works for the summer food program sponsored by CHA in order to provide free lunches
to low-income children who would not normally receive a meal when school is not in
session. Laura mentioned that she would like to ﬁnd a paying position; however, given
the severity of Laura’s health problems, it does not seem practical for her to try and
pursue a job. Through our conversation and follow-up visits, it became apparent that
Laura was a well-respected person in the neighborhood, very active in ﬁghting for change
and passionate about the community and the direction it was headed. I felt an immediate
connection with her. The ﬁrst time I meet her she had just returned from dialysis and was
too tired to talk, but she took my information and called me a couple of days later to set
up an interview. She invited me into her home, which was nicely furnished, clean, and
well kept. Before the interview began we sat down and she showed me family pictures,
gave me a tour of her home, and introduced me to her grandson after which she leaned
over to me and said "do you think you can talk to him, help him out" to which I replied

"sure no problem."

130

While all of the women formerly lived in Cabrini Green and now live in North
Town Village, their histories and life experiences vary. In defining Black women as
agents of knowledge, Collins (1990) states, “Each individual has a unique personal
biography made up of concrete experiences, values, motivations, and emotions. No two
individuals occupy the same social space: thus no two biographies are identical” (p. 224).
Likewise, Miranne (2000) notes that even though women may share the same space they
do not necessary share the same experiences. She argues that the multiplicities of their
lives, as determined by the race, ethnicity, gender and class, require that we realize the
unique nature of these relations. As such, it is important to examine the individual and
unique experiences of Black women in order to deconstruct the nature of oppression.
Evoking the principles of Black Feminist Thought allows one to understand a
participants' standpoint and still understand how their experiences are shaped by systems
of power that grant and deny privilege based on social constructions of race, class and
gender. Collins notes, “standpoint theory argues that group location in hierarchical power
relations produces shared challenges for individuals in those groups. These common
challenges can foster similar angels of vision leading to a group knowledge or standpoint
that in turn can influence the group’s political action” (Collins, 1998, p.201). Collins
acknowledges the importance of uncovering the unique social location and perspectives
of Black women and also argues that there are commonalities among Black women,
grounded in experiences with struggle, and these commonalities generate a unique Black
consciousness. Collins (2000) asserts that for U. S. Black women, the legacy of struggle
forms this collective consciousness. Thus, the relationship between personal biography

and a collective consciousness are represented in the voices of the participants. Hence

131

examining individual voices ultimately helps one understand collective experiences.
Collins asserts, “Group standpoints are situated in unjust power relations, reflects those
power relations, and help shape them” (Collins, 1998, p. 201). While there are some
ideas that seem to resonate with all of the participants, they each described their
relocation experiences and life in North Town Village from their own standpoint. Thus,
taken together the participants’ descriptions provide an array of constructs that allow the
reader to understand the multifaceted aspects of the Plan and its impact on low-income
Black women. Figure 5 presents a summary of the demographic information listed in the

participants’ proﬁles.

132

Table 5: Characteristics of Primary lnformants

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name Age Occupation Years in Years in Immediate Family
Source of Income/ or North Town Cabrini
Self-Sufﬁciency Activity Village Green

Caroline 31 GED classes 3 years 15 Two girls 17, 15, and

one boy 13 who has
autism
Tiffany 31 Cominsky Park 1"":2 years 27 Three kids: two boys
ages l4, l3 and a
daughter ﬁe ll

Chante 34 Preschool Teacher 1 year 28 Two kids age 14 and 7
(girls); ﬁancée has
three kids ages 11, 12,
and 13 which come
and visit on the
weekends. She is also
Sharon's daughter

Roxanne 35 Osco Drugs 3 years 26 Husband, ﬁve kids,
four boys ages 19, 13,
12, 8 and one girl age
5. She describes herself
as a mother of nine
only ﬁve survived.
Oldest son is in the
navy.

Vate 46 Was a Volunteer at Local 2 years 49 Recently married and
Church but at the time of has an older daughter
interview was unemployed who does not live with

her.

Beverly 46 Crossing guard for the 2 years 40 Son,

Chicago Police Several grandchildren
Department and is also Sharon's
younger sister

Sharon 54 Formerly with the Board 3 years 50 Two daughters
of Education but now is age 24, and Chante age
unemployed 34. Also has several

grandchildren

Louise 57 Social Security Income 2 years 52 One son age 34; two

grandkids

Laura 60 Social Security Income 3 years 50 Two children and

several grandkids two

 

 

 

 

 

of whom live with her

 

133

 

Home Place: Life in Cabrini Green

F eldman and Stall (2004) contend that theoretical conceptualizations of people’s
attachments to the places they call home, or their ‘homeplace,’ have received
considerable attention from scholars across disciplines. Homplace attachments are
conceived of as conceptualizations that are complex and interrelated, oﬁen creating
psychological and behavioral bonds with both dwellings and neighborhoods. The authors
note that notions of homeplace become an enduring, tangible symbol of the individual
and social self, of the continuity of one’s experiences, and of that, which is valued by the
inhabitants. During the interviews participants were asked to reﬂect on the years they
spent in Cabrini Green, so that they could describe their community or homeplace in their
own words. Given the perception that outsiders have of CHA projects it was important to
have the women describe how they experienced their former community, thus giving
them the opportunity for self-deﬁnition, rather than objectiﬁcation.

The women’s stories reveal that while violence was omnipresent in the
community they did not deﬁne their lives in Cabrini Green by these factors. Rather the
women spoke in terms of family, friends, and pride. For instance, Tiffany responded:

As far me living there it was okay. It was like everybody was family. I felt

comfortable because I guess I knew everyone. So it felt like I wasn’t in any

type of danger or nothing.

While the women in the study did not speak in terms of victimization, it was clear that
they shared a collective awareness of what it meant to live in a community riddled by acts

of violence. Roxanne shared her thought out the old neighborhood simply stating:

134

I didn’t have any problems, the only thing I got tired of was getting caught

in the crossﬁre.

Interviewer: How often would that happen?

Roxanne: Damn near everyday. Especially when. . .. they used to come up

in my building, whoever was there, that’s who’s getting shot. I almost lost

my brother from that, so that’s one thing that sacred me. And I just thank

God that I didn’t lose him.
Living in Cabrini Green meant that one had to learn how to manage the environment.
Similar to Popkin et al., (2000) findings, the participants identiﬁed coping strategies,
which included: 1) Making sure that they are always aware of what is going on around
them; 2) Only trusting a small group of people; 3) and looking out for self, ﬁrst and
foremost. Popkin et al., concluded that their participants dealt with the crime and gang
activity in the neighborhood by: denying the impact of violence; not discussing criminal
activity; not reporting crimes to the police; and only associating with a small group of
trusted friends. The similarity in responses provides valuable insight into the factors that
shape and inﬂuence how residents negotiate living in high crime communities. The
participants in both studies adapted to their environment and ultimately came to rely on
themselves and a few trusted family members or friends for survival.

Given the prevalence of gangs in the community, conceptions of homeplace

conjured up memories of the necessity to ‘look out for self. For example, Tiffany
conveys this sentiment as she discusses the time she was almost forced to join a gang.

She states:

135

When I was staying over there (Cabrini Green) I was seven months
pregnant with my son and the gang bangers came and asked me did I want
to join a gang.

I told them, “I have to think about it.”

So they got to tellin me what they goin to do to me. and I’m pregnant.
"We goin hit you in your arms we goin hit you in your legs and we not
goin hit you now were else."

But why would you want to hit me when I’m pregnant?

You hit me you hittin my child.

So I say "give me enough time to think."

I’m still thinking ...... and I’m still thinking ....... the projects gone and
I’m still thinking ....... Now that was B.S.

I could never join a gang. I tell people the gang I join, is a mother with
three kids. Now you want to join and help me, come on.

Help me raise mine. It ain’t good for females to be in a gang. It ain’t good
at all period, but you know these mens they thugs like that, so you could
understand them, but a female. I don’t think that’s appropriate for a

kmﬂe

Tiffany asserts that her ﬁrst priority was to look out for herself. Now that gang

members are trying to recruit, her children she ﬁnds herself teaching them how to

negotiate the environment, highlighting the importance of looking out for self.

Tiffany stated:

I36

Sometimes my kids have problems cause the projects right here and when

they come home from school they get asked questions by gang banagers.

"You from off Sederick?"

And what, what if he is, what? He stay there he have to live there. Just

because he stay there or live over there he have to be in gang that’s sad. I

have to tell my kids you have to do what you got to do.

I tell them if someone mess with you, hit you or anything you have the

right to protect yourself but it’s sad how life is, that’s why they always say

life is a “B” which it is.
Despite her relocation to North Town Village Tiffany still has to worry about her children
being recruited by gang members. While the quality of her housing has changed, she still
must deal with external factors that threaten her family’s safety. Her knowledge and
understanding of the streets and life in Cabrini Green allow her to teach her children how
to protect themselves, by any means necessary. During the interview, Tiffany spoke of
the advice that she gives to her children which includes staying in school, not engaging in
sexual activity, and if someone messes with you, do whatever you need to do to protect
yourself. This advice may fall outside of middle class conceptions of appropriate ways to
handle teenage conﬂicts. However, her social location, or outsider within status, provides
her with a special perspective of the inner workings of two intersecting communities. As
such, her approach to parenting reﬂects her social location and her worldview, which has
been shaped by her homeplace.

A discussion with Laura and her grandson reveals how each one engages

constructs of homplace. Laura expresses the challenges that she faces as she tries

137

to instill in her grandson the dangers associated with joining a gang. Laura
expresses concern about the heightened gang activity occurring in Cabrini Green
since she relocated. She states:
Laura: Half of them they have to walk all around to keep from going
through the project to keep the boys from jumping on them.
Grandson: She making it seem like, we can’t walk. We are gang bangers.
That’s all of Chicago, that’s what we live for, that, so you know what you
getting into in a gang. You know how that goes. You know what I mean?
Laura questions her grandson about why he takes the long way around the neighborhood
avoiding cutting through Cabrini whenever he goes to visit his friends.
Grandson: Don’t think cause I’m walking that way, its because of
somebody. I was going to somebody’s house that way. Don’t nobody stop
me from going nowhere by myself. I know what’s going on. She just
saying I’m part of the youth that’s doing it. It ain’t that bad. You know
what I mean. We live the way we want to live. That’s how it be.
Laura: 1 still don’t think it's safe. Because before he came here a young boy
was getting kilt every night, every night.
I asked her grandson what were the beneﬁts of being in a gang?
Grandson: Ain’t no beneﬁt. This all we know. We grew up infatuated with
this, you know what I mean. You be a part of it, ain’t no one going to mess
with you, stuff like that. Me personally, my daddy, my daddy was the man

at one time, that’s what made me, you know what I mean. So it’s like I

138

said, it family, it’s not like being in no gang. These my people, I ain’t never

going to change. I ain’t never. You know what I mean, cause this is me.

