Outline

Robert Taylor Homes Outline

Through greed and racism the Robert Taylor homes have become one of the most infamous examples of public housing gone wrong in Chicago.

A.      The greed that occurred throughout the planning of the Taylor homes

I.     The number of buildings added to the Taylor project kept growing. Eventually the alderman had to find 6,800 more units because without more cites the CHA (Chicago Housing Authority) would lose millions in federal dollars. (Belluck, Pam: End of Ghetto)

II.   U.S. Housing Authority’s first director, Nathan Straus (public house’s choice to head the agency) deliberately wrote agency rules to insure that costs stayed well below legally mandated. (Venkatesh, Sudhir: An Invisible Community)

B.      Many politicians gave into their supporter’s wishes and made sure the Taylor homes did not come close to their neighborhoods, putting their political careers before the well being of thousands. (Hunt, Bradford: What Went Wrong with Public Housing in Chicago? A History of the Robert Taylor Homes)

C.      The racism that occurred throughout planning the Robert Taylor homes.

I.     The Department of Housing and Urban Development created and act that required cities to target specific areas and neighborhoods for different racial groups and certain areas of cities were eligible to receive loans at all, therefor guaranteeing racial segregation. Blacks who had means to move into better neighborhoods weren’t allowed to and were forced to settle for the Taylor homes or other Black areas in hopes that they could create their own communities. (A Dream Deferred.)

II.   Practices such as relining and restrictive covenants were used legally to prevent African Americans from securing mortgages in certain neighborhoods. These practices began in 1934 with the signing of Housing Act of 1934 which created the Department of Housing Authority. ( A Dream Deferred)

III.  After welcoming the first tenants to Robert Taylor in 2962, Mayor Richard J. Daley created a barrier between the housing project and nearby resource rich Bridgeport in form of the Dan Ryan Expressway. Daley grew up there and didn’t want the African American population going over. (Farwell to the High-rise, Metropolis Magazine)

D.      Why The Taylor homes were so disastrous.

I.      In 1965, Daily News ran a six part series describing conditions in the Taylor homes such as broken down elevators, erratic heat, excessive vandalism, and unsettling violence. By 1975 CHA budget crisis, deepening maintenance woes, and escalating violence had driven out those with other housing options. That year the CHA reported 1 in 8 units were vacant and 93% of Taylor families relied upon government assistance. (McRoberts, Flynn)

II.      Over the course of a year a resident of the Taylor homes has a better than 1-in-10 chance of becoming a victim of violent crime – a murder, a sexual assault, a shooting or a robbery. Nationally the chance of being a violent crime victim is 1 in 135. In the Northwest side neighborhood Jefferson Park it is 1 in 207. ( Papajohn, George and Recktenwald Harold: Living In A War Zone)

III.    Progressive administrators before and after WWII motivated by an unassailably sincere desire to improve Chicago’s housing conditions planned to tear down large swaths of the city deemed “slums” and rebuild with large-scale, high-density, often high rise housing exclusively for low income families. By mid 1950s administrators in Chicago recognized some problems created by this approach, but bureaucratic squabbling and obsession with cost in the late 1950s blocked the CHA efforts to return its designs and build low-rise buildings. (Venkatesh, Sudhir)

E.       Through greed and racism the Robert Taylor homes have become one of the most infamous examples of public housing gone wrong in Chicago.