MOVIN' ON UP
THE GAUTREAUX PROGRAM
Racial segregation of Chicago Housing Projects began with the construction of the first housing project in 1938 where those who occupied the residences were chosen according to the "Neighborhood Composition Rule". The rule stated the following:
"The residents who occupied public housing must not change the racial composition of the neighborhood."
As a result, many blacks had become "stuck" in neighborhoods that were plagued with crime, lacked racial diversity, and career as well as educational opportunities.
The Gautreaux Program was a public housing program that was meant to correct the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) discriminatory practices. The program began in 1976 with "mobility assistance" which was the distribution of Section 8 certificates. The Section 8 program, "instead of providing poor families with subsidized rental units in poor-only public housing projects, gives them federally funded rent certificates redeemable wherever they can find suitable housing in the private market" (93).
WHAT SPARKED THE GAUTREAUX PROGRAM?
Between the years of 1954 and 1967 the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) built 10,300 public housing units. Only 63 of the new units were built outside of poor racially segregated communities. In 1966 Dorothy Gautreaux, a community activist, and three additional residents of CHA housing decided to sue CHA for their unjust practices. Gautreaux was assisted with her law suit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
http://www.stanford.edu/~mrosenfe/urb_std_Gautreaux.htm
THE RESULTS...
The Gautreaux program created a natural social experiment between the two groups of public housing residents; the residents who remained in the housing projects versus the residents who were given Section 8 vouchers and moved to other parts of the city. Social scientists compared the social and psychological aspects of what happened to lower class blacks when they were moved to neighborhoods with lower crime rates and better schooling systems to the blacks who remained in the housing projects.
The over all result of the project was unclear.
"In fact despite their (Rubionowitz and Rosenbaum) attempt to give the project a favorable evaluation, the researchers concluded that nearly everything about suburban relocation was mixed, ambiguous, and complex."
However, the suburbs turned out to be safer because there was no gang violence and there was an increased "geography of opportunity" (115). Nonetheless, there was a negative side to this. Though there was no gang violence, blacks faced racial discrimination in the mostly white suburban neighborhoods. Additionally, while suburban public schools proved to be a better educational system, youth from the inner city public schools were more likely to be retained or placed in special education classes in the suburban public schools.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT!
Is the Gautreaux program an attempt at a utopia? The goals of the program, noble in their own right, ignore racial and class differences as it attempts to disperse large groups of people into neighborhoods that are completely different and possibly not equipped to suit their needs. For example, the suburbs lack a mass transit system as extensive as the Chicago Transit Authority, that reaches to the farthest corners of the Chicagoland area. How are the newly dispersed people expected to commute to the new jobs and new schools?
"...they were placing people out in the suburbs away from transportation and away from jobs" (118).
Racial segregation of the people of Chicago did not occur overnight. It was a process that stems back to the city’s founding in 1832. It was then continued with the construction of the first Chicago projects in 1938 where those who occupied the residences were chosen according to the “Neighborhood Composition Rule”. The policy stated that people whose presence would not affect the racial composition of the neighborhood must occupy the project housing. Is it truly realistic to believe that the lines of segregation can truly be broken down over night?
http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/253.html
Schaumburg today is a place without the ‘problem’ of poverty and the ‘trouble’ of color” (111).
The project ignores the positive effects within the community. Granted it is easy to forget the strong community ties when a particular neighborhood recurrently appears on the news as a result of its high crime rate. But it is important to note that not all residents of Cabrini Green, for example, were participants in the crimes that plagued their neighborhood. Many of the residents of Cabrini Green were single family households headed my single mothers (66.5%).
http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Cabrini-Green-Chicago-IL.html
Was it truly the fault of Cabrini Green residents that they’re housing projects were neglected by the local government organizations? When one rents an apartment it is the responsibility of the landlord to upkeep the property. During the last years of Cabrini Green apartments there were many code violations that rendered the projects almost uninhabitable. Was this the fault of the residents or the landlords?
Regardless of how utopian or realistic the Gautreax Program it is clear according to the following Times article that something had to be done.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1582834-3,00.html
Do you remember this?
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION REGARDING THE CABRINI GREEN PROJECTS SEE...
Documenting the Transformation of Cabrini Green
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