7-Feb-16 – The innovative new plan for the redevelopment of Lathrop Homes, on the east bank of the Chicago River at Diversey Parkway and Clybourn Avenue, calls for 1,116 housing units built in three phases on the northwest edge of Chicago’s wealthy Lincoln Park neighborhood.

The new residential mix includes 400 public housing units, 222 affordable rental units, and 494 market-rate apartments or condominium residences, according to Lathrop Community Partners, a group of three development partners selected by Chicago Housing Authority in 2010.

If you do the math, 400 public housing units means nearly 36 percent of the apartments would be Section 8 – with rent assistance provided by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to landlords on behalf of low-income tenants. Under the new plan, public housing residents would be scattered in every building throughout the development. Today, only 140 public housing families reside at Lathrop Homes.

(Above) Closer view of mixed-use building.

The plan calls for a dozen Depression-era buildings to be razed to make way for new residential and retail development. 19 of the existing 31 historic buildings would be renovated.

The banks of the river would be sloped and landscaped, a walking trail and kayak launch are planned, and the river walk would be surrounded by 11 acres of restored green space. The grounds of Lathrop Homes, originally designed by architect Jens Jensen, are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

(Above) Architectural rendering of the new and renovated apartments at Lathrop Homes shows swank, open kitchens that feature a breakfast bar, cabinets, and new appliance package complete with dishwasher.

Although the historic landscaping still is intact, many of the existing buildings at the 32-acre Lathrop Homes are vacant and boarded up. Back in 1938, when the community was built, 925 public housing families resided in brick row houses and smaller walk-up apartment buildings in a campus-like setting.

The mixed-income community concept was born between 2003 and 2006, when Mayor Richard M. Daley tore down a half-dozen of the city’s most infamous public housing projects and replaced them with a revolutionary new residential formula.

One of the most successful new mixed-income projects is Oakwood Shores (left), a 94-acre community on Oakwood Boulevard (39th Street) between Langley and Ellis Avenues in the Oakland/North Kenwood neighborhood on the Mid-South Side.

The predominantly African-American community, which replaced the Ida B. Wells public housing project, was originally planned for 3,000 new housing units. The low-rise development plan called for a mix of affordable and market-rate rentals, affordable and market-rate for-sale condominiums, and town homes. A $1 million city incentive program was created to give buyers down payment assistance through a grant.

Mixed-income plans have worked well because of top-notch security, good management, and screening of Section 8 residents. The Oakwood Shores community plan wisely called for limiting the number of public housing residents to only 30 percent of the mixed-income population.

Many deserving low-income families seek affordable housing and better life

At Oakwood Shores, the plan placed many of the Section 8 units in six-flats next door to six-flats of market-rate rental apartments and on the same block with market-rate condos built in six-unit buildings. Neighbors all got along and crime was not a problem.

However, 70 percent of the former residents of the Ida B. Wells project were asked to move and offered Section 8 rent vouchers. Many displaced residents were refused admittance into the new mixed-income community because they were considered “undesirable residents” with a criminal history, including drug dealing and gang membership, experts reported.

As recently as 15 years ago, Lathrop Homes had 700 Chicago Housing Authority families residing in the community. Attrition and the CHA’s plan to transform the community to mixed-income housing has reduced that number greatly.

It’s likely that the demographic mix of residents in the new Lathrop community will be much more diverse than Oakwood Shores. Let’s hope the developers of Lathrop Homes review the history of other successful mixed-income communities before they cast their plans in cement.