Nice housing, poor neighborhood: Life after distressed public housing

The Urban Institute published a series of briefs summarizing research on the outcomes for families who were relocated out of the distressed Madden/Wells public housing community in Chicago. The Urban Institute's research suggests "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." (Former Madden/Wells residents have a mortality rate that is nearly three times that of the general population.) 

The research also serves as a reminder that policies aimed to deconcentrate the poor do not always achieve their intended results.  While the vast majority of former Madden/Wells residents describe the condition of their current housing as good or excellent condition, most continue to reside in poor, predominantly African-American communities with limited economic and educational opportunities.

Key findings from the Urban Institute study:

• 84% 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% say that drugs and gangs remain a major problem.
• 26% of the families live in low-poverty communities (poverty rate below 15%), but 54% still live in neighborhoods with poverty rates of 25% or higher.
• 54 % of respondents have an illness requiring ongoing care and 52% have two or more major health conditions.
• Although residents report less anxiety than when they lived in Madden/Wells, 17% report poor overall mental health and 8% have had major depressive episodes.
• 73% of the working-age respondents continue to live below the poverty level, including 54 percent of those working.
• 59% of respondents worry they might run out of food and 22% cut or skip meals.

The relocation of Madden/Wells residents was part of the Chicago Housing Authority's Plan for Transformation; an ambitious effort to replace the agency’s stock of distressed public housing developments with mixed-income communities and extensively rehabbed buildings. The ultimate goal of the Plan for Transformation was to demonstrate that it was possible to convert distressed public housing into healthy communities that would provide residents with opportunities for a better life.

To view photos documenting the CHA Plan for Transformation, visit David Schalliol's photo gallery.