Here today, gone tomorrow. According to a Catalyst Chicago (November) analysis of school board data, 18 percent of teachers hired by Chicago Public Schools in 1996-’97 quit the system within two years. That figure ballooned to 31 percent of teachers hired in 2001-’02, even though the job market slumped and teacher attrition numbers elsewhere remained constant. Reported problems include a lack of mentoring and a lack of support from principals.
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$667. That’s the average monthly cost of living in a three-bedroom apartment if you’re a member of a limited-equity housing cooperative, according to a recent study by the Chicago Mutual Housing Network and the Voorhees Center of the University of Illinois at Chicago. According to CMHN’s newsletter “Co-Opportunities” (fall), the low cost is “primarily due to the below-market interest rate loans, the shared expenses and, due to resident control, the lack of a third party speculating on buildings in rapidly appreciating neighborhoods in Chicago.”
Knocking down the high-rises misses the point. Edward Shurna of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless spoke at a November 10 hearing and noted: “Recently a survey was taken in 7 emergency shelters that are used for families. This survey was taken over a six-month period and indicated that 172 families moved directly into homeless shelters during the year in which they left public housing…. We fear that this is the tip of the iceberg. Many more families will become homeless as a result of the [CHA’s] Plan for Transformation because replacement housing is not being built at a rate to match the demolition of public housing.”