Interviewer: What do you see for yourself and your future?

Grandson: If not rap, than it’s this forever. There ain’t no hope for the

future.

Interviewer: Why you say that?

Grandson: Cause it ain’t.
Feldman and Stall comment that throughout history, the signiﬁcance of
homeplace has exceeded necessities of functional and material support for shelter
a notion clearly expressed by Laura’s grandson. While he recognizes the danger
of the life he left, he is intrinsically connected to his homplace, which has
become his ﬁlter for a variety of life experiences.

Feldman and Stall assert that attachments to homeplace are experienced as an
intimate sense of belonging, comfort, and being at ease in a local, both in its material
surrounds and in the social relationships formed in the locale. Regardless of the
difﬁculties, participant reﬂections about life in Cabrini Green generated a language of
pride and solidarity. For example, despite of the problems with the gangs Tiffany
mentioned that she would still like to go back to Cabrini Green.

You know it’s been some rough times. I’ve saw a lot of things from 1980
on up, so we moved on up. But I loved to live there if I could turn back the
hands of time I will like to go back there, not because of the loud music, it

was just, we was all like a family in one.

139

A number of the respondents shared this sentiment, noting that they were proud to be
from Cabrini Green, and cherished the supportive networks they had created, Tiffany
states:
I let people know right today I was raised from Cabrini, and I am actually
proud about that because there was some good times. It was some bad
times and everybody goes through that in life, no matter where you at, it all
up to you how you want to carry yourself in that environment.
Laura’s grandson also talked about the pride that he felt for Cabrini:
It don’t matter where you live, we are Cabrini, we built Cabrini, so it don't
matter that we in these new houses, we all family, we know each other.
For the most part the women reported feeling comfortable in Cabrini Green and
to a large extent, their identities are still connected to their homeplace. The
women’s stories illustrate that they were frustrated by the crime and violence but
nonetheless found comfort and support in the community. This near North side
community has now undergone several phases of gentriﬁcation with changes so
drastic that the old neighborhood is barely recognizable. This fact might magnify
some of the participants need to claim allegiance to the disappearing Cabrini
Green. As more high rises are razed and replaced with condominiums, the old

neighborhood continues to fade into the background.

140

Embounded: Reactions to the Relocation Process

Miranne (2000) argues that when federal and state reforms are revamped they
often leave poor women vulnerable to further subjugation because the policies do not
consider the in between spaces that poor women occupy; as such, public policies present
more challenges for these women in caring for themselves and their families. Miranne,
suggests that poor women, particularly those who receive welfare and live in public
housing are “embounded” or isolated when the state revamps policies and withdraws
resources.

This state of emboundment is evident for the participants of this study. For
instance, when faced with the reality of a forced relocation, at the age of twenty-six,
Roxanne decided to take a Section 8 voucher, which she used for ﬁve years. At one point,
she began to have trouble with the property owner. She ﬁled a complaint with the CHA’s
Housing Choice Voucher department, however counter complaints from the landlord
eventually led to her eviction. Even though she ﬁled a grievance she lost her Section 8
funding and ended up homeless with ﬁve children to care for. She initially stayed with
family and ﬁ'iends when she was ﬁrst evicted however, circumstances eventually forced
her to go to a homeless shelter. Roxanne retells the story:

So my niece she stay across the ﬁeld in the white projects they call them

green homes. And um I was staying with her, she had so many people

stayin with her so I stopped going up there and stuff. I had went out south

and stayed with one of my in-laws, she like and aunt to me. Her boyﬁ'iend

was using drugs real bad. We stayed into it and I got tired of my kids

141

being subjected to that. There was nine of us in there. Her son who was
consistently smoking marijuana around my kids and like I told them,
"you need to light some incense. I’m not tryin to run nothing but if I

don’t subject my kids to that your not." Guys coming in with company all

over my kids heads, we sleeping on the ﬂoor, sleeping on the ﬂoor, he

having company from sun up to sun down and I got sick of it. “I’ve never

been in a shelter 3 day in my life but today I’m going” and I got up and

left. Sure did. I got up and left and l was there four months.
Roxanne described the shelter that she was placed in as rat infested, dirty, and unsafe.
Eventually she was moved to the Salvation Army shelter, which was cleaner, provided
more privacy, and helped her enroll in computer classes. When Roxanne was trying to
ﬁnd a place to stay she ﬁrst went to her pastor, then to her cousin, next to her aunt, and
eventually ended up in several different shelters before moving into North Town Village.
It took four months for the CHA to rectify the problem, which from Roxanne’s
standpoint is 120 days in a homeless shelter with her children. In addition to worry about
ﬁnding housing, she still had to negotiate everyday aspects of life, like getting food for
her children, clean clothes, and making sure the kids got to school. Roxanne’s situation
was directly related CHA’s polices and procedure, and as such uncovers the impact of
social reforms and policies that do not adequately consider the in between spaces that
poor women occupy (Miranne, 2000). When social policies do not consider the impact
and effect of polices that ‘reform’ the system while also withdrawing resources the result
will be the exploitation and further marginalization of poor Black women. In Roxanne’s

case the system did not empower her to stand up against her landlord, nor help her ﬁnd

142

new housing, and did not provide any type of assistance, ﬁnancial or otherwise to help
her sustain her family until the situation was resolved. Furthermore, she could not rely on
family and friends to support her and her ﬁve children nor was the ﬁrst shelter that she
visited suitable for temporary living yet alone an environment for young children.
Roxanne was “embounded” trapped by the multiple structural inequalities that left her
and her family vulnerable. However, Roxanne did not passively sit back and submit to
her circumstances, rather she fought everyday to regain some form of stability for her
family. Her tenacity and determination eventually placed her back on the CHA’s waiting
list, which eventually led to placement in North Town Village.

In Caroline’s case a the relationship with her mother, a drug user, who asked to
stay with her and her children, also left her vulnerable during the relocation process.
Caroline describes the circumstances:

My mamma had came from out of town and she stayed with me and she

kind of made things worse. Cause I was working and I come home from

work and there's a strange man in my house. I was like,

"Oh mom you know I love you but. . .. uh ah."

And she would get mad at me cause I was telling her what to do and so, I

said, "You know what, if you don’t like it here, cause I have family here I

have children here, I don’t want no strange men coming in my house

especially when I’m at work, and you doing this on your own, what if

they get mad at you because you owe them money and want to get you

and get my family to."

That’s why I asked her to leave.

143

If the CHA had discovered that Caroline was providing shelter and assistance to
her mother, who has a drug problem and associates with drug dealers, it could
have potentially changed Caroline’s lease compliance status and left her
ineligible for housing assistance. Under the federal governments ‘one-strike and
you’re out’ provision, the CHA has the right to evict any household with a
member who uses illegal drugs or is involved in drug-related criminal activities.
As Popkin (2002) notes this policy is laden with all sorts of repercussions that
ultimately force individuals to choose between following mandated policies or
helping a family member. The Resident’s Relocation Rights Contract states that
as long as residents remain lease compliant, they will be allowed to return to
public housing following redevelopment. However, Roxanne and Caroline’s
stories reveal that remaining lease compliant during the relocation process can
prove to be challenging task, even for those who have the best of intentions. The
daily negotiations of their life oﬁen place them in direct contradiction with
federal laws and local mandates and as such have the potential to compromise
their housing options. Roxanne’s and Caroline’s stories represent various
aspects of problems associated with the policies that govern the Plan for
Transformation and the relocation process. Their experiences provide a different
view of the relocation process than what is presented from the independent
monitor, as discussed in chapter four, or other investigations that have examined
this issue (Popkin, Harris, & Cunningham, 2002). The women’s stories uncover

the nature of their relationship with the relocation process and the very real

144

consequences of a system that does not adequately consider the in between
spaces that low-income Black women occupy.

Coping Strategies. The information provided in chapter four combined with an

 

examination of the women’s experiences clearly indicates that the CHA’s relocation
process is ﬂawed and as such leaves poor women vulnerable to further marginalization.
While the women in this study recognize the limitations of the system they did not
merely succumb to further objectiﬁcation, rather they employed a number of coping
strategies as a way to subvert the deﬁciencies present in the system. These strategies
included maintaining a level of awareness about their rights, steadfast tenacity, direct
involvement with key decision makers and resourceful people, and working multiple
systems in order to identify which agencies could provide needed resources. For example,
unless Caroline had been proactive about following up with CHA staff she may have
never of known about the choices available to her at North Town Village. She describes
how she found out about her housing options:

So what happened was, I happened to look in the newspaper and they was

talking about people that had got displaced. I said I’m going to make a

call, and I’m going to talk to somebody, and I did, and she told me,

"You were one of the people who got displaced." and she said,

"I came out to your place but the woman told me you didn’t stay there."

She got me to look at one of the apartments over here and I looked at it,

and I was like “you know what I like this.”
Rather than waiting on the CHA to provide moving assistance Caroline transported all of

her belonging, from the south side to the north side, using the cities public transportation.

145

Laura on the other hand kept herself involved in the process from the beginning
until the end. Her involvement was not merely passive observation waiting on someone
to tell her what was going on, but rather direct agitation. Laura states:

During the time when we got our vouchers and stuff now, we thought that

there was going to be a problem because due to the process, they had

promised us new units and at the time, they really had not built anything.

So we was in a toss up, cause we wanted to stay on the North side, we

was trying to ﬁnd apartments on the North side that would take us. But

just so happened this lady, Mary, we started getting together going to
meetings together downtown, every time housing had a meeting we went
to protest, saying “where our new units” and this and that. And in the
process she helped a couple of the families get down in Evergreen

Terrace, but they didn’t take everybody they ended up scattering; some

went South, some went West, some went up North and all that. So in the

long run when the building came back around when they got through
building around here different units and whatever, they started sending
out letters to us, asking us did we want to move over here or whatever,
whatever, their rules and regulations was established.
It is difﬁcult to say whether Laura would have been contacted by the CHA, had
she not attended the meetings and questioned the process. However, her direct
involvement kept her abreast of her rights and guaranteed her placement in the

community.

