For dozens of Chicago Housing Authority residents displaced by the effects of this month’s blizzard, the inconveniences had been piling up like so much unmelted snow.
There was the shuttling from hotel to freezing CHA apartment and back to other hotels. There was the lack of transportation to get to jobs. Friday, it didn’t get any better.
After waiting much of the day to be transported 1 1/2 hours to the Hacienda Inn in Chicago Heights for another temporary relocation, more than 30 residents were met by several police officers and a representative of the suburb, according to CHA staffers and residents.
“There were some allegations from staff and residents that people were told not to get off the bus,” said CHA spokeswoman Wynona Redmond, though she added that “the hotel manager has been welcoming all along.”
Hours later, city officials dusted off the welcome mat. “We have been in touch with the mayor of Chicago Heights, and he has given us assurance that our residents are completely welcome to stay as long as they want,” said another CHA spokeswoman, Vivian Potter.
Chicago Heights officials said the mayor was in Texas Friday, which led to some of the confusion.
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“The City of Chicago Heights was not given any advance notice this would take place,” said August Anzelmo, corporation counsel for the city. He said none of the residents was made to feel “under siege or harassed”
But the arrival of the CHA residents raised questions, Anzelmo said.
“With such great distance involved, why is it that Chicago Heights was the location chosen by the Chicago Housing Authority?” Anzelmo asked.
The scene was just the latest in a string of troubles and humiliations endured by CHA residents as the authority has struggled to relocate families driven out by weather-battered buildings.
For the last several years, the CHA has been moving thousands of families displaced by redevelopment plans. But burst pipes and other damage left in the wake of the recent snowstorm has sent a largely-unprepared CHA staff scrambling to cope.
Observers and residents note that the mayhem created by the storm has given the CHA another opportunity to hasten the inevitable: demolition of the agency’s worst buildings at a time when changes in federal law have freed CHA and other housing authorities from the requirement that they replace every demolished unit.
“Ten years ago . . . if pipes burst in a building, CHA had only two choices. They could rehabilitate the building as quickly as possible. Or if it had been damaged enough they had to replace the demolished units one for one, and that was unlikely,” said Alexander Polikoff, the plaintiffs’ attorney in a landmark housing desegregation lawsuit.
“Today, buildings are supposed to be demolished if they’re not viable. (So) if a building is damaged because of storm-inflicted wounds . . . CHA is freer to move toward demolition because they don’t have to replace one for one.”
In the short term, the CHA is paying up to $100 a day to put up each family in a hotel room, a daily expense amounting to approximately $15,000 to $20,000.
In the long term, the authority, city and social service agencies are coming up with new approaches to deal with the fresh spurt of relocated families.
“We’re trying to respond to immediate needs and at the same time try to keep to the plan as much as possible,” said CHA Executive Director Joseph Shuldiner, noting that many families wanted to move into private apartments anyway.
But the system is showing strain. At 10 p.m. Thursday night, the CHA delivered letters to residents whom the agency had lodged at the Best Western Grant Park Hotel. The letters told them to be packed and ready for relocation by 9 a.m. Friday, but gave them no hint about where they would be taken.
By 9 a.m. Friday the Best Western lobby was jammed with residents. The transport buses didn’t roll until 11 a.m., shortly after a CHA staffer notified the residents of their destinations.
About a dozen families from Henry Horner Homes were to return to their complex. Another 30 families from Robert Taylor Homes were headed to the Hacienda in Chicago Heights.
“I can’t go to Chicago Heights. There’s no transportation there,” said Anita Hill, sitting in the coffee shop. “I know. I work for the RTA.”
Hill, 41, a customer service representative for the Regional Transportation Authority, could not go to work Friday because
of the relocation–a complaint echoed by other residents.
Residents also were upset by the way they were treated at the Best Western.
“It’s like living someplace you’re not wanted,” said Hill. “The first couple of days we weren’t even allowed to eat in the dining room. We had to eat in our rooms.”
Best Western front desk manager Eden Bernal said she was unaware of any instances where CHA residents were not allowed to dine in the restaurant. She speculated that the restaurant, which is managed separately, may have required residents to get food for carry out at closing time.
Attempts to get comment from the restaurant were unsuccessful.
The dozen families from Horner were bused back to the West Side development and were issued moving boxes. Admitted back into their building, 111 N. Wood St., they were instructed to pack all of their belongings, though a handful were told they would have to spend yet another night in a hotel.
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“This is ridiculous. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” Carrie Russell told a group of CHA employees at a Horner management office. “You’re treating us like little kids.”