The Chicago Housing Authority Board took steps Tuesday to upgrade elevators and security in the 28 family-occupied high rise buildings that make up the CHA`s Robert Taylor Homes housing complex on the South Side.
The board approved the awarding of a $325,000 contract to Environment Seven Limited, an architectural, planning and engineering firm, to prepare plans for rehabilitating all 56 elevators within the housing complex and constructing lobbies for 24 of the buildings that currently do not have enclosed entrances.
Robinson said the CHA will take immediate steps to beef up security at Taylor by reassigning the development`s security guards, who now patrol just the perimeter of the project, to foot patrols inside the buildings. Also, the CHA is attempting to get tenants on each floor of the project`s buildings to initiate a crime-watch program, he added.
”This is the first stage of an $11.3 million program to upgrade the elevators at Taylor,” said Renault Robinson, CHA chairman.
”When completed, the authority will assign security guards to the lobbies of the buildings around the clock with the hope that much of the current problems with elevator breakdowns and crime will be significantly minimized.”
Money for the improvements has been provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
”By increasing the visibility of our security personnel, we hope to reduce crime in the development by at least 50 percent,” Robinson said.
The Taylor Homes, located along the west side of State Street between 39th and 54th Streets, is considered the largest high-rise public housing development in the world.
Also Tuesday, the CHA board approved a $141.1 million balanced operating budget for 1987. The budget is based on rents the authority anticipates collecting next year and on a $97.5 million operating subsidy the agency expects to obtain from HUD.
Robinson said the budget falls far short of the funds needed by the CHA to upgrade security within all of its developments and to catch up on more than $750 million worth of repairs needed on CHA buildings.
Consequently, he said he would seek an additional HUD subsidy of $38 million for the coming year.
”The balanced budget we`re required to submit to HUD is totally inadquate and I want to warn HUD that we`re undoubtedly going to run into some serious problems next year unless a larger subsidy is forthcoming,” Robinson said.
In other business, Zirl Smith, CHA executive director, announced a new program for reducing the number of vacant apartments in CHA buildings. Titled ”Unit Make Ready,” the program will allow prospective CHA residents to make minor repairs and decorate a vacant apartment at the CHA`s expense.
The program is intended to house families in need of housing faster and to reduce opportunities for criminals to vandalize vacant apartments, Smith said.
