Tearing down high-rises and transforming public-housing neighborhoods will take months, even years. So the Chicago Housing Authority’s new federal bosses are turning their attention to a much more immediate concern: making CHA residents safer.
The authority spent $74 million on security last year, and while crime declined slightly in 1994, CHA tenants are still twice as likely to be the victims of serious crime as other Chicago residents.
In seeking to improve such conditions, Department of Housing and Urban Development officials will be guided in part by a report from a consultant, hired by the CHA last fall for $1.5 million, to tell the authority how it can get more security for its buck.
Some of the report’s recommendations are likely to win support from residents, such as establishing police mini-stations at each development and creating a unit to combat elevator vandalism.
But the report, which outlines security changes at 12 of the CHA’s highest-crime developments, also includes proposals, such as substantial cuts in the number of security guards that serve those projects, likely to draw sharp criticism from residents.
HUD officials stress that they agree with some of the recommendations. Joseph Shuldiner, the HUD assistant secretary who is the acting chairman of the CHA, met with resident leaders Tuesday night to discuss ways to improve security.
He also introduced the author of the report, Carroll Buracker and Associates, who outlined the recommendations.
“We need to get more for the money we’re spending,” Shuldiner said. He noted that HUD officials have authorized training for another 60 police officers and the creation of an internal affairs division at the CHA police.
“But we’re still looking at other security areas,” said HUD spokeswoman Jeanne Crowley. “There are other recommendations on the table that we’re still considering.”
For instance, the Buracker report calls for saving money by cutting the number of contract security guards to 335 from 548 and reducing CHA security guards to 164 from 181 in the 12 developments targeted for community policing.
In short, the report suggests that by using community policing-where CHA police would use foot and bicycle patrols to improve relations with residents-they can serve the developments better with fewer people in uniform.
“While the primary focus of the proposed community-policing patrol strategy is to enhance the safety and security of the residents in CHA housing,” the report states, “the proposed patrol-strategy model can result in considerable savings in costs for personnel.”
The report also suggests cutting several dozen officers. Combined with the cuts in guards and other administrative changes, CHA could save $10.6 million a year, Buracker estimates.
To help make up for the reduction in officers and guards, the report suggests adding electronic surveillance and other equipment, including “interactive closed-circuit television, access controls, sensors, fencing and improved lighting.”
Replacing guards with equipment is likely to raise eyebrows among some residents. As one CHA staffer said: “They’re counting on that to be a deterrent. But what if it’s not? There’s no one right on the spot to intervene during a crime in progress.”
CHA’s spending on security has surged in recent years. The agency spent $7 million on security in 1987. Since adding its security officers and 440-member police force, the CHA has seen its security costs jump to an estimated $74 million in 1994.
Serious crimes have gradually decreased. There were 7,135 in 1992, 6,626 in 1993 and 6,485 last year, according to the latest CHA statistics. One exception has been in senior housing, where serious crimes have increased to 423 last year from 174 in 1990.
Such figures prompted the CHA to examine how it spends money on private security, CHA security and police, and other programs. In September, the CHA board approved the Buracker contract.
Money is only part of the security equation. For instance, the Chicago Housing Authority Security Force is budgeted for more than 500 officers and supervisors, according to its director, Lionel Gordon. But a dearth of qualified applicants has left him 150 people short.
The CHA security force was created several years ago to start replacing the private-contract security firms, whose guards often have been criticized by residents and former CHA Chairman Vincent Lane.
But in many buildings, they are the only line of defense, however weak, between drug-dealing gangs and law-abiding residents.
HUD isn’t the only agency interested in security at CHA. The No. 3 official at the Justice Department, Associate Atty. Gen. John Schmidt, held a meeting Monday to discuss better coordination among an array of law-enforcement agencies.
“He’s very pleased with what’s been done,” said Randall Samborn, spokesman for U.S. Atty. Jim Burns, who attended the meeting with top officials from HUD, CHA, and federal and local law-enforcement agencies. “He just wants to know if there’s more that can be done given this window of opportunity that exists with the federal takeover of the CHA.”
Schmidt directed representatives of the agencies “to spend weeks, not months,” coming up with recommendations that can be reviewed by Schmidt and other top officials.
In addition, the hunt for a new executive director continues to expand, with HUD talking to top officials at the Newark Housing Authority and the Puerto Rico Housing Authority.
David Cortiella, former head of the Boston Housing Authority and now a consultant for the Puerto Rico Housing Authority, visited Chicago on Monday and met with HUD and CHA staff to check out the job. “We’re trying to put together as strong a field as possible,” said HUD spokeswoman Nancy Smith, “and he’s one of the best available.”
In addition, Harold Lucas, director of the Newark Housing Authority, is scheduled to visit Chicago soon, HUD officials said.
Claire Freeman, head of the Cuyahoga (Ohio) Metropolitan Housing Authority, and Brenda Drain-Williams of the St. Louis Housing Authority have visited to discuss the job.