146

Since Roxanne was staying in different shelters, it was difﬁcult for CHA
staff to locate her. Desperate to get her own place again, she started apply for
housing assistance programs all over the city and decided to go back to CHA to
see what her prospects were. Once she got back into their tracking system, she
was identiﬁed as one of the people eligible for North Town Village. After she
qualiﬁed for housing with Holsten, she had to undergo a background check,
which was carried out by a third agency. At this point, she was denied housing
because she exceeded the occupant limitations set forth by the private
development company. She explains:
I had ﬁlled some papers out with Moorehead & Associates, they did the
home inspection. I passed everything cause, I was getting unemployment
at the time. When they went through the papers and seen that I had put my
daughter on the lease, they told me that they could not help me. Cause
they only had three-bedroom housing. The state requirement said I needed
a four bedroom. I said you know what, thanks for motherfucking
nothing!
This set back did not deter her; she went to talk directly to the property mangers at North
Town Village to serve as her own advocate. She ended up convincing the managers to
give her an opportunity and was able to secure a four-bedroom unit. Roxanne shared her
story:
When I signed the lease, I didn’t know if I was going to get moved in the
high-rise, one of the condos, town homes, or what. When I walked in here

I laid right there and cried (Points to the middle of the living roomﬂoor).

147

The kids did not believe me, my husband; I said it is so big. God blessed

me with four-bedrooms three-bathrooms and a two-car garage.

Cause like I said to my kids we got to thank God everyday for waking us

up, it’s not our doing. It wasn’t my doing getting this house that was

God’s. Blessed me with this house. If they hadn’t of caught up with me

when they did they was going to take my name off the list. My name was

on the list all this time.
When Roxanne ﬁnally moved in it was around Christmas and was also able to receive
assistance from an organization in California called Interfaith who gave her furniture,
towels, sheets, food, a TV. and a check for $400.00.

Like I tell people everyone has a real testimony, and God knows I have

one. I thank God everyday. Just cause I been through what I’ve been

through and trying to stay from it, I still don’t think that I’m better than

the next person because I realize where I come from everyday. And it be

wrong for me to have that type of attitude, oh just cause I cleaned myself

up, I got blessed with my house, a three ﬂat house, four bedrooms, three

bath. Oh you know what; you ain’t on my level that would be wrong to

think like that toward my people I’m still that same person.
The women’s stories expose their experiences with the relocation process, highlighting
how their social location inﬂuenced their interaction with the system. Furthermore, the
stories demonstrate that these women are not simply passive agents succumbing to the
pressures of inequitable systems but rather active participants who empowered

themselves and their families in the face of difﬁcult circumstances. The women were able

148

to circumvent the deﬁciencies in the system by maintaining a level of awareness about
their rights, staying directing involved in the relocation process, and working multiple

systems in order to identify which agencies could provide needed resources.

149

CHAPTER VI
Private Housing Public Lives

Chapter ﬁve illuminated the participants’, experiences with the CHA’s relocation
process, highlighting how the women in this study negotiated their former environment
and overcame structural impediments present in the relocation process. The purpose of
the chapter is to examine everyday aspects of the participants’ lives in North Town
Village. To accomplish this I ﬁrst discuss how site-speciﬁc policies in the development
support a “New Politics of Containment” subjecting the women to forms of constant
surveillance. The latter part of the chapter examines the ways in which social
interactions can inﬂuence social capital.
A New Politics of Containment

The site-speciﬁc policies for continued occupancy in North Town Village govern
virtually every aspect of the women lives. In one respect, the rhetoric associated with
mixed-income communities expounds that such programs help individuals become self-
sufﬁcient. However, the paternalistic nature of the policies and procedures that govern
the participants daily lives clearly indicate that the decision makers at the federal, state,
and local levels do not expect the women to behave in a responsible and self-sufﬁcient
manner and as such have designed polices to monitor and regulate virtually every aspect
of their lives. Collins (1998) describes this phenomenon as the “New Politics of
Containment,” she asserts:

Black women in the United States seem to be facing a new politics of

containment honed at this intersection ofﬁxity and change. While

continuing to be organized around the exclusionary practices attached to

150

racial segregation, the new politics simultaneously uses increasingly

sophisticated strategies of surveillance. Relying on the visibility of

African-American women to generate the invisibility of exclusionary

practices of racial segregation, this new politics produces remarkably

consistent Black female disadvantages while claiming to do the opposite.

(Collins, 1998, p.14)
Collins notes, that previous law, which mandated racial segregation, helped to facilitate
acts of government surveillance. However, as Black women continue to move into the
private sector and integrate with other racial and economic groups new approaches must
be implemented to maintain surveillance. Collins highlights that this new politics
obscures exclusionary practices that continue to marginalize African-American women
through rhetoric of inclusion. In addition, in Carby’s (1992) discussion of urbanization
and the production of African-American culture, she argues that since Black women ﬁrst
began to migrant to urban cities, public ofﬁcials have sought in various ways to control
their actions, behaviors, and morality. These modes of ‘policing the Black women’s
body’ often took the form of socialization by exposing “social misﬁts” to respectable and
law abiding women of good moral character, controlling their housing, and ﬁnally
creating ‘training schools’ that indoctrinated the women with constructs of acceptable
behavior in both the private and public spheres.

The above-mentioned practices are indisputably present in the site-speciﬁc
policies and procedures for continued occupancy for public housing residents at North
Town Village. The state, via the federal government, has given private management

companies unrestricted freedom to monitor, surveillance, and regulate the lives and

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activities of public housing residents who now live in mixed-income communities. Not
only do these policies seek to regulate the daily lives, thoughts, and activities of the
public housing residents that live in North Town Village, the rules work to destroy the
long-standing practices that low-income women have utilized to subvert the effects of
concentrated poverty. The management team in North Town Village has instituted rules
related to visitors, drug testing, and self-sufﬁciency classes, to name a few, all of which
advance surveillance policies that seek to regulate the lives of public housing residents in
the community.

Visitors. Holsten management has established stringent screening criteria
for public housing residents who desire to live in North Town Village. Applicants
must pass background checks, drug test, prove economic stability, submit to home
inspections, and adhere to policies about drug use and fraternizing with convicted
felons. With regard to visitors, residents are not permitted to take in guests for any
extended period and if a family member returns home to live with the leaseholder,
he/she must submit to the above-mentioned screening criteria. Ultimately, this
policy destroys elements of extended kin networks that the women may have
established in their public housing communities. Furthermore, these policies
ensure that family members who have a criminal background will not be able to
visit or live in the home and the policy makes it extremely difﬁcult for the woman
to provide temporary shelter to a family member or friend in need. In addition, it
destroys the possibility of creating a non-traditional dual family household to help

with expenses and childcare. Beverley shares the internal conﬂict that she

152

experienced when she was forced to ask her son's girlﬁ'iend to leave. She
describes the incident:
They come up there and told me; my son's girlfriend was staying with me,
because she did not have no place to go. Her mother never took care of
her. She raised herself up from age seven. She had two babies, I didn't
want to put her out cause she lived with me when I lived on the south side.
I didn't have no other choice, I had to put her out. And she had to go get
her a place. She out there struggling, working, and trying to get her own
place.
In their study, Feldman and Stall (2004) found that providing food and shelter to
friends and family members constituted acts of everyday resistance that allowed
women in Wentworth Gardens to support the pressing social reproduction needs
of the women in their community. Thus, through the simple acts of taking in a
friend or family member that was homeless or providing childcare services for
women who went to work, the women in Wentworth Gardens were able to
provide support systems to the women in their community. The above-
mentioned policy at North Town Village makes it extremely difﬁcult for the
participants in this study to engage similar forms of support and assistance to
other low-income women who may be in need. Not only does this policy limit
the social and familial relationships the women are able to develop, the policy
also allows management to monitor the male company the women have. Tiffany

addressed this issue referring to boyfriends living with residents:

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The only way they can live (boyfriends), is if they ain’t got no criminal

record but you know the majority, ninety percent, got criminal records.

And I can understand that because they want their place to stay, you

know, in a decent way, and then you don’t know what they’re in jail for,

could be molesting then you got kids around here, that’s understandable,

that is understandable. Cause when I ﬁrst moved back they came and

talked to me before I moved over here. They say well you can’t have a

boyfriend on a criminal record. Okay if I knew I want a man, he on a

criminal, why should I move? Some of these people got that said to them

but they not following the rules then when they get put out they mad. But

you have to see why you mad, you should be mad at yourself cause they

told you what was what when you moved. I was like well I ain’t got no

man I don’t care I’ll go on you know and that’s how it was. Some people

they, they have they boyfriend over here people complain they just get out

of jail, probation, comin. Don’t none of that supposed be going on.
As Tiffany describes, it is within the right of Holsten to mandate that all people living in
the unit are listed on the lease. However, the screening criteria essentially limit the type
of relationships the women can have with men especially if they have a criminal record.
A factor that a number of the women felt that management had no right to monitor. This
issue came up during a tenant meeting that had been called for public housing residents to
voice some of their concerns; Beverley broached the visitor issue with management. She

explains:

154

One day we had a meeting over here. Okay that was my ﬁrst time meeting

this man named Matthew. I didn't know who the man was, and I frankly, I

didn't care. They'll tell you I'm just like Martin Luther King, I don't care

about going to no hill I going to speak my piece. And there was a lot of

girls came from 500 and 502, and they was saying why your boyﬁ’iend

can't come and visit you. They didn't want your boyfriend to come here

and all that. So I asked the man what's the difference between them and us.

Ain't no difference between White person and Black person but the color

they skin. So I was saying the same thing to a woman in my building. They

overheard, went back and told the manager. He ask me, “well do you want

you Section 8 back?” I said I don't have NO problem, I'm going to speak

my piece. Because I don't see no difference.
While this incident demonstrate Brenda’s assertiveness and willingness to stand up for
the women in the community, especially given the fact that she is married and does not
face this same problem, it also illustrates how managers try and control the women’s
behavior by threatening to take away their housing. However, the key point is that
monitoring the women’s social relationships with men goes beyond the type of control or
inﬂuence that management should be able to exert over tenants. Social policies
constructed to control the private lives of Black women have been part of systemic forms
of control since Black women ﬁrst entered urban centers. These forms of social control
demolish the line between private and public domains, essentially subjecting Black
women to constant monitoring, observation, and invasion. Furthermore, these policies are

supported because derogatory images of poor Black women have permeated the public

155

psyche and thus work to justify policies that seek to regulate the lives of poor Black
women. The drug testing policy in North Town Village is another example of
surveillance and containment tactic that managements uses to control actions and
behaviors of their low-income residents.

Drug Testing. CHA residents, who live in North Town Village, over the age of

 

seventeen, are required to take yearly drug test in order to remain lease compliant.
Holsten is one of the only management companies working with the CHA that mandates
drug testing for public housing residents. This has been a source of some controversy
because homeowners, in the same community, do not have to undergo the yearly
examination. The following comments represent the women’s responses to the drug-
testing requirement:

Vate: We got to take a drug test every year; we do, but not them.

Chante: I can see it when we ﬁrst move in but every year, come on.

