Equity & Economic Opportunity

The grab bar complaint is the latest in a series of grievances by CHA residents about the agency’s failure to keep residents safe.

Elderly CHA residents demanding action on elevators disrupt a CHA board meeting. The protest follows a BGA/WBEZ investigation into chronic problems that have led to hundreds of vulnerable and often frail seniors trapped in elevators or in their apartments.

With its CityKey ID card, Chicago follows New York in launching a municipal document aimed at opening access to an array of services for residents who lack identification. But conservatives claim it’s a gateway to voter fraud.

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.