Is adequate housing a human right in Chicago?

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June 2005

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Is adequate housing a human right in Chicago?
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Is adequate housing a human right in Chicago?
The Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation, which forces evictions of some public housing tenants, poses a human rights crisis, said Miloon Khotari, UN Special Rapporteur for Adequate Housing. Specifically, it violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, signed by the United States, that gives citizens protection from arbitrary or unlawful interference with one's home, Khotari said at a meeting in Chicago last year.

“We all have the need and the right to basic human housing, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, religious conviction, gender or disabilities,” said Rene Heybach, director of the Law Project for the Chicago Coalition of the Homeless (CCH). “And this latest demolition project has caused the greatest loss of housing since the great Chicago fire.”

CHA’s Plan for Transformation aims to revamp 25,000 high-rise public housing residences by replacing them with contemporary low-rise, mixed-income townhouses by the end of 2009. Despite these rehabilitation efforts, many Chicago residents will still end up without homes. Some 86,000 families are on the waiting list for public housing, and the transformation program will result in a net loss of 13,777 units, according to the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA).

“The wait list for public housing has been closed for a couple of years now, and people are not being added,” said Noah Leavitt, advocacy director for the JCUA. “Public housing residents are having to fight to get a say in what happens to their homes. The residents would rather have some sort of space to live, even if it’s not in the best condition, rather than no place to live at all.”

The CHA guarantees a rehabilitated unit to every resident who occupied a unit after October 1, 1999 and continues to comply with the terms of their lease. Any displaced resident from the demolition should receive a Section 8 voucher, which enables them to locate other public housing options around the city.

“Our goal is certainly not to eliminate housing but to provide safe and decent housing,” said Ann Scherreib, a Housing and Urban Development spokesperson. “It’s been slow getting this project off the ground, but I believe it’s now doing a better job. The CHA has service connectors that assist tenants relocate.”

But, according to CCH, the average waiting time for a Section 8 relocation voucher is 84 months. Also, hundreds of families that are being relocated due to the demolition have not ended up in new housing, but on the streets or in homeless shelters.

“The CHA does not keep track of where these people go,” Leavitt said. “They really just disappear. Some of them may move in with relatives, some of them may move out of Chicago, and some might use their Section 8 voucher. It’s really hard to say.”

Working with an international figure like Khotari should help get global recognition of lack of U.S. public housing funding, Leavitt said. Khotari, Congressman Barney Frank and other world leaders will met in Washington on May 5 in a rally against housing evictions and for the public right to adequate housing.

“What’s going on in Chicago right now is no different than in the slums of Nairobi or with displacement of the poor in India. And similarly, the world should have the chance to know about it and weigh in on the conditions that some of our very poorest are facing,” said Leavitt.

Added Heybach: “Our ultimate goal is to stop the demolition of these buildings,” she said. “Public funding and attention should go into adequate maintenance, remodeling and operational subsidies for public housing. We wouldn’t need to tear down housing or evict anyone if they were first properly maintained and adequately kept.”—Kelly Nolan

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