Six months from now, the last standing high-rise in the fabled Cabrini-Green development will be vacant and likely demolished, closing a definitive chapter on the once crime-ridden block of public housing on the city’s Near North Side.

Residents at 1230 N. Burling have been filing out of the development since the Chicago Housing Authority handed down building-wide eviction notices in mid-July. Abiding by a court-mandated ruling, the CHA gave residents there a half-year window to vacate, citing safety issues sourced to low occupancy at the development as reason for the order.

“Combined with the deteriorating conditions of the building, it has become economically infeasible to operate the building on a sustained basis,” said CHA spokesperson Matt Aguilar. The same goes for a pair neighboring mid-rises at 364 and 365 W. Oak, were occupancy has fallen under twenty percent, he said.

The 180-day deadline could be cut down to sixty days if occupancy at the 134-unit “white wall” high-rise dips below fifteen percent, or roughly twenty units, according to the notice. In light of this stipulation, residents have been meeting on a weekly basis to keep abreast of who is moving out and when, said to Mike Mclarin, a Burling tenant.

“It’s a little bit coordinated, but I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. As of last Thursday, there were just over forty families left in the building, said Mclarin.

Across the field, demolition began last week at 1230 N. Larrabee, where the CHA posted an emergency evacuation order earlier this summer. Residents at the building and housing lawyers went to court and won a temporary reprieve from the notice, but in the end tenants were given only 30 days to vacate.

“We don’t want to be bombarded like they were over Larrabee,” said McLarin.

The agency has provided residents with a number of relocation choices across Chicago, including slots at Dearborn Homes on the Near South side and the Wentworth Gardens in the Bronzeville neighborhood. Families are being provided with “significant relocation counseling assistance,” said Aguilar, and Section 8 vouchers are also being made available to tenants looking to move into subsidized housing elsewhere in the city or around the country.

For residents who hope to stay in the Cabrini neighborhood, the options are limited. With the high-rises out of the picture, housing in the immediate area has been narrowed to two venues: the Frances Cabrini Homes Row Houses, located a few blocks southeast of the developments, and the 155 units of CHA and affordable housing units, some of which are built and others are in the works at the Parkside of Old Town development, a mixed-income condo complex located adjacent to the high-rises at 1100 block of N. Cleveland.

Mclarin, who operates his own contracting company, said he plans to take up the row house option, in the interest of remaining “a true resident-owned business.”

“Most folks want to stay close to family,” said Alderman Walter Burnett (27th), who has worked with residents in the relocation process. But current conditions at the row houses—which are slated to be rehabbed and turned into mixed-income in the future—are less than ideal, he said.

“Right now it’s not a choice place to move, because we do have issues with some of the kids fighting with each other,” said Burnett. “We’ve got to deal with that…before [we can] market it to other folks.”

Aguilar said that the agency does expect occupancy at Burling to drop below 15 percent “at some point.”

Until then, he said, “the CHA will continue to work with the families to ensure they are receiving all of the information and support they need to make informed decisions.”