Summary: Housing Segregation In Chicago
Callie Gordon March 17, 2013
A.N. Pritzker 301
GAUTREAUX: THE LAWSUITS THAT CHANGED CHICAGO HISTORY
What
The Gautreaux lawsuits were the first major public housing desegregation lawsuits. They helped end racial discrimination in public housing in Chicago, which resulted with better job options for adults and improved lives for children who moved out of black ghettos. They influenced public housing desegregation throughout the United States.
The Problem Public housing segregation was a huge problem in Chicago. Between 1954 and 1967, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) built more than 10,300 segregated public housing units primarily in poor black neighborhoods to prevent blacks …show more content…
Low-rise, scattered site housing, which affected both white and black neighborhoods. There were about 2,000 units built over about 20 years.
2. The Housing Subsidy Program (housing vouchers). Over a 20-year period about 7,000 families (approximately 20,000 people) participated in this program. They were able to get housing in private apartments using housing vouchers.
3. The Plan for Transformation (which still exists today). The CHA, with federal money, started tearing down the old public housing units (like Cabrini Green) and building new, mixed income, communities. This was good but tearing down and building new public housing units takes a long time (but it is still a big step in the right direction).
“The [Housing Subsidy Program] was so popular, that in 1984, on the one day families could enroll, so many showed up they had to cancel registrations because the police feared they couldn’t control the crowd. By phone, more than 10,000 applicants called in one day,” said Alexander Kotlowitz.
Because of the success of the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program, in 1994, Congress created the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) program, and it involved grouping people into three sectors and then comparing them …show more content…
It was titled Waiting for Gautreaux after a play called Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. In Waiting for Godot two characters spend the whole play waiting forever for someone named Godot who never arrives. Because the Gautreaux lawsuits lasted for so long, Waiting for Gautreaux was a clever name for a book about the book.
Bibliography
Polikoff, Alexander. Personal interview at the Polikoff residence. March 2, 2014.
"American Civil Liberties Union." American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/ (accessed March 5, 2014).
"BPI -- For a Just Society." BPI. http://www.bpichicago.org/ (accessed on March 8, 2014).
"Encyclopedia of Chicago." Encyclopedia of Chicago. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/ (accessed on March 8, 2014).
Wikipedia Foundation. “Main Page.” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main _Page (accessed on March 6, 2014).
"Stanford University." Stanford University News RSS. http://www.stanford.edu/ ~mrosenfe/urb_std_Gautreaux.htm (accessed on March 6,
A.N. Pritzker 301
GAUTREAUX: THE LAWSUITS THAT CHANGED CHICAGO HISTORY
What
The Gautreaux lawsuits were the first major public housing desegregation lawsuits. They helped end racial discrimination in public housing in Chicago, which resulted with better job options for adults and improved lives for children who moved out of black ghettos. They influenced public housing desegregation throughout the United States.
The Problem Public housing segregation was a huge problem in Chicago. Between 1954 and 1967, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) built more than 10,300 segregated public housing units primarily in poor black neighborhoods to prevent blacks …show more content…
Low-rise, scattered site housing, which affected both white and black neighborhoods. There were about 2,000 units built over about 20 years.
2. The Housing Subsidy Program (housing vouchers). Over a 20-year period about 7,000 families (approximately 20,000 people) participated in this program. They were able to get housing in private apartments using housing vouchers.
3. The Plan for Transformation (which still exists today). The CHA, with federal money, started tearing down the old public housing units (like Cabrini Green) and building new, mixed income, communities. This was good but tearing down and building new public housing units takes a long time (but it is still a big step in the right direction).
“The [Housing Subsidy Program] was so popular, that in 1984, on the one day families could enroll, so many showed up they had to cancel registrations because the police feared they couldn’t control the crowd. By phone, more than 10,000 applicants called in one day,” said Alexander Kotlowitz.
Because of the success of the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program, in 1994, Congress created the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) program, and it involved grouping people into three sectors and then comparing them …show more content…
It was titled Waiting for Gautreaux after a play called Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. In Waiting for Godot two characters spend the whole play waiting forever for someone named Godot who never arrives. Because the Gautreaux lawsuits lasted for so long, Waiting for Gautreaux was a clever name for a book about the book.
Bibliography
Polikoff, Alexander. Personal interview at the Polikoff residence. March 2, 2014.
"American Civil Liberties Union." American Civil Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/ (accessed March 5, 2014).
"BPI -- For a Just Society." BPI. http://www.bpichicago.org/ (accessed on March 8, 2014).
"Encyclopedia of Chicago." Encyclopedia of Chicago. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/ (accessed on March 8, 2014).
Wikipedia Foundation. “Main Page.” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main _Page (accessed on March 6, 2014).
"Stanford University." Stanford University News RSS. http://www.stanford.edu/ ~mrosenfe/urb_std_Gautreaux.htm (accessed on March 6,