Brenda: A lot of people moving out of here because of the drug test. I

don't do drugs, I don't feel like I got to go down here and take it. That's

what a lot of people complain about too, why is it that Holsten, is the only

one that have to take the drug test. Orchard (another mixed-income

community near by) don't take no drug test, and we the only one. Every

development that they own out South only Holsten have to take a drug

test. I mean I don't have no problem with it, but I think that's someone's

personal life, you see what I'm sayin. And then a lot of people moved out

cause they didn't want to do it.

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Louise: They want you to take a urine test every year. If you ain’t on
drugs, like I be telling them, "I’m 57 years old. I’m not no drugie."
They say that’s their policy. Take a urine test every year. I don’t like it, it
too much trouble
Alternatively, Nancy, Caroline, and Roxanne did not feel that the drug test were unfair, in
fact Roxanne noted that the management gives the residents many opportunities to
comply with the rules.
Nancy: Taking the drug test? I have no problem cause I don’t smoke weed
or nothing like that so I don’t have no problem with it. I guess it
somehow, beneﬁcial here.
Caroline: I don’t have no problem with that. I mean I guess they trying to
keep people from doing drugs off the property, cause they don’t want
nobody doing no type of drugs on this property.
Roxanne: They have us drop every year when its time for us to renew our
lease and if you come up dirty then. . . .. They be like, in order for you to
keep your house you have to go in-patient or get into an outpatient
program. They give you a chance to keep your house, cause they know
how hard it is ﬁnding houses.
At the very basic level, the drug testing procedures are an invasion of privacy
and direct comment on the management perceptions of public housing residents.
The manner in which Holsten enforces this policy is not communicating that they
do not want drugs on their property, if this was the case they would test everyone

in the development, it implicitly states we can not trust public housing residents,

157

therefore they have to undergo yearly drug test. The women’s social location as
poor women who rely on public housing assistance exposes them to invasions,
which other people in the same community do not experience. Not only are the
participants bound by rules regulating their social and personal lives, Holsten and
the CHA mandate that all residents must attend a Good Neighbor Class prior to
moving into the community.

Good Neighbor Class. Residents are required to attend a 'Good Neighbor Class'

 

before they can sign their lease. This is a one-day class, taught by different staff members
at CHA. The session covers everything from renter's insurance, opening a bank account,
housekeeping, neighbor interaction, and what toilet paper to use. The women share their
reactions to the class:

Louise: They was showing us how to prepare when you move and how to

budget your money and stuff. It was real nice we had got a certiﬁcate.

Caroline: It was helpful; they talked about mostly how to approach your

neighbor don’t go to your neighbor cussing them out, you all come to a

conclusion. How to control the company you keep. There were a lot of

points that were helpful to me. It helped out. There were only two people

in my class.

Vate: They told us not to use generic stuff in the dishwasher and stuff like

that, our toilet we can't use Charmin we got to use Scots tissue.
While the majority of the respondent found the class helpful Chante and Beverley had

different sentiments about their sessions.

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Chante: It as only Blacks wasn't no White people. I don't know if they

even went to a class, we couldn't even sign our lease until we went to the

class. One day for ﬁve hours.

Brenda: They was telling us how to keep a house. I know how to keep

my house. . you need to manage the building.
The stated intention of the ‘Good Neighbor Class’ is to help CHA residents adapt to
living in the private market. While the class covers a number of useﬁrl subjects including
money management, banking, and how to purchase homeowners insurance, the design of
the program falls short on a number of fronts. While the class may take the ﬁrst step in
helping residents through the transition process from the public to the private market the
fact that it is a one-day class that last for ﬁve hours raises questions about the overall
impact and usefulness of the information. This class is another example of how
systematic supports have failed to assist residents with their relocation and adjustment
process. If the CHA were truly concerned about the smooth transition of public housing
residents into the private market the Good Neighbor program would be a long-term
program that provided residents with various types of resident identiﬁed support. As it
exists right now, the class is a socializing mechanism to “teach” public housing residents
how to behave in their new communities. It focuses only on changing behavior not the
structural inequalities that limit social mobility.

Pet Policy. Not only are the site-speciﬁc policies and procedures designed to
monitor and limit the actions and behaviors of public housing residents, other rules in the
community establish an environment of preferential treatment. For example, North Town

Village’s pet policy seems to be a big point of contention among the women interviewed.

159

The ﬁrst point of concern that was frequently mentioned was the fact that homeowners
can have pets and public housing tenants cannot. Second, a number of the participants
had a great deal of concern about the amount of respect pet owner showed to the
community speciﬁcally dealing with letting dogs ‘run off their leashes’ and not properly
disposing of the dog’s waste. Vate stated:

Like this lady and this guy over me have a dog. We can't have a dog, we

can't have no pets. And the lady on the ﬁrst ﬂoor she just let her dog just

run, and she get mad at you because you go and tell the people that she

letting the dog run. She got a rottweiler we don't want to get bit by no dog,

and he only bark when he see us coming. I'm just saying she got to be

prejudiced or something. And they can act like that.
Chante felt that the issue is much bigger than whether or not renters can have
pets. She sees the policy as discriminatory and ﬁnds it difﬁcult to explain to her
children why they cannot have a pet. Chante commented:

I wants to move, because they can have pets: cats, ﬁsh, dogs, hamsters, but

we can't have no eat. And I don't want to live over here no more because

we can't have pets. My kids ain't never had no cat. But they can have dogs.

I didn't move from where I was to be segregated like this cause my kids

don't know nothing about segregation; I don't know nothing about

segregation. They discriminate us, if they homeowners and we renter what

does it matter? We still pay rent and all of us still work, I'm a hill time

worker, I'm a preschool teacher, why should you segregate us if I'm a

fulltime worker. In Cabrini we was equals, you didn't deal with

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segregation, and I can't deal with that. That's my only problem, I can't deal
with that. We pay rent, I pay a lot of rent to stay up here, even though I
work full time and I pay high gas, but they don't want to give us the same
thing they get. And I don't feel it’s right. And some peoples dog's use it
and don't get it up they look at you a smile, at you, and when you speaking
to them, they look at you they got their own little personal ideas about
things, but when we play our music they get mad.
It is clear that the real issue here has less to do with pets and more to do with the
effects of differential treatment. Chante is clearly unhappy in North Town Village
and despises the policies and procedure that differentiate between homeowners
and public housing residents, policies that she cannot logically explain to her
children. Her initial response is to leave the community and relocate to a place
where she feels like she will ﬁt in better, a community perhaps that is more
racially homogenous.
Laura ﬁnds that many of the pet owners disrespect community spaces:
Lately, all the homeowner have dogs. Okay they poop here they poop
everywhere, some of them might have a bag a scoop bag and get it up,
some of them uh ah. Then you go to the ofﬁce and report it, report it, I
don’t know what they done, done because the same thing still going on.
During the neighborhood block party Laura had a conversation with the CEO's of Holsten
development and management about her concern with a speciﬁc neighbor who lets her
dog chase people in the neighborhood:

I was telling them about this,

161

"We gonna talk to her, we gonna talk to her."

Why you going to talk to her when it’s reported numerous times about her
and all the owners that have these dogs they pooping up and down the
street they not picking it up. But yet you let the dogs run soot-free through
the grass do what they want to do run all over the neighborhood, but the
kids can’t play.

"Oh you right Laura we gonna take this up we gonna have a meeting."
There’s been no changes, because still the kids can’t ride their bikes out
here they still can’t do nothing. And that’s the whole issue around here.
We try to follow our rules an regulations.

They give the dogs more privileges.

The dogs have more privileges than the kids.

Nancy’s comment indicates that the issue is much larger than pets defecating on

the lawn or who can and cannot own pets. The issue is essentially about the basic

level of respect that the management has for people, and commitment to enforcing

fair and equitable policies. While the participants’ kids are not allowed to play

outside, pet owner can let the dogs roam freely in the community. However,

securing a play area for the children is a battle that the women have been ﬁghting

since they moved into North Town Village.

Not only is there nowhere for the children to play there are also rules that dictate

whose children are allowed to play outside. When management ﬁnds a public housing
residents' child playing outside the parent(s) receive a written warning. If this incident

occurs again the parent(s) are ﬁned $25.00. If it occurs a third time the lease agreement

162

states that it could be cause for eviction. This policy also extends to adults congregating
and sitting outside. The women discussed their feelings about this matter:

Sharon: When they showed us the map, they showed us that they was

going to have a playground for the kids. Then all the sudden a lot of people

start coming and they done changed it around. Now they don't want to
build a playground. There a lot of kids over here they got to have
somewhere to play.

Chante: And to me they segregating us. Because they kids can play out

here and our kids got to go all the way in the ﬁeld, over there and play.

They kids can play in the front but, every little thing, they want to write

your kids up, for what somebody else kids doing.

Several of the women explained that the different policies and procedures for
homeowners and renters enforced by the management make it difﬁcult for there to
be true sense of equality in the community. The nature of the polices and
procedures that govern the women’s lives are in effect discriminatory and
establish a form of preferential treatment that mirrors the systemic forms of
discrimination that for decades marginalized and isolated these women from full
participation in society.

The fact that these rules only pertain to the actions and behaviors of
public housing residents makes them discriminatory. Holsten’s site speciﬁc-
policies institute various levels of surveillance and as such mange power
relations in the community (Collins, 2000). Collins argues that power is

managed, “not through the social policies that are explicitly racist or sexist but

163

through the ways in which organizations are run” (p.280). The participants’
unique social location determines their relationships with the structures that
govern their lives. Furthermore, the above-mentioned policies are supported by
macro-structural systems the perpetuate inequality, thus the process has become
normalized to the point that the federal government and the CHA have
celebrated Holsten’s practices and the city of Chicago has given the
management company several awards for their innovative approach to managing
mixed-income communities. Without understanding the lived experiences of
these participants, one could not appreciate how seemingly simply guidelines
interfere with daily aspects of their lives. Positioning the women as agents of
knowledge sheds a new light on the site-speciﬁc screening criteria and rules for
continued occupancy for public housing residents in North Town Village.
Social Capital

Proponents of the creation of mixed-income communities as a strategy for poverty
deconcentration, contend that one of the most attractive aspects of the design, relates to
the fact that low-income residents, through interactions with middle and upper class
residents, will increase their social capital (Brophy & Smith, 1997; Rosenbaum, Harris &
Denton, 2002; Rubinwoitz & Rosenbaum, 2000). Social capital is deﬁned as investment
and use of embedded resources in social relations for expected returns (Lin, 2000). Social
capital is conceptualized as (1) quantity and/or quality of resources that an actor (be it
individual or group or community) can access or use through (2) its location in a social
network. The ﬁrst deﬁnition emphasizes resources entrenched in social relations while

the second focuses on ones location in a social network. Lin states, “Social capital

164

enhances the likelihood of ‘instrumental returns,’ such as better jobs, earlier promotions,
higher earnings or bonuses, and ‘expressive returns,’ such as better mental health”
(p.786). Studies have found that signiﬁcant differences appear in the social networks and
the embedded resources of men and women (Beggs & Hurlbert, 1997; Campbell &
Rosenfeld, 1985; Marsden, 1987, 1988; Moody, 1983; Moore, 1990) and racial groups
(Blau, 1991; Drake, 1965; Marsden, 1988; Martineau, 1977) with men and Whites
yielding access to better resources and higher status networking groups. Lin sites two
primary reasons for the inequality of social capital. First, processes of historical and
institutional constructions have provide unequal opportunities for members of different
groups deﬁned by race, gender, religion, caste or other ascribed or constructed
characteristic. Second, the principle of homophily, suggest a general tendency for
individuals to interact and support others with similar characteristics.

