Background on the Bronzeville Affordable Housing Crisis

See a map showing the boundaries of the Bronzeville neighborhood.

Bronzeville is a great, historically significant community because it has welcomed all who wanted to live here and build the community. Many of Bronzeville's "greats" were quite poor, at least initially. Imagine Bronzeville if Jack Johnson, Ida B. Wells, Nat King Cole, or Mahalia Jackson could not have afforded to live here?

Jack Johnson
First African American
Heavy-weight Champion
(1878-1946)

Ida B. Wells
Civil Rights Activist,
Journalist, and Organizer
of the NAACP
(1862-1931)

Nat “King” Cole
Jazz Singer, Songwriter,
and Pianist
(1919-1965)

Mahalia Jackson
Acclaimed by Many
As America’s Greatest
Gospel Singer
(1911-1972)

But many residents who are important to Bronzeville's present and future are being priced out of the community. With the demolition since the year 2000 of the 28 high-rise towers of Robert Taylor Homes, 8 towers of Stateway Gardens, all of Lakefront Homes, all of Madden Park Homes, all of Darrow Homes, and parts of Ida B. Wells Homes, the City is in the midst of a multi-billion dollar "Plan for Transformation."

As 11,500 units of public housing have been torn down and their residents displaced, upscale developers have rushed to Bronzeville to take advantage of the vast stockpile of vacant lots and the new development possibilities. Higher and higher priced housing is being built, with few provisions for ensuring affordable home ownership opportunities for moderate-income Bronzeville residents.

A vacant lot on Calumet Ave.
The vacant lot has come to be
the defining feature of
Bronzeville.

An example of one of the many emerging development sites, with homes here priced
“from the lower $600,000s.”

Affordable housing is not as profitable to build as market rate housing or low-income housing, which is subsidized by the federal government. As property values increase, taxes rise and few landlords will accept subsidies when they can get higher rents on the open market.

It is not fair that seniors--who have raised their families here, gone to church here, and done so much to help their neighbors--cannot afford to live in Bronzeville anymore. It is not good for Bronzeville that day care teachers, lab technicians, security guards, and others who work in the community cannot live in the community.

The Defining Feature of Bronzeville: The Vacant Lot

The vacant lot, such as the one pictured above on Calumet Avenue, has come to define the Bronzeville community.  Two years ago, no one in Bronzeville knew just how many vacant lots existed or who owned the vast majority of them.   

In May 2006, Housing Bronzeville requested from the City a detailed listing of the vacant land in its own community.  For 6 months, the City stonewalled this request for public information regarding publically owned lots.  Fed-up residents finally took off from their own jobs to travel downtown to confront city officials.  In July and August 2006, they also visited the homes of six members of the carefully insulated, politically appointed Chicago Plan Commission.

Housing Bronzeville’s Second Visit to the Department of Housing
and Planning—Nov. 15, 2006

Finally, at the end of November 2006, the City budged and provided the first comprehensive list of vacant land in Bronzeville.  The City of Chicago owned 1,896 vacant lots of land in Bronzeville at that time —most taken quietly over the years from hardluck homeowners who were unable to pay their taxes. . . . and then held without any effort to improve the land for the benefit of the community.  These were single lots, double lots, or whole half blocks of vacant land.

1 of the 39 pages of city-owned property in Bronzeville

Housing Bronzeville has 39 pages of city-owned property in Bronzeville, with 50 properties on every page.  This list does not include the miles of additional vacant land owned by the Chicago Housing Authority in the footprints of the old CHA projects.  Nor does it include the thousands of privately-owned vacant lots in Bronzeville.