March April 2002

Those who think the war on drugs is working had better visit the front lines. The relocation of public housing residents has contributed to making Chicago's murder rate the highest in the nation, according to a professor who has spent years working on the city's policing programs.

As law-abiding public housing residents across the country continue to walk on pins and needles wondering if they will be evicted for a drug-related crime perpetrated by a family member or a guest, a battle is being planned by Chicago public housing resident leaders and housing activists to get the "One Strike" public housing eviction law amended.

Many Robert Taylor residents are suddenly finding themselves facing extremely high electric bills, bills in the $10,000 range and higher that can make them non-lease compliant and ineligible for replacement housing.

The Woodlawn Organization (TWO), the new managers of the Harold Ickes Homes, is struggling to do a good job of managing the regular management-resident connections. Take, for instance, the monthly rent statements. I have regularly received mine five to ten days past the first of the month. I wait and hold on to my money order but it doesn't come. I pay my rent and get a receipt without the rent statement to attach to my money order. I think, "Oh well. Maybe next month."

"Girl X Settles With CHA for $3 million." That's the way the headlines appeared in the April 18 daily newspapers and how the story was announced on several television and radio news stations.

Many residents of public housing are asking the public, what would you do if you had no money, no job and no place to call home? How low would you go? Would you become a squatter?

The Chicago Housing Authority resident council is preparing for the many challenges that public housing residents under redevelopment will face.

Robert is the newly elected Local Advisory Council vice president in Lathrop Homes. Robert has been involved in the community for the past 5 years and has been a member of the tenant patrol in the 26th Ward. He also serves as the area president where he lives and is involved with the 19th District Community Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS) as well as the summer food program.

It's been two years almost since private management began to run family and senior housing. So, as it is time for these companies to bid on their contracts again, I thought, ‘Why not talk with the residents as well as the managers and see what grades they give them."

There is a crisis in America and while African American leaders search for answers, some community groups are finding solutions of their own.

I'll give you a bird's eye view, a fleeting glance of that Bayou Harlem called the Sonja Quarters.

Things have changed dramatically here in Ickes. On one hand, they remain the same. But some things have gotten worse.

Before he went to college, civil rights veteran and businessman Vernon Jordan's mother told him to join the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC), according to his book, "Vernon Can Read." All the white people she had worked for made their children join ROTC, his mother reasoned. "There must be something to it," she told the young Jordan.

In the last issue, I wrote about the three youths who were incarcerated for the Lori Roscetti murder. Omar Saunders, Calvin Ollins and his cousin, Larry Ollins, spent 15 years in prison for a murder they didn't commit. A lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, had their cases reviewed and had DNA tests taken that proved that they were not the ones. They were released Dec. 6, 2001.

Muddy Waters, Tracy Chapman, B.B. King, Maurice White, Al Jackson, Benny Benjamin, Yolanda Addams and Mahalia Jackson are just many of the African American entertainers past and present whose brand of entertainment was showcased in front of the standing-room-only crowd.

On April 17, there was a march to stop the violence in Lathrop Homes. The march took off from the Cotter Boys and Girls Club.

As I sit in my apartment preparing to write my column for this edition of RJ, I can't help but find myself awestruck by the power of words spoken, written and implied. Especially as I hear them, indoors through the television and radio, next door from my neighbors' apartments and outdoors from people as they walk, pass or stand in the street.