Lin asserts that cross-group ties among people of differing resources are usually
recognized through kin and family ties or mentor-protege ties. He states, “Cross-group
ties facilitate access to better resources and better outcomes for member of the
disadvantaged group. Nevertheless, such times are the exception rather than the rule;
homophily and structural constraints reduce the likelihood of establishing such ties for
most of the disadvantaged members” (Lin, 2000, p. 787). Furthermore, Lin contends that
‘capital deﬁcit’ groups may generate different rewards from their interactions for three
primary reasons. First, they may not associate with people who have the “best” social
ties; second, people that they establish connections with may be reluctant to invest their

capital on their behalf; and third, gatekeepers respond differently to people based on

165

gender and race therefore bias in an organization may prohibit entrance, regardless of
one’s acquired resources or afﬁliation within a network (Lin, 2000, p. 791).

While housing mobility specialists have articulated improved social capital as one
of the primary beneﬁts to low-income residents, who relocate to mixed-income
communities it is still unclear how residents will actually accrue social capital. The
assumption seems to be that if low-income residents engage in meaningful social
interactions with middle and upper class neighbors this in turn will expand their resource
network, which in turn will lead to improved social capital. If this is the case then cross
group social interactions, both racially and economically, appear to be key factors that
inﬂuence increases in social capital for low-income residents in mixed-income
communities.

Thus far, most examinations related to inter-group or cross group interactions in
housing situations have focused on interracial social interactions where successful
integration was deﬁned in terms of harmonious relationships. The Gautreaux program
provides one of the few examples of the residential integration of low-income Blacks into
a White middle class suburb. Furthermore, Rosenbaum, Popkin, Kaufman, and Rusin
(1991) note that there has been relatively little attention in the literature given to the
effects of residential integration as it relates to the social interactions of adults.

Findings from the 1960s and 1970s indicated that afﬂuent Whites generally have
more positive attitudes towards Blacks (Ford, 1973; Williams, 1964; Zeul & Humphrey,
1971) and integration is most successful when Blacks and Whites are of equal social
status (Deutsch & Collins, 1951; Wilner, Walkely, and Cook, 1955). In their study of the

Gautreaux program, Rosenbaum, Popkin, Kaufman, and Rusin predicted that low-income

166

residents who moved to the suburbs would be less socially intergraded than city movers
would and experience limited neighborhood support, friendliness, interaction, and
friendships in comparison to low-income residents who relocated within the city. Surveys
and interviews with Gautreaux participants indicated that suburban movers reported
experiencing almost two times as many incidents of harassments than city movers and
only one-fourth of the participants responded that their neighbors were helpful, friendly,
and provided practical assistance, which was deﬁned as ‘going out of the way’ to help.
Rosenbaum, Popkin, Kaufman, and Rusin used six interaction measures and based their
analysis on frequency of behaviors in order to determine a scale of social interaction. The
six indicators included lending things to neighbors, letting the neighbor use the phone,
watching a neighbor’s child, eating lunch or dinner with a neighbor, greeting a neighbor
in the hallway, and talking to a neighbor for ten minutes or more.

Other Gautreaux research suggests that families that moved to the suburbs gained
educational and employment beneﬁts from these moves compared to city movers
(Rosenbaum & Kauﬁnan, 1991; Rosenbaum & Popkin, 1991). However, these studies do
not indicate if these gains were a result of improved proximity to better resources (i.e.
better schools and more jobs) or a result of social interactions with neighbors who help to
facilitate the process.

Utilizing Lin’s social capital framework, which asserts that capital deﬁcit groups
may generate instrumental and expressive returns from their interactions with individuals
or groups that have higher degrees of social capital combined with Rosenbaum’s,
Popkin’s, Kaufman’s, and Rusin’s social interaction framework allows for the

opportunity to consider what type of social interactions could potentially lead to

167

improved social capital for low-income residents. Figure 3 depicts a matrix that locates
degrees of social capital and social interaction in order to determine what types of

interactions may lead to improved social capital.

Figure 3: The Relationship Between Social Interaction and Social Capital

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

High A Quadrant I Quadrant II
Superﬁcial or hostile interactions Meaningful and supportive
with individuals who have acquired interactions with individuals who
high levels of social capital have acquired high levels of social
'5 capital
U Chante Tiffany
":6
“g Quadrant Ill Quadrant [V
U)
‘'55 Superﬁcial or hostile interactions Meaningful and supportive
E with individuals who have a low interactions with individuals who
8 amount of social capital have a low amount of social capital
8
<1
Laura
Low FHigh

Social Interaction

The matrix presented in ﬁgure 3 provides a useful framework for which to
examine how the social interactions participants engage in everyday, may or may
not increase one’s social capital. For instance, Tiffany’s experiences with her
neighbors are represented the quadrant Il demonstrating a high degree of cross
group interaction She explains:
Tiffany: I ain’t never had no problem, they like family. Like me and my
neighbor, White neighbor, Black neighbor (points). White neighbor need
somethin I help them out she need somethin I help them out, I need

somethin they help me out, that’s how it should be. All of them get along

168

with me, I smile, 1 wave good morning, that’s it. I had a couple of
neighbors help me out with my bills cause they know I’m by myself. And
you know, I pays them back you know but sometimes it’s hard for a single
parent, and all this weight on us. I LOVE my neighbors, and they movin
out piece by piece and I hate it. I believe, I don’t know, but I believe that it
cause of some of us in here that ain’t keepin and following the rules. So,
but I love them.
Tiffany’s comment reﬂects her sense of a strong supportive network and amiable
relationship with her neighbors whom she describes as, “just like family”. In
addition, she views these interactions not necessarily as a way for her to increase
her social capital but rather as a network of people that she can depend on for a
number of different things. If her neighbors are connected to other resource rich
networks, she may have the opportunity to beneﬁt from their social standing
because she has already established meaningful connections with them.

Nancy’s cordial experiences with her neighbors lie somewhere in between
quadrant II & IV based on the limited amount of interaction that she has had with
them. Laura discusses how she ﬁrst began communicating with them.

This guy next door, it took him about a year before he started saying hello.

The only reason I think he spoke, I happened to be cleaning snow out the

door area so I said 'well I’ll just do his.‘ He come out his door, ﬁrst he

looked. . then he said "how you doing". First time that man had spoke to
me. I’ve been living next to him for a year. Just like the girls downstairs.

Now I went in my mailbox. So, I open the mail and I’m like a check for

169

one thousand dollars. I’m like who sent me a check for a thousand dollars.
I’m thinking now how do I deposit this check in my bank account. Nawh, I
aint gonna do that. So I went downstairs. I’m like is your name Laura or
whatever she said "No, No" peeking through the door.
She said “may I ask why.”
I said “well I got some mail in my mailbox and I accidentally opened it
and it was a check.”
“Oh that’s my roommate here she comes now.” She coming across the
street. I said well I opened it by mistake so I don’t want you to think that I
opened it. She came up here, and came in, and said “Oh this is so
gorgeous” you know and whatever just came on through. I ain't ask her to
come all the way in here you know. She said ohh I love a big place like
this. But I gave her that check Monique, she came the next day and gave
me sixty dollars. And that’s how we started talking. You got some salt
Nancy? You got some sugar for my coffee Nancy? I don’t mind cause I
liked it. Sure, you know, and I hope every time they ask me if I got a
needle to a pen and I say yes. That makes me feel good.
The connections that Tiffany and Laura enjoy with their neighbors demonstrates
the types of interactions that Lin’s and Rosenbaum, Popkin, Kaufman, and
Rusin’s frameworks suggest might lead to social cohesiveness which in turn
could lead to improved social capital for low-income residents.
While Lin points to the importance of cross-group interactions for

resource deﬁcit groups. It is also important to note that the in-group or intra-

170

racial social interactions that occur among the participants sever an important
purpose. The interactions that the participants have with one another and other
former Cabrini Green residents are closely connected to quadrant IV. A number
of the women interviewed revealed that they have created their own social
support network with other public housing residents. Nancy, Louise, Brenda,
Sharon, and Vate all mentioned that they get together to play ﬁﬁeen hundred
every week.
Nancy: We pretty much get together and organize with ourselves. It ain’t
like we missing nothing with them (the White people in the community).
Furthermore, Laura mentioned that during the summer for several weeks in a row there
was a Cabrini Green reunion in the park right across from North Town Village. Former
Cabrini Green residents from across the city were invited to come back to the old
neighborhood. However, what made this reunion unique is that is was organized by old
gang leaders from Cabrini Green. Laura described the event in detail:
But every week, down there at Schuler Park, they was having these outings
every Monday. Called old timers, and all the old time gang leaders, I mean
big time gang leader be out there. But they was speaking to the younger
generation. But these are they grandkids that coming up gang bangers.
These is their kids, kids. I mean, I seen a girl out here I ain't seen in forty
years. She was there and then I turned around the next week I saw a couple
of ﬁiends that I hadn’t seen in about thirty-seven years. And then the word
got out that people was coming together like a big old family reunion

thing, people was just out there. Like, say you might had went to

171

kindergarten with this girl and then ya’ll got up and however, maybe

graduated from school and whatever or either she might have moved away

when she was in fourth grade. West side boys, everybody was there “Man

I aint seen you in about forty-ﬁve years" whatever whatever, it was so

nice. It was just a reunion thing. The Decibels, Cobras, the Vice Lords or

whatever. They was all out there, kickin it smokin blunts and whatever.

But, who was ﬁghting? The eight and nine year olds, ten year olds. This is

what I wanna see around here. A unity.
While some might consider the congregation of various gangs in one park problematic,
Laura was happy about the reunion and comforted by the fact that the men were trying to
do something “productive” in the community. The Cabrini reunion was an event that was
uniquely and specially for Cabrini residents, in a sense all of the old residents were
reclaiming the neighborhood and indirectly sending a message that the bonds that were
formed in this community will not be destroyed by the demolition of the buildings. While
these types of interactions certainly are beneﬁcial and as Feldman and Stall (2004) and
Williams (2004) have shown, such supportive kin networks can help low-income women
with childcare, and other household task which can translate into acts of everyday
resistance. However, according to Lin these interactions will not create opportunities for
the women to increase their social capital. Lin argues, “members of a certain group,
clustering around relatively inferior socioeconomic standings and interacting with others
in similar social groupings, would be embedded in social networks poorer in resources as
well—poorer social capital” (p.787). He goes on to note resource poor networks share

relatively restricted varieties of information and inﬂuence. Therefore, even meaningful

172

and helpful interactions with low resource individuals, or groups, do not inherently help
low—income residents accrue social capital.

