Two fundamental changes in the way America’s public housing problems are addressed soon will be approved in Washington, and the first major test of those new tools will take place on Chicago’s West Side.
One of the changes, tucked into a bill that cuts current-year spending, would kill a provision that requires replacement of each unit of public housing that is demolished.
The other would allow federal grant money targeted for rehabbing to be used for tearing down and replacing those buildings.
Both changes, which are expected to pass Congress next week and then be signed by President Clinton, would affect the redevelopment plan now being negotiated for the Chicago Housing Authority’s Henry Horner development. Horner borders the United Center, site of the 1996 Democratic convention.
Some advocates for public housing residents contend that spiking the so-called “one-for-one” rule would rob tenants of their last bit of bargaining power to ensure the replacement of demolished units.
“The net result is going to be a loss of public housing units at a time when the demand is increasing,” said Bill Wilen, the lead attorney for Horner tenants. “Every large city has huge waiting lists. One-for-one assured that the supply of housing would remain at least the same.”
But the changes are hailed by Republicans and many Democrats as a way to give troubled housing authorities more flexibility to replace dilapidated units.
“If local housing authorities are responsible for their capital decisions, residents have plenty of leverage over them,” said Edwin Eisendrath, the top Midwest official for HUD. “Only the lawyers who spend time in court view (the rule) as leverage. It didn’t succeed.”
“This is part of the deregulation of housing authorities, and it gets the federal government out of the micromanagement business.”
It also helps HUD improve its image among Republican lawmakers, who still haven’t entirely dismissed the idea of abolishing the agency.
Killing the one-for-one rule will not affect the first two years of the Horner redevelopment. “While this legislation does away with the one-for-one replacement concept, we have pledged to live by it and we will live by it for Phase 1 at Horner,” Thomas Johnson, the CHA’s outside counsel in the Horner negotiations, wrote in a letter this week to Wilen.
But there are no guarantees beyond the initial phase. “That will depend on what money’s available and what Congress does with HUD and public housing generally,” Johnson said in an interview.
Wilen acknowledged that with the repeal of the rule, “we would lose the leverage of having the one-for-one requirement to help in negotiations. It was easy to get that now because that is what the law requires them to do.”
On the other hand, loosening the rules for how grant money is used would free up more funds for replacement housing at Horner.
CHA, which HUD took over May 30, wants to raze three mid-rises in the Horner Extension along with two nearby high-rises already set for demolition this month.
Under a federal consent decree signed in March, the three mid-rises were to be renovated, but CHA and HUD officials want them torn down to make the area more attractive to working families.
In his letter, Johnson outlined several areas of compromise.
For starters, if the residents agree to the demolition of the three Extension mid-rises, CHA is offering to replace all 180 of those units and set them aside for Horner residents. As outlined in the decree, those tenants can choose among units in the neighborhood, scattered-site housing or Section 8 rent certificates.
In a recent survey to determine the mix of housing in the first phase of the Horner redevelopment, a small number of residents said they wanted to live in rehabbed housing at Horner. With that in mind, CHA is offering to spend another $4.8 million to rehab a different mid-rise nearby.
HUD already has set aside $30 million for the Horner redevelopment, and CHA has put up $10 million. Under the new proposal, another $36.7 million would be committed from CHA and through the Gautreaux program, which was set up after earlier litigation to desegregate public housing.
CHA’s latest proposal also offers something for the residents of the Horner Annex, a 109-unit cluster that is isolated from the rest of Horner on the southeast corner of the United Center.
Former CHA Chairman Vincent Lane long sought to demolish the annex, and the consent decree ultimately leaves the fate of the annex in the hands of the federal judge overseeing the case. But CHA’s new offer gives that power to tenants.
“It is . . . the tenants and not the Court who will have the last word,” Johnson wrote.
