Cabrini-Green the public housing complex once Infamous Nationwide as a symbol of
crime and urban blight has been slowly demolished over the past two decades
African-American residents were scattered around the city replaced by new retail and
Sleek Condos for wealthier taxpayers at one time the crime-ridden complex was home to 15
000 people the neighborhood was near the North Community area formerly Swede town or Little
Sicily and then little hell the site of caprini green public housing complex was Notorious in
the early 20th century for its inhabitants poverty and dilapidated buildings but thing
were not always this way and they certainly weren't intended to become this way you see
during World War II the Chicago Housing Authority raised little hell and built a low-rise Apartment
project for war workers naming it the Francis Cabrini homes after the first American canonized
by the Catholic church this will be a stirring tale of Urban Decay today we discover the rise
and fall of Cabrini Green I'm your host Ryan silkash and you're watching it's history
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before there was Cabrini Green in the early 1900s there was a group of immigrants many of them
Italian but also Irish and Swedish who settled around Goose Island they came to work in dirty
challenging and often low-paying jobs in the steel mills and the Gas Works on Goose Island where tall
Stacks belch flames and smoke that could be seen Miles Away well some called the area a little
Sicily for its large number of Italians it was also called Little Hell for the smokestacks and
the crime that plagued its residents one Chicago Tribune article called the area around little hell
quote the most dangerous neighborhood in the city the name arose after a series of murders related
to a mafia blackmail scheme called the Blackhand victims would receive a letter imprinted with a
drawing of a deadly hand it was their signal to pay or die a Stern warning not to go to the police
was also typically a part of the message the isolated Italian victims who often didn't speak
English complied many of these murders occurred in a tiny area named death Corner Physical conditions
such as overcrowded ramshackled buildings dirty streets and dark alleys also contributed to crime
in the area so with that in mind local officials decided to bulldoze little hell during World War
II Paving the way for a development called the Cabrini Green public housing project Chicago
officials couldn't clear all 36 square miles but in the early 1940s they raised the core of little
hell to build the Francis Cabrini Green homes and made plans to take control of the surrounding
area including death Corner meanwhile in the late 1930s the Chicago Housing Authority also
known as cha established the elaborate screening process that would be integral to its activities
ensuring that only those judged to be most worthy among low-income applicants would be selected for
occupancy its 1940 Manual of operations laid out the requirements making clear that the authority
wanted tenants who were U.S citizens living in a quote natural family unit with children
under the age of 17. the cha would reject those who showed credit irresponsibility or evident
criminal or anti-social Tendencies application screening entailed a home visit and verification
of information from employers creditors social agencies and the police department the coding of
applications also permitted outright rejection for what authorities termed insufficient or unstable
income on August the 29th 1942 mayor Edward J Kelly dedicated the Francis Cabrini row houses
this City's first wartime housing project at the intersection of Chestnut and Cambridge Avenue the
development is named after Mother Francis Cabrini an Italian-American nun founder of the missionary
Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the first American citizen to be named a saint
anyhow construction of the 56 two and three-story buildings designed to house up to 600 families
was begun three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor and completed in less than 10 months at
more than 3.7 million dollars and almost 8 million dollar contract was awarded for the first stages
of construction of eight high-rise buildings for the Cabrini public housing project the project
adds 859 Apartments built over 15 blocks bounded by division larabee Sedgwick Chicago and Hudson
Avenue to the 584 Row House dwellings already in the area only only families of War workers who
earned less than two thousand one hundred dollars a year roughly thirty three thousand dollars in
today's money were eligible for tenancy the homes targeted veterans of World War II and included 55
structures the American Housing Act of 1949 aided with slum clearance and Redevelopment and funding
of construction of additional housing units leading the Chicago Housing Authority to add
to the Cabrini properties this included William green homes also known as whites which consisted
of eight white concrete buildings 15 or 16 stories tall they also added to the Cabrini extension
also known as the Reds partly because of the building's red brick exteriors the Reds consisted
of 15 buildings of 7 10 or 19 Stories the newly constructed Cabrini Green complex consisted of
23 high-rise Towers in row houses all of which targeted low-income residents needing public
housing during this time Cabrini Green and other public housing projects in Chicago were subject to
racial segregation the cha had been assigning tenants to the housing based upon the race
resulting in the concentration of African-American residents in isolated segregated areas those
apartment houses were considered well-built attractive alternatives to the slums that
traditionally housed low-income families like the city's other public housing during that era and I
feel it's very important to note here to emphasize that even though Cabrini Green was once a model of
successful public housing poor planning physical deterioration and managerial neglect coupled with
gang violence drugs and chronic unemployment turned the project into a national symbol of
urban blight and failed housing policy this would go down in history as being one of Chicago's most
dangerous neighborhoods in 1966 Dorothy gatro and altgeld garden resident filed a lawsuit
against the Chicago Housing Authority the gatro vs Chicago Housing Authority Sue claimed that the
actions of CHA violated the U.S Constitution the Supreme Court ruled in gatro's favor this
case prompted significant change within Chicago's public housing program including the elimination
of high-rise public housing construction and implementing programs that ensured new public
housing development is scattered across the city all the same overwhelmed by the abundance of
properties and lack of resources the Chicago Housing Authority failed to make repairs and
upkeep the public housing projects in fact for years the neglect continued causing the buildings
to deteriorate and subjecting the tenants to poor living conditions increased crime and poverty the
superblocks left many areas of Chicago with row after row of Monolithic concrete Towers
artificially constructed communities cut off from Neighbors around them forming dense Geographic
concentrations of poverty and as I'm sure anyone who grew up in Chicago or the surrounding suburbs
would agree the results would generally prove disastrous the massive size of apartment complexes
and a large number of residents made a sense of community and social order much harder to sustain
and with that the project which ultimately became known as Cabrini Green became a national symbol
of the deteriorating state of public housing in Chicago in the following decades despite various
efforts to increase security Cabrini-Green became notorious for gangs drugs and Sensational crimes
accordingly Chicago mayor Jane Byrne moved into Cabrini Green for a few weeks in 1981 to show her
demonstration to reduce crime but it had little effect other than to draw further attention to
the pro problem residents organized over the years to pressure the city for assistance but
also to protect and support each other community leader Marion stamps was the most visible tenant
to organize strikes and protests against the Chicago Housing Authority the mayor of Chicago
