Equity & Economic Opportunity

Gov. Rauner’s administration has halted plans to scale back an in-home senior care program. The proposed reduction had faced criticism from the Alzheimer’s Association Illinois Chapter, Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans and SEIU Healthcare Illinois.

Expensive cost overruns are the rule, rather than the exception, when the Chicago Housing Authority orders up renovations at senior housing complexes it runs. Inconvenience, frustration and sometimes danger for elderly residents accompany the rehab work.

As the state grapples with budget gridlock, the Rauner Administration is pushing a change to a program for low income seniors initially billed as a cheaper and better alternative to nursing home care. Thousands could see in-home services scaled back, as costs soar with an aging population.

The high-rise projects were torn down years ago to place families in safer settings. Yet public housing residents today face violent crime throughout the city.

Every Chicago neighborhood and almost every suburb felt the impact of public housing transformation.

In some neighborhoods, new clusters of subsidized housing. In others, poverty is ‘a lot more invisible now.’

The number of subsidized households in Chicago’s suburbs jumped almost 30 percent since 2000.

In wake of Sun-Times/BGA stories on public housing tenants living in apartments with code violations, CHA may stop outsourcing Section 8 management.

Only a year old, the city promenade is energizing Chicago communities but longtime residents worry about being pushed out of their neighborhoods, according to a Rescuing Illinois report.

Thousands spent years waiting in line for CHA housing aid, while others spent only a few days or weeks.