Deadly Moves: Troubling Development
by Mary C. Johns and Brian J. Rogal
While Mayor Richard M. Daley is touting his plans to remake Chicago Housing Authority developments into mixed-income neighborhoods, a firm that manages one of his showcase communities is charging that the city is not doing enough to stop open drug dealing on its site.

Deadly Moves: Lack of Force
by Mary C. Johns and Brian J. Rogal
When Francine Washington noticed hordes of police officers outside U.S. Cellular Field this spring, she walked toward the ballpark and counted them. The stadium, home of the Chicago White Sox, sits about three blocks west of the Stateway Gardens public housing development where she lives with her husband of 23 years.

Deadly Moves: In Too Deep
by Beauty Turner
Ulysses "U.S." Floyd was 14 years old when he decided to run with one of Chicago's most infamous street gangs. It was 1965. "My mother died when I was 11 years old, and my father was a workaholic. I'd barely ever see him," Floyd said. "I did it for the camaraderie, friendship, family. And, besides, all of my friends were in a gang already."


Electric Bills at Robert Taylor Homes

Assistant Editor Beauty Turner, a former resident of the Robert Taylor Homes, has been covering the shockingly high electricity bills charged to some residents of the Robert Taylor homes for several years now. Below are four of her pieces about the issue.

Shocking Electric Bills
by Beauty Turner, Assistant Editor
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.

Shocking Electric Bills Update
by Beauty Turner, Assistant Editor
In the March/April issue, I wrote about extremely high electric bills that many of the residents in Robert Taylor Homes are faced with.

The Shocking Truth About CHA
by Beauty Turner, Assistant Editor
Residents in the Robert Taylor Homes are being judged as non-lease compliant due to their electric utility bills and may lose their right to return to public housing units in the new mixed-income communities which are planned to replace the current developments.

No Chance For Change
by Beauty Turner, Assistant Editor
C.H.A.N.C.E, the Chicago Housing Authority and Commonwealth Edison program, is supposed to address the issue of high unpaid electric bills. Or was that just something to stop the media from crawling up the backs of CHA and ComEd?


Following The Money

Before the 1999 takeover of the Chicago Housing Authority by the City of Chicago, the agency spent $40 million annually on services to its residents, who make up some of the lowest income families in the United States. CHA provided services which ranged from Midnight Basketball programs to child care to job training to drug counseling.

After the 1999 city takeover, CHA transferred these funds to other city departments in a style reminiscent of corporate takeovers. CHA distributed tens of millions of dollars to the Chicago Police Department, the Chicago Board of Education, the Chicago Park District, and other city agencies.

But did residents receive the services? Did taxpayers get the best use of their funds?

Residents' Journal Editor-in-Chief Mary C. Johns investigated these matters and wrote several articles in our recent editions:

City Gets CHA Funds
by Mary C. Johns, Editor-in-Chief
Only a few of those city departments can demonstrate that they are serving residents with those federal funds. And other city departments have yet to begin their efforts to serve residents.

City Gets CHA Funds Update
by Mary C. Johns, Editor-in-Chief
With the clock ticking for many Chicago Housing Authority residents receiving government assistance, CHA officials failed to implement a much-needed welfare to work program for over one year, a continuing Residents' Journal investigation has found.