ABLA Homes residents say Chicago Housing Authority hasn't kept word about renovations
Some Chicago Housing Authority residents say the agency refuses to live up to its own word on much-needed repairs at a West Side housing project.
Residents said promises were made, and money came in — yet when it was time for the CHA to do the work, nothing happened.
Mary Baggett walked CBS News Chicago through a unit stalled in work at the ABLA Brooks Homes, at 13th and Loomis streets on the Near West Side. Windows in the unit are boarded up, heat registers are falling apart, and residents are waiting for completion.
"It's deplorable," Baggett said. "The community wants better."
Baggett lives in ABLA public housing herself.
"I've been living at ABLA 55 years," she said.
The ABLA Homes was originally a conglomeration of four different public housing developments — Jane Addams Homes, Robert Brooks Homes, Loomis Courts, and Grace Abbott Homes. The sprawling collection of both high-rise and low-rise buildings stretched from Cabrini Street just south of Polk Street on the north to 15th Street on the south, and from Blue Island Avenue on the east to Ashland Avenue on the west.
The vast majority of the old ABLA development was demolished years ago — beginning as long ago as 1998. But the Robert Brooks Homes remain, with 330 rowhome units that residents say are not in good shape.
"ABLA haven't been renovated in over 26 years," said Baggett.
Yet three years ago, the Chicago Fire FC soccer team broke ground and built a practice facility, the Endeavor Health Performance Center, on public housing land. As part of the agreement that led to the construction of the soccer facility, the team would help the CHA gut and repair existing ABLA units for residents — and a separate community center was to be built too.
The soccer field is up, but the community center has not broken ground.
"Am I upset? Yes I am, because these are my residents," said Baggett. "We want what we asked for."
Baggett, who is also the president of the ABLA Local Advisory Council, said the CHA failed to keep its word. Back in April, the CHA started doing renovations — but residents claimed it was only patchwork.
"Let's get all 330 units in ABLA gutted out, and get us rebuilt from the ground up," Baggett said.
Eddie Ash also calls ABLA home. He said residents and the CHA came together for a meeting this week, which he characterized as unproductive.
Ash supports the fight to hold the CHA to its word — especially for those moved into temporary units more than a year ago.
"It seems to me they're trying to find scapegoats other than themselves," Ash said.
Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) said the CHA has not moved "as swiftly as it needs to have done to bring those units back online." But Ervin said the CHA will live up to its bargain and fully renovate under the deal that brought the soccer field to its property.
"Now they are in the process of redoing the plans for a full gut renovation," Ervin said.
The CHA issued the following statement:
<blockquote>"The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) remains fully committed to fulfilling our promise to residents by preserving and modernizing public housing. The ABLA/Brooks redevelopment—currently our largest renovation project—represents a significant investment in quality housing. All 330 apartments will undergo complete interior and exterior renovations to deliver the safe, stable, high-quality homes residents deserve. CHA will continue working closely with the ABLA/Brooks working group, which includes residents and community leaders, to share timelines and additional information."</blockquote>
If this does not happen, Baggett has another move in mind.
"We need to file a lawsuit," she said. "That was my next step."
While the CHA said residents are still slated, no timeframe was given — and that is what is frustrating residents.
