Why is all of this applause being thrown for Vince Lane’s plan for supposedly salvaging Cabrini-Green public housing? It is because of the Chicago Housing Authority’s grand blunder of letting this once 17,000-resident project dwindle to its present 7,000-tenant status that a major problem exists.
More than 40 percent of the housing is not habitable today, due to 20 years of vandalism by its former and present tenants. This same housing authority now wants $50 million not to rehab the damaged property, but to tear it down and replace it with new construction, a very expensive option for all taxpayers.
Before any more money is spent I want to hear the CHA’s explanation for the years of unchecked vandalism and lack of accountability of its tenants and its lack of management control.
Let’s get a program to control and stop abuses and then a management to enforce it before demolishing billions of dollars of presently built housing under a poor program and even poorer management.
