Last week, a group of around 300 residents and community organizers gathered at the New Life Lakeview church in Hamlin Park to kick off the upcoming redevelopment of the Julia C. Lathrop Homes, a 75-year-old public housing complex on the city’s North Side.

The meeting was hosted by Lathrop Community Partners, the team of developers who last year were selected by the Chicago Housing Authority to lead the project, which is expected to rework the resident make-up and density of the 925-unit development, where occupancy rates currently sit at around 22 percent.

The partnership is comprised of a number of development firms, including Related Midwest, Heartland Housing Inc. and Bickerdike Redevelopment Corp.

Residents at the meeting, many wearing shirts bearing the rallying mantra, “No Market Rate,” were shown a few short videos outlining the planning stages for the project, followed by a question-and-answer session moderated by Ald. Proco “Joe” Moreno (1st).

While the presentation strongly emphasized Lathrop Community Partners’ commitment to community engagement during the process, no real specifics about the project came to light that evening.

“We don’t have a plan yet, that is what this is all about,” said Bill Little, executive vice president of development for CHA.

Kerry Dickson, senior vice president of Related, said that the minutiae of the project, such as environmental building options and the marketing of units at Lathrop, would be worked out through a series of “workshop” meetings scheduled in December.

Toward the end of the meeting, Dickson offered one last token of transparency on behalf of his team.

“We’ll be trying to keep pushing information and keep pushing knowledge out so we can all be on the same page about what we’re talking about,” he said.

But as the crowd started to file out into the chapel lobby, Robert Davidson, president of the development’s resident-led Local Advisory Council, took to the stage and called for the exiting audience’s attention.

“Why wasn’t I in that video?” shouted Davidson.

“Ask that question,” he continued. “It’s because I’m not saying what they’re trying to say.”

Davidson’s outburst — though not uncommon for the council leader, who often plays to the crowd when given an audience of CHA officials and residents — spoke to the underlying impasse between the two parties.

Since deliberations over the project first began in early 2010, residents at Lathrop have been skeptical of the agency’s promise that designs for the project are yet to be determined.

That mistrust was reinforced earlier this year, when CHA stated that no more than one-third of the development’s units would be returned as public housing, leaving the remaining dwellings open to a potential mix of market-rate and affordable residences.

Residents and public housing advocates who had previously called for the development to remain 100 percent “pure” public housing are now telling CHA to focus the project on affordable real estate. Davidson has recused himself from the Lathrop working group in the past because of what he has deemed to be an unbalanced discussion that favors a market-rate portion.

As part of CHA’s decade-spanning Plan for Transformation, the redevelopment of Lathrop has also been touted as a major green-building project. Residents have generally backed this goal, while maintaining that they would like to see the agency reuse as much of the historic development as possible. Lathrop is currently being considered for a listing under the National Register of Historic Places — a designation that could bring tax credits for a potential rehab of the development.

Groups such as the Logan Square Neighborhood Association and architectural advocates Preservation Chicago have joined Lathrop residents in pushing for these demands.

Miguel Suarez, a long-time Lathrop resident and organizer, recently told Skyline that the agency, though continuing to meet with leadership at the homes, has kept residents relatively in the dark concerning the future of the homes.

“Whatever happens with those other two-thirds, you’re guess is as good as mine,” he said.

CHA has often found itself at odds with residents over the course of the transformation, which seeks to redistribute the city’s public housing population into mixed-income communities.

At Cabrini-Green, the once-infamous public housing projects located a few miles southeast of Lathrop, residents fought CHA in and out of court while the agency tore down the development’s high-rises, which it deemed unsafe and financially wasteful to maintain.

Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) jockeyed for residents’ rights during the demolition phase at Cabrini, and the alderman has continued to stand beside tenants as they now debate the future of the nearby Frances Cabrini Rowhouses.

While tenants at both developments have counted on the support of their local alderman — Moreno has initially backed residents in their opposition to market-rate construction — Lathrop residents have displayed a degree of unity that was unseen in the crime and poverty-torn corners of Cabrini.

As to the question of resident participation in the project, Dickson promised that his team is making every effort to keep the Lathrop community involved.

“Outreach to the residents has been … double the amount of outreach to the surrounding communities,” he said.

Regarding the absence of Davidson in the presentation, Dickson said that the LAC leader had been “intimately involved” in the discourse, including in the planning for the meeting that night.

“Mr. Davidson is included in lots of discussions — in all of the discussions, to a certain extent — regarding the plans,” he said.

Dickson said that a master plan for the Lathrop project is expected by summer 2012, with no projected completion date currently in sight.

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By Boyee from Mid-North in Lincoln Park
Posted: 11/28/2011 7:24 PM

I feel they should have the Lincoln Park half (West DePaul neighborhood) market-rate and the North Center half (Hamlin Park neighborhood) public housing. I still don't get why a Logan Square organization would be involved as none of the Lathrop Homes are in Logan Square. A mix of market rate and public housing would make the most sense for this gentrifying area.