33 Cabrini-Green families have 180 days to find new housing

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Updated: November 5, 2011 1:18PM

The Chicago Housing Authority — citing safety concerns — plans to evict the 33 families still living in the Cabrini-Green rowhouses that have not been rehabbed, the agency said Thursday.

The CHA says the rowhouses are “dangerous and no longer suitable for residents,” citing recent arrests for drug dealing, among other criminal activities.

The residents are being given 180 days to find somewhere else to live, according to the CHA.

“The levels and nature of criminal activity continue to pose a real threat to the residents of the area, but it is a particularly disturbing threat due to the significant number of children in the old section of the rowhouses,” Interim CHA CEO Carlos Ponse said in a written statement. “This Authority must do what’s rights and vacate the property. The CHA will take great care in making the transition as smooth and as comfortable as possible for the remaining families.”

But Richard Wheelock, an attorney who represents a Cabrini-Green tenants’ organization, says “It’s a bit ironic (CHA) is moving tenants due to concerns about their safety, when many families will end up in much worse conditions.”

Wheelock said the Housing Choice Vouchers CHA gives to tenants likely won’t be accepted by North Side landlords, who tend to discriminate against public housing families and African-Americans.

Of the 584 units — originally built in 1942 in the area between Chicago, Hudson, Larrabee and Oak — 146 have been rehabbed.

The CHA said it will work with the evicted families, helping them with “housing counseling” and “moving services.”

As soon as the remaining tenants vacate the rowhouses, a committee of “community residents, community stakeholders and CHA” will meet to discuss future plans for the site.