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Like his old man, Mayor Richard M. Daley is determined to transform public housing as part of his legacy (here's hoping it turns out better than Sr.'s effort -- several detractors don't have high hopes). His plan is creeping forever forward -- it's currently many years behind -- and the city will eventually replace CHA high rise projects like Robert Taylor Homes and Cabrini-Green with mixed-income housing.
But in the meantime, those people whose residences were just demolished need somewhere to live. The answer to that? Section 8 vouchers. And while these vouchers help take care of the rent at their private homes, the displaced former public housing tenants have to take care of the gas and electric on their own. So along with previously having those bills covered for them for years, combined with rapidly rising energy costs, many are having trouble budgeting to keep the lights on.
Mayor Daley -- forever the altruist when something threatens to put a black mark on one of his pet projects -- has announced the creation of the "All Clear" program to help over 3,700 CHA Housing leaseholders rid some of their ComEd debt and get caught up.
Under the program, residents who owe $500 or less on their electric bills will have half of their bill forgiven, Daley said. They can pay the other half themselves or use any of the city's assistance programs, such as the Community and Economic Development Association's grant program or the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, he said."Electric bills are always an issue -- not only here in Chicago but all over the country," Daley said in front of residents and officials gathered at the Trumbull Park Homes on the Far South Side. "No one should suffer this winter because they've run short of money."
Daley also used the opportunity to tout that his "transformation is working." We're sure the folks in those nice townhouses on Larrabee think so, too.
[Trib (be sure to read the comments for a real treat)]
Photo of some of the last bits of Cabrini-Green by TheeErin
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Great article. This is a serious issue as people are being displaced with nowhere to go. Mixed income and scattered site housing is a good way to go, but if the residents being displaced from the project don't actually ever live in these new mixed income projects than they are essentially being foced out of the system entirely.
"The bums lost. My advice is to do what your parents did! Get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski? "
When your getting free rent is it to much to ask that you pay your own utilites. I guess so.
Seems that creating these kinds of quick fixes only lead to expectations of the same sort of quick fixed in the future. At some point there has to be some accountability, and perhaps they could have done this in a way that does not let people free of the responsibilities they shirked.
i guarantee you not one of these people has a problem paying their cable and cell phone bills on time
I think I'm OK with some portion of public housing residents getting their utilities paid when they probably don't deserve it, than some portion of public housing records freezing to death in the dark because they couldn't pay their bills.
Agreed, if only the world were so simple that the choices were only those two.
Meantime, the culture of unaccountabilty resulting from such complete subsidies each year leaves thousands dead in mindless violence, and hundreds of thousands leading desperate existences contributing nothing to society.
It is that simple, JP2. Someone, somewhere will always figure out a way to scam the system. And there will always be people that aren't accountable for their actions. There's nothing the state can do about that.
Government should do what the private sector cannot or will not do. In economics, I think that's called mitigating externalities. I mean, we could make the same argument for cutting off so-called corporate welfare. But I think I'd rather see decent businesses benefit from government assistance while some of the bad guys rip us off (since they always will), than cut everyone off and call it a day.
Just like government can't solve all of our problems, we have to find ways to make society better through the actions of the community. Be that corporate accountability or accountability among the poor, that's just how it is.