This point contradicts or at least does not recognize personal agency or forms of
grass roots social activism that may be present in homogenous low-income communities
(F eldman & Stall, 2004; Williams, 2004). Supportive relationships among the women
provide stability, thus generating high amounts of expressive returns. As policy makers
assert the importance of helping low-income groups improve their social capital, it is
important, that they provide access without undermining or destroying supportive
networks that are already in place.

The next section reveals how history, race, class, and gender and contextual
factors shape the complex layering of interpersonal relationship among all of the
residents in North Town Village. While the majority of the women interacted with their
neighbors without serious incident, Chante noted that there are times, matters can escalate
and turn into complicated conformations. Chante’s experience is a representation of the
ﬁrst quadrant where one can interact with someone who has a higher degree of social
capital; however, the interaction is hostile and thus will not lead to an improved social
standing. Chante went into detail about a problem that she is having with a neighbor. The
resident is a homeowner, lawyer, and single Black man who lives below her: She
explains:

I'm having this problem with this man downstairs, cause he say my kids

running around, which that’s a lie. I got older kids and my step kids are

older. He want to say my kids are running around, which is not true. I'm

not going to tell my kids to be still, so my kids isolated to one room

173

because he want to go back to the ofﬁce. Saying that my kids running
around. The kids don't even be in the living room. The kitchen they come
in the kitchen, just to eat. 1 got a separate living room and dining room,
they don't even come into the computer, they like upstairs in the room so I
don't hear his mouth, or I won't hear management mouth. That why I want
to move. My kids are not going to sit down and act like they prisoners in
the house. Me and him stand toe to toe out here, he Black and an attorney.
You know, some of us act like that, they give you a quarter they want the
whole block. He got a White man job, they let it go to they head.
Chante has had repeated misunderstandings with her neighbor, and she went on
to describe another incident that occurred:
There was some kids on the step and they was hollering up to the window for my
daughter. So he come out talkin about, "You need to know where your daughter
at," this that and the other, “you let your kids run around, slam cabinets," this
that and the other. I said, ﬁrst of all my kids are growin, well old enough, why
would they run around, and I'm a pre-school teacher and I'm there all the time.
So he got to talkin crazy, and my brother-in-law told him if you an attorney you
not supposed to talk like that, and you not going to talk to her anyway so you
need to correct the way you talk to her. Oh he changed his whole tone.
While Chante’s neighbor, the attorney, could have potentially provided her access to a
number of different resources through his social networks, the nature of the interactions
between them negates any beneﬁts that she might accrue. Furthermore, it is important

to note that when engaged in interactions with persons who possess higher degrees of

174

social capital, there is always the potential that the person with fewer resources will
suffer greater repercussions for any infractions that may occur.

While the design of the community has given low-income residents greater access
to individuals with higher degrees of social capital, managers have done little to help
facilitate cross group interactions among the residents. Organized opportunities for
residents to interact with one another do not occur frequently. In fact, the ﬁrst organized
event was a block party that occurred on September 11, 2004 three years, aﬁer the ﬁrst
public housing residents had moved into the community. Initially, Holsten has expressed
that they wanted the homeowners to collaborate and organize the party for the entire
community; however, the lack of interest among the homeowners caused the event to be
delayed and pushed back a number of times. Eventually management decided to plan the
event themselves. There were about thirty-ﬁve families that attended, four of which were
homeowners. Vate proclaimed:

This was the most important thing that I ever saw that we did, since I been

here, was today, for them to come together like we did today, cause we

ain't never come together on nothing.

In the three years that the community has existed there had only been one structured
opportunity for all of the residents to interact with one another. While Vate does not
speak in terms of needing to improve her social capital, she does recognize the
importance of social cohesion and community solidarity. While the Plan for
Transformation has provided the participants closer proximity to resource rich
individuals this “positionality” may not be enough to change the participants’ relationship

with forms of structural inequality.

175

Finally, while there are a any number of factors that will inﬂuence gains in social
capital including homophily and macro-structural barriers, a key hindrance to the full
incorporation of low-income residents into the community is the relationships that many
of the participants have with the managerial staff. Holsten hired several building
managers to live in the development and maintains that they are there to sever as the ﬁrst
line of defense to help curtail any problems that may arise. However, the women stories
indicate that their relationship with management has become more conferential and
contemptuous rather than helpful and harmonious. The relationship between management
and low-income resident is a critical component of the overall success a resident will
experience in the community and directly inﬂuences opportunities to build social capital.
Several of the participants relayed that, they felt that the building managers were often
disrespectful and rude. For instance, Beverley describes an incident that she had with her
building manager regarding the installment a satellite dish. She stated:

I had this White man his name was Dave. And you know the way he

talked to me? He talked to me like I was a kid. My mamma always told

me to respect my elders. I was the ﬁrst Black person around here to get

satellite okay. Well I didn't know, I'm working for the police department

as a cross guard. My son and his girlfriend was there (at the house) and

they had it (the satellite) mounted up on the wall. He comes up there, "If

you don't get that motherfuckin shit down, then I'm gonna come snatch the

motherfuckin shit." This a White man, talking to me like that, the manager

of the building. Why would you come talking to me like this when I done

lived around here since I was the only Black person, everybody else

176

getting satellite. The White folks you go over there they got their stuff

mounted up to the wall. But this is the way you want to talk to me, I told

my son “you'll got to get stuff down” and they nailed a whole in the wall,

he told me I would have to pay for the hole, I ain't paying for nothing.
This incident is complicated by the fact that the manager, who is expected to serve as a
resource for the residents, is in effect cultivating a hostile environment. This not only
makes it difﬁcult for Beverley to live peacefully in the community but also limits the
likelihood that she would seek his assistance with other issues. Popkin, Harris, and
Cunningham (2002) found that relationships with management could determine the level
of stability a public housing resident experiences in a mixed-income community.
Furthermore, if one of the stated objectives for the creation of mixed-income
communities is to change the social and economic standing of low-income residents by
helping them improve their social capital then mangers in the complex should help
facilitate interactions among neighbors and guide residents toward resources, not
impeded their progress. While the examples provided by Tiffany and Laura indicate that
strong relationship are possible, the experiences of Chante, and Beverley represent the
challenges that may impeded the formation of meaningful supportive relationship in the
community which will limit opportunities for the residents to improve their social capital.
Participants ’ Response to the Public Gaze

From the outside looking in it seems as if the public housing residents have been
given a prime opportunity. They live in brand new condominiums in a neighborhood that
in ﬁve years will be one of the hottest real estate markets in the city. However, the

participants’ stories reveal that their lives in North Town Village are not quite paradise.

177

The participants were asked to share their perception of what they thought other people,

outside of the community thought about them. There statements are powerful and listed

below without analysis so that their voices may be heard.
Louise: Lots of people ﬁgure that 'they came from Cabrini Green they ain’t
going to do nothing but causing trouble.‘ Cause you know we came from
Cabrini over here, something nice. They think that since we from the
projects, that what they be doing, trouble making. They think cause we
came from Cabrini you bring all the trouble that all they deal with drugs an
gangs and bring it over here. That’s how the White folks think cause you
came from Cabrini you trouble.
Vate: They said they trying to teach you all how to own stuff and be
responsible for this and all that, but we old enough, we adults. We like nice
things, anything look good it you keep it clean, so that's how we do. We
like nice things and we moved up in here and we keepin our house clean
we want to live like they live. But they got to treat us like they want to be
treated. They think that cause were Black we do stuff like that. They do it
to, but they doing ecstasy and all that stuff. Don't judge me by the color of
my skin, judge me by who I am you know what I'm sayin. That's the way
we want to feel. You know they sayin, they can say... that they did give us
a chance. That what they say, “well we gave them a chance, they came in
here.” We know what to do and what not to do, we not no kids. They treat

us like that cause of the color of our skin.

178

Chante: When people look from the outside seem like we blessed but

when they get in here they goin see we ain't blessed.

Roxanne: They was a lot of people, they was moving, they said they too many

Black people, project people, moving over here. Uhh ........... , That means their

whole thing is because these houses brand new don’t nobody Black, period, unless

you a lawyer or doctor get one of these and that being discriminated. What is they

talking about there’s to many Black people? but I’m like how can they actually feel

like that. It’s not for you to say whose moving in, whose moving out, or who’s on

their way in. It's not for you to say. I look at it like this the only reason that this got

built is for relocation for us. So it more so ours than theirs, but if you want to come

off here, "well they shouldn’t be here anyway," we could have been like that.
There are a number of people against the Plan for Transformation for a variety of
reasons; however, the women’s comments reﬂect the underlying hidden message that
surrounds many people’s opposition. Some people are not against the concept of mixed-
income communities per se, but rather against allowing low-income public housing
residents to have access to such communities. This sentiment permeates the structural
aspects of the CHA Plan and relocation services. It is also omnipresent in the site-speciﬁc
policies and procedures for continued occupancy at North Town Village, and last but not
lest it comes across in the interactions that the participants have with their neighbors and
management. The participants of this study revealed the reality of their experiences’ with
the CHA’s Plan for Transformation. It was important to capture these experiences
because the voice of Black female public housing residents has either been excluded or

left out of the larger conversation that shapes and informs the discussion on mixed-

179

income communities. Black women who live in public housing offer a perspective on
housing mobility programs that seek to deconcentrate poverty through the creation of
mixed-income communities that transcends a pragmatic analysis. Their unique social
location provides them of view of this process that administrators, city ofﬁcials, and

employees at the CHA do not have.

180

Chapter VII
Conclusion

Several factors have contributed to the current state of inner city public housing
communities across the nation including de-industrialization, housing segregation,
economic restructuring, and discriminatory policies and procedures that marginalized
groups based on social constructions of race, class, and gender. The effects of
concentrated poverty signiﬁcantly impact poor Black women who live in public housing;
however, rarely are their voices or experiences included in the discourses that inﬂuence
and shape the public policies which directly impact them.

