The promise, and the crossed fingers. “The right of displaced [CHA resident] families to return to the mixed-income developments [that will replace most public housing] is guaranteed in a contract signed Oct. 17 by the CHA and the Central Advisory Council, a group of elected tenant leaders,” writes Brian Rogal in the Chicago Reporter (November/December). “The Relocation Rights Contract, hammered out after often-contentious negotiations, covers the approximately 15,500 families living in public housing as of Oct. 1, 1999, as long as they were in compliance with their leases. But under a Feb. 5 agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the CHA can impose stricter standards with HUD approval. Such new standards could require that residents be employed or enrolled in job-training programs.” At Ida B. Wells Homes and Madden Park Homes, where 1,300 families now live, the plan for mixed-income housing on the site includes only 750 units of public housing. “The agency is counting on hundreds of the 1,300 families choosing Section 8, [CHA chief of development John] Roberson said.”
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“The cost of being viable in Illinois keeps going up,” writes University of Illinois political scientist Kent Redfield in his new book, Money Counts: How Dollars Dominate Illinois Politics and What We Can Do About It. “Running a credible campaign against an incumbent takes at least $150,000 for a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives. In 1998, eight challengers in House races spent more than $300,000 each and still lost to incumbent members.”
