CHA residents gain in housing and safety, still struggle with health and jobs, research finds

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Chicago Housing Authority residents’ lives have improved considerably as a result of the city’s 15-year Plan for Transformation of public housing begun in 1999, according to seven new research briefs issued by the Urban Institute.

Between 2000 and 2009, the Urban Institute followed 198 families relocated from the Ida B. Wells and Madden Park developments (“Madden/Wells”) – now demolished as part of the Plan but formerly one of the CHA’s largest developments.

Nearly 85 percent of respondents reports living in significantly improved housing situations, and many also say their neighborhoods are safer and that they feel less anxious. Yet physical and mental health problems still abound, contributing to employment troubles.

“CHA families’ lives have improved in important ways—they now live in substantially higher-quality housing and dramatically safer neighborhoods—a far more positive result than many would have predicted a decade ago. At the same time, they are contending with significant problems, such as shockingly poor health and persistently low levels of employment, that will require more intensive interventions,” says Susan Popkin, the study’s lead researcher.

Researchers say the findings suggest that it has been easier to improve public housing residents’ quality of life than to undo the damage that years of living in a dangerous, stressful environment has done to their health.

"Many aspects of this research are very encouraging,” said Maria Hibbs, executive director of The Partnership for New Communities, which was founded in 2001 to support the objectives of the Plan for Transformation. “But the research also points out areas for continued attention. The employment challenges, for example, are not entirely surprising. The Partnership’s collaboration with the CHA, the City and other partners in Opportunity Chicago has made us well aware of the barriers that many public-housing residents face when it comes to employment. But we’ve also found a good deal of success related to workforce development programs for residents, and we are working to ensure that promising programs are scaled up and sustained over time.”

An overview of the briefs can be found here; links to the individual briefs are below:

• The CHA's Plan for Transformation: How Have Residents Fared?
• CHA After Wells - Where are the Residents Now?
• Transformed Housing - Major Improvements in the CHA Residents' Quality of Life
• CHA Transformation - Children and Youth
• The Health Crisis for CHA Families
• Escaping the Hidden War - Safety is the Biggest Gain for CHA Families
• The Limits of Relocation - Employment and Family Well-Being Among Former Madden/Wells Residents

Key findings include:

Neighborhoods and Housing

• 84 percent of respondents say their new homes are in excellent or good condition, regardless of whether they moved to mixed-income communities or revitalized public housing.
• The families now live in considerably lower-crime neighborhoods and feel much safer than they did at Madden/Wells; still, 23 percent say that drugs and gangs remain a major problem.
• 26 percent of the families live in low-poverty communities (poverty rate below 15 percent), but 54 percent still live in neighborhoods with poverty rates of 25 percent or higher.
• Most reside in poor, predominantly African-American communities with limited economic and educational opportunities.

Health

• 54 percent of respondents have an illness requiring ongoing care and 52 percent have two or more major health conditions.
• Although residents report less anxiety than when they lived in Madden/Wells, 17 percent report poor overall mental health and 8 percent have had major depressive episodes.

Employment and Income

• 50 percent of working-age respondents are employed, and 60 percent of those work full-time.
• 26 percent of working-age respondents have been employed throughout the study, 47 percent have cycled in and out of jobs since the study began in 2001, and 27 percent report never having a job during the course of the study.

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