In an effort to curtail the problems that existed throughout the Chicago Housing
Authority’s properties, in 2000 the agency implemented the Plan for Transformation, a
ten year, multi-billion dollar project that seeks to rebuild and rehabilitate 25,000 units of
housing. The agency reports that they are primarily concerned with changing the physical
appearance of their communities and helping their residents move toward self-sufﬁciency
in order to end the generational cycles of concentrated poverty that currently plague their
developments. The Plan call for the majority of the residents to relocate to the private
market through the Section 8/Housing Choice Voucher program (HCV). However, a

Small percentage of the residents have the opportunity to relocate to newly developed
mixed-income communities located on or near the site of their former housing project.

Through in-depth interviews, document analysis, and ﬁeld research, this

embedded case study investigated the lived experiences of nine Black women who
f0I‘Inerly lived in Cabrini Green and who now live in North Town Village. In order to

determine: ( 1) How does viewing low-income Black woman as agents of knowledge

181

inform one’s understanding of the Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for
Transformation? (2) How do logistical and programmatic aspects of the Chicago
Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation impact the participants of this study? (3)
What strategies do the participants employ to overcome the structural inequalities and
limitations they may face as a result of recent housing policy changes? (4) Do the
participants relocation and transition experiences align with the Chicago Housing
Authority stated goals and objectives as presented in the Plan for Transformation? The
purpose of this chapter is to review the ﬁndings of the study.

CHA administrators have been forced to juggle the interest of a number of
different stakeholders including the federal government, city ofﬁcials, private
development and management companies, and their residents. Balancing all of these
interests, which often times are in contradiction with one another, has proven to be quite
a challenge for the agency with the resident services and needs often comprised to meet
the interest of other groups. Inequalities present in the logistical and programmatic
aspects of the Plan have created structural impediments that limit residents’ housing
choices. For instance while the objectives outlined in the Plan call for renewed housing
and opportunities for all their residents, ﬁve and a half years into the implementation of
the Plan it is evident that the agency is doing a better job of addressing the structural
aspects than it is of attending to needs of their residents. As of January 1, 2005 16,637
public housing units have been demolished however, only about 9 percent of the hard
units, a total of 1857 units, have actually returned. Agency administrators have proven
that they can effectively demolish units, as stipulated under federal mandates; however,

when it comes to the relocation of displaced residents, the return of actual hard units, and

182

the availability of essential services to help residents make effective changes in their
lives, these administrators are not measuring up to the promises that were guaranteed to
residents at the onset of the project. The aggressive demolition schedule, transfer of
CHA services to outside contractors, and the new responsibility placed on CHAC staff
have left residents subject to a failing relocation process.

In addition, discriminatory practices built into the Plan have facilitated resident
subjugation and marginalization. Speciﬁcally the 'Minimum Tenant Selection Plan for
Mixed-Income/ Mixed Finance Communities’ and site-speciﬁc screening criteria have in
effect blocked some residents from opportunities to live in newly constructed mixed-
income communities, a right which was guaranteed to them in the Resident Right to
Return Relocation Contract. Furthermore, since the agency has transferred all of its
management responsibilities to private companies they have compromised their
residents’ civil liberties, exposing them to unregulated and intrusive policies and
practices.

Viewing low-income Black women as agents of knowledge provides a
view of the Plan for Transformation and the relocation process not readily found

from other sources. Speciﬁcally, the women’s stories uncover their experiences
during the relocation process and the very real consequences of a system that
does not adequately consider the in between spaces that low-income Black
women occupy. While the women in this study recognized the limitations of the
relocation process they did not merely succumb to further subjugation, rather
they employed a number of coping strategies as a way to subvert the inherent

deﬁciencies present in the process. These strategies included maintaining a level

183

of awareness about their rights, steadfast tenacity, direct involvement with key
decision makers and resourceful people, and working multiple systems in order
to identify which agencies could provide needed resources. The participants’
stories reveal that they are not simply passive objects enduring multiple forms of
oppression but rather active agents who circumvented structural inequalities
through various strategies.

The site-speciﬁc policies for continued occupancy in North Town Village
have instituted a ‘New Politics of Containment’. The state, via the federal
government, has given private management companies unrestricted freedom to
monitor, surveillance, and regulate the lives and activities of public housing
residents who now live in mixed-income communities. Not only do these policies
seek to regulate the daily lives, actions, and activities of the public housing
residents that live in North Town Village, the rules work to destroy the long-
standing practices that low-income women have utilized to subvert the effects of
concentrated poverty. The management team in North Town Village has instituted
rules related to visitors, drug testing, and self-sufﬁciency classes, all of which
advance surveillance policies that seek to regulate the lives of public housing
residents in the community. Furthermore, these policies establish unbalanced
power dynamics among the residents, leaving public housing residents susceptible
to discriminatory practices with little options for redress. The nature of the polices
and procedures that govern the women’s lives are in effect discriminatory and

establish a form of preferential treatment that mirrors the systemic forms of

184

discrimination that for decades marginalized and isolated these women from full
participation in society.

The above-mentioned policies are supported by macro-structural systems
the perpetuate inequality, thus the process has become normalized to the point
that the federal government and the CHA have celebrated Holsten’s practices
and the city of Chicago has given the management company several awards for
their innovative approach to managing mixed-income communities. Without
understanding the lived experiences of these participants, one could not
appreciate how seemingly simply guidelines interfere with daily aspects of their
lives. Positioning the women as agents of knowledge sheds a new light on the

site-speciﬁc screening criteria and rules for continued occupancy for public
housing residents in North Town Village.

Proponents of the creation of mixed-income communities as a strategy for poverty
deconcentration, contend that one of the most attractive aspects of the design relates to
the fact that low-income residents, through interactions with middle and upper class
residents, will increase their social capital. However, as policy makers assert the
importance of helping low-income groups improve their social capital, it is important,
that they provide access to resources and networks without undermining or destroying
supportive networks that are already in place. Furthermore, while the design of the
community has given low-income residents greater access to individuals with higher
degrees of social capital, managers in the development have done little to help facilitate

cross group interactions among the residents. The relationship between management and

185

low-income resident is a critical component of the overall success a resident will

experience in the community and directly inﬂuences opportunities to build social capital.
While all of the women expressed a sense of gratitude for the opportunity

to live in a new condominium they all felt the life opportunities where not

dictated by where one lives but rather asserted that self-motivation is a better

predictor of success than changing one’s neighborhood. Rachel eloquently

states:
I’m more stable in my life now, my kids stable in one school now, and I
feel that I can really let my hair down now. So I’m content where I’m at.
I’ve learnt a lot going through what I went through. We have to really set
that example for your kids, and be responsible not only for the kids but for
ourselves as well, so you don’t have to move backward in your life you
can continue to move forward. Everybody goes through their little trials
and tribulation in life but the point is, did you learn something from it?

An intersections framework grounded in the principles of Black feminist

thought changes how African American women are studied because it places

Black women at the center of analysis, deconstructs racist and sexist images

of African American women, and allows for self-deﬁnition. Examining the

lived experiences of Black women who formerly lived in Cabrini Green and

now live in North Town Village reveals their relationship with the process of

policy reform and contributes to the work that is being done on mixed-

income communities by considering how structural, disciplinary, hegemonic

and interpersonal domains of power intersect race, class, and gender to shape

186

everyday lived experiences. The purpose of this study was to examine the
lived experiences of nine low-income Black women who transitioned out of
public housing into a newly constructed mixed-income community under the
CHA’s Plan for Transformation. The participants’ stories convey the real life
and personal aspects of a large-scale public policy reform. Likewise, given
the public’s perception of low-income public housing residents, after
reviewing the screening criteria for mixed income communities one might
ﬁnd the polices fair, equitable, and necessary. However, listening to the
women who are impacted by these polices, describe the effect and overall
impact that the polices have on their lives, allows one to step back and
consider if the rules are really aiding and supporting the residents or
ultimately perpetuating forms of systematic oppression mirrored in other
macro structural aspects that shape their everyday lives. Finally, the
participants’ stories reveal that in many ways the Plan for Transformation is
not achieving what it set out to do and that greater care and consideration
needs to be given to the process if the agency is going to meet its stated goals
and objectives. The women’s unique social location provides them with a
view of this process that administrators, city ofﬁcials, and employees at the
CHA simply do not have. Perhaps understanding the lived experiences of
people impacted by this large-scale policy reform will led to the development

of better polices.

187

 

APPENDICES

188

APPENDIX A

INTERVIEW SCHEDULE PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS

CAN YOU STATE YOUR FULL NAME?

How OLD ARE YOU?

How LONG HAVE YOU LIVED HERE AT

 

NAME ()F MIXED INOCME COMMUNITY

WHERE DID YOU PREVIOUSLY LIVE
HOW LONG DID/HAVE YOU LIVE IN PUBLIC HOUSING?
WHO STAYED WITH YOU?
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE THINGS YOU DISLIKED ABOUT THAT DEVELOPMENT?
WHAT ARE SOME THE THINGS THAT YOU LIKED ABOUT THAT DEVELOPMENT?
DID YOU FEEL SAFE?
WHEN YOU FOUND OUT THAT YOU WOULD HAVE TO MOVE WHAT WAS YOU INITIAL
REACTION?

 

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT MOVING OUT OF

 

(NAME OF PUBLIC HOUSING DEVELOPMENT)

HOW DID YOU GET THIS APARTMENT? / STARTING FROM THE BEGINNING CAN YOU TELL ME
EVERTING YOU HAD TO DO TO MOVE INTO THIS APARTMENT?

DID YOU WORK WITH SOMEONE AT CHA / WHO
WERE THEY HELPFUL, DID THEY PROVIDE TIMELY RESPONSES To YOUR QUESTIONs?

DID YOU ATTEND ANY MEETINGS/CLASSES (GOOD NEIGHBOR)
WHAT WERE THEY?
WERE THEY USEFUL/ HELPFUL/ IN WHAT WAY?
WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
WHAT DID YOU LIKE BEST?
WHAT DID YOU LIKE THE LEAST?

WHAT DID THE MANAGEMENT COMPANY REQUIRE FROM YOU BEFORE YOU COULD MOVE IN
HERE?

WERE THEY NICE/HELPFUL?

DID THEY MAKE YOU FEEL WELCOME?

DID YOU GO THROUGH THE PROCESS WITH OTHER PEOPLE?
DID THEY COMPLETE IT?

WHAT ARE THE RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR YOU TO CONTINUE TO LIVE HERE?

189

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE FROM THE TIME THAT YOU LEFT UNTIL YOU WERE ABLE TO
MOVE IN HERE?

WAS ANY PART OF THE MOVING PROCESS CONFUSING?
WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST ADJUSTMENT THAT YOU HAD To MAKE?

TELL ME ABOUT SOME OF THE PLACE YOU HAVE LIVED DURING THE TRANSITION FROM

TO
PUBIC HOUSING MIXED INCOME

 

 

TELL ME WHY YOU CHOSE THIs MIXED INCOME COMMUNITY RATHER THAN A SECTION 8
VOUCHER?
WHAT CHANGES HAVE YOU NOTICED AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD SINCE YOU
MOVED IN HERE ?
WHAT HAS STAYED THE SAME?
DO YOU STILL MAINTAIN CONTACT WITH YOUR FRIENDS
FROM ?

 

NAME OF PUBIC HOUSING DEVELOPMENT
HOW ARE OTHER PEOPLE IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD ADJUSTING TO THE CHANGE?
DO YOUR KIDS STILL GO TO THE SAME SCHOOL?

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR APARTMENT?
WHAT Do YOU LIKE ABOUT IT ?
WHAT DON’T YOU LIKE?
How MANY BEDROOMS ARE THERE?
WHAT DO YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS THINK ABOUT THE PLACE?
HOW Is THE LANDLORD/MANAGEMENT COMPANY?
ARE THERE ANY RULES THAT YOU FIND UNREASONABLE?
Is IT DIFFICULT TO KEEP UP WITH THE BILLS?

How WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD TO SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER BEEN
HERE BEFORE?

DO YOU FEEL SAFE IN YOUR APARTMENT/ NEIGHBORHOOD?
HAVE THERE BEEN ANY BIG CHANGES FOR YOU OR YOU FAMILY SINCE YOU MOVED?

WHERE DO YOU WORK?
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN THERE?
Do YOU LIKE IT?
HAVE YOU HAD ANY PROBLEMs?
HOW LONG DO YOU PLAN TO STAY THERE?

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FAMILY/ AND OR THE PEOPLE THAT LIVE WITH YOU?

DO YOU HAVE CHILDREN, HOW OLD ARE THEY, ARE YOU HELPING TAKE CARE OF
EXTENDED FAMILY MEMBERS?

190

 

HOW OLD ARE THE CHILDREN?
BESIDES YOU ARE THERE ANY OTHER ADULTS WHO LIVE IN THE HOUSEHOLD. ARE
THEY RELATED?

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR NEIGHBORS?
DO YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO LIVE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD?
DO YOU EVER GO TO YOUR NEIGHBORS FOR HELP?
HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE YOUR NEIGHBORS NOW TO THE ONES YOU HAD
AT ?
NAME OF PUBLIC HOUISNG DEVELOPMENT

 

HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED ANY RACISM SNICE YOU MOVED IN?

WHAT YOU SAY HAS BEEN THE BEST PART ABOUT YOU MOVE ?

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY HAS BEEN THE WORST PART OF YOU MOVE?

WOULD YOU TELL OTHER PEOPLE WHO WERE IN YOUR SAME SITUATION TO TRY AND GET A
PLACE LIKE YOURS?

l9l

 

APPENDIX B
INTERVIEW SCHEDULE CHICAGO HOUSING AUTHORITY

WHEN DID THE PLAN FOR TRANSFORMATION BEGIN AND WHAT Is THE PROJECTED
COMPLETION DATE?

WHAT IS THE OVERALL OBJECTIVE OF THE PLAN FOR TRANSFORMATION?

WHAT TYPE OF FEEDBACK DID THE AGENCY RECEIVE FROM THE CITY AT LARGE AND ALSO
PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS WITH REGARD TO THE PLAN FOR TRANSFORMATION?

WHAT ARE THE AVAILABLE OPTIONS FOR A RESIDENT WHOSE BUILDING HAS BEEN SLATED
FOR DEMOLITION?

WHAT Is THE TENANT SELECTION PROCESS FOR RESIDENTS WHO ARE INTERESTED IN LIVING
IN MIXED INOCME COMMUNITIES?

WHAT TYPE OF RESIDENT WOULD BE AN IDEAL CANADIATE FOR A MIXED-INCOME
COMMUNTIEY?

WHAT STEPS ARE TAKEN TO HELP PREPARE RESIDENTS FOR THE MOVE?

ON AVERAGE How LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR A RESIDENT TO MAKE THE ENTIRE
TRANSISITON?

DO YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS ABOUT THE VIABILITY OR SUCCESS OF SUSTAINING A MIXED
INCOME COMMUNITY?

Is THERE ANY FOLLOW-UP WITH RESIDENTS AFTER THEY MOVE INTO MIXED-INCOME
COMMUNITIES?

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MANAGEMENT COMPANY AND THE CHA?

IF A RESIDNET HAD A COMPLAINT ABOUT THERE NEW PLACE WHO WOUL D THE TALK TO ?
ONCE A PERSON MOVES INTO A MIXED INCOME COMMUNITY ARE THEY STILL CONSIDERED A
PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENT? WHAT ARE THE LONG TERM COMMITMENTS THE AGENCY HAS

MADE TO THE RESIDENT?

WHAT TYPE OF FEEDBACK HAVE YOU RECEIVED FROM THE RESIDENTS ABOUT THE PROCESS
AND ALSO ABOUT THEIR NEW COMMUNITIES?

IS THERE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF PEOPLE WHO MOVE INTO
MIXED INCOME COMMUNITIES?

192

 

 

IF A FAMILY MOVES INTO A MIXED-INCOME COMMUNITY AND IS ASKED TO LEAVE FOR SOME
REASON ARE THEY ABLE TO RETURN TO PUBLIC HOUSING OR USE A SECTION 8 VOUCHER?

WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST REWARDING ASPECT OF YOUR JOB?
WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST DIFFICULT?

WHAT ARE SOME THE NEW INITIATIVES THAT YOUR DIVISION HAS UNDERTAKEN TO
ADDRESS THE COMPLIATIONS OF THE TRANSISITONAL PROCESS.

193

Appendix C
Mixed Income Living: A Case Study Approach

Conducted by
Monique M. Chism

Doctoral Candidate

Michigan State University

116 Morrill Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-487-6702
Local Number 312-375-1984

Resident Consent Form

The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of public housing
residents who now live in mixed income communities in order to understand their
experience and the impact their new community has had on their lives. This project takes
a case study approach in order to more fully understand individual experiences. A series
of private individual interviews will be done in order to elicit this information,
participation in this study would require one interview, which would last approximately
an hour an a half. It is important to note however, that since the interviews are open-
ended they will vary in length. Interviews will be audio taped and later transcribed,
however all information from your interview will be treated with strict conﬁdence. At the
beginning of the study you will be given a pseudonym in order to protect your identity.
Identifying information such as this consent form, audiotapes, and research notes will be
kept in a locked ﬁle cabinet or on a password protected computer. Your privacy will be
protected to the maximum extent allowable by law.

This is an independent research project, which means there is no conﬂicting
interest present. My interest is genuinely related to understanding the experiences of
residents who live in mixed income communities. Your participation in this study is
voluntary, you may choose not to participate at all, refuse to participate in certain aspects
of the study, or discontinue your involvement at any time without penalty. There is
minimal risk involved, some individuals may have feelings of discomfort or anxiety
associated with talking about the issues under investigation. If you wish to talk with a
professional counselor, you may make an appointment with the Community Outreach
Program associated with the Family Institute at Northwestern University. This center
provides mental health treatment and preventive services for the Chicago metropolitan
area. Under the community outreach program clients receive services at no cost. In order
to ﬁnd a site near you may contact William Russell, LCSW, LMFT, Director of
Community Programs, at 847-733-4300,
ext. 636. Pregnant women will not be included in this study, please let the investigator
know if you are pregnant.

194

If you have questions or concerns about this study you may contact me directly
using the above listed information. You may also contact the supervising facility
member, Dr. Maxine Baca Zinn, by phone: 517-353-8671, email: zinnm@msu.edu, or
regular mail at: 316 Berkey Hall East Lansing, Michigan 48824.

If you have questions or concerns regarding your rights as a study participant, or
are dissatisﬁed at any time with any aspect of this study, you may contact-anonymously,
if you wish, Ashir Kumar, M.D., Chair of the University Committee on Research
Involving Human Subjects (UCRIHS) by phone: (517) 355-2180, Fax: (517) 432-4503,
e-mail: ucrihs@msu.edu, or regular mail: 202 Olds Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824.

You will receive a copy of this consent form for your records. Thank-you for your
interest if there are any questions please feel free to ask.

I agree to Participate in this study.

Name: Date :

 

 

195

Appendix D
Mixed Income Living: A Case Study Approach

Conducted by
Monique M. Chism

Doctoral Candidate

Michigan State University

116 Morrill Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-487-6702
Local Number 312-375-1984

Management Consent Form

The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of public housing
residents who now live in mixed income communities in order to understand their
experience and the impact that mixed income living has had on their lives. As a
professional who works with public housing residents your insight and expertise will
provide valuable information for this project. Participation in this study would require
one interview, which would last approximately an hour. Interviews will be audio taped
and later transcribed, however all information from your interview will be treated with
strict conﬁdence. Identifying information such as this consent form, audiotapes, and
research notes will be kept in a locked ﬁle cabinet or on a password protected computer.
If you desire you will be assigned a pseudonym to conceal your identity. Your privacy
will be protected to the maximum extent allowable by law.

This is an independent research project, which means there is no conﬂicting
interest present. My interest is genuinely related to understanding the experiences of
members of mixed income communities. Your participation in this study is voluntary,
you may choose not to participate at all, refuse to participate in certain aspects of the
study, or discontinue your involvement at any time without penalty. There is minimal risk
involved, some individuals may have feelings of discomfort or anxiety associated with
talking about the issues under investigation. If you wish to talk with a professional
counselor, you may make an appointment with the Community Outreach Program
associated with the Family Institute at Northwestern University. This center provides
mental health treatment and preventive services for the Chicago metropolitan area. Under
the community outreach program clients receive services at no cost. In order to ﬁnd a site
near you may contact William Russell, LCSW, LMF T, Director of Community
Programs, at 847-733-4300, ext. 636. Pregnant women will not be included in this study,
please let the investigator know if you are pregnant.

196

 

If you have questions or concerns about this study you may contact me directly
using the above listed information. You may also contact the supervising facility
member, Dr. Maxine Baca Zinn, by phone: 517-353-8671, email: zinanmsuedu, or
regular mail at: 316 Berkey Hall East Lansing, Michigan 48824.

If you have questions or concerns regarding your rights as a study participant, or
are dissatisﬁed at any time with any aspect of this study, you may contact-anonymously,
if you wish, Ashir Kumar, M.D., Chair of the University Committee on Research
Involving Human Subjects (UCRIHS) by phone: (517) 355-2180, Fax: (517) 432-4503,
e-mail: ucrihs@msu.edu, or regular mail: 202 Olds Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824.

You will be given a copy of this consent from for your records. Thank-you for your
interest if there are any questions please feel free to ask.

I agree to participate in this study.

Name: Date :

 

 

I] Please check this box if you would like the investigator to assign you a pseudonym. A
pseudonym is a ﬁctitious name given to an individual, in order to protect his or her real
identity.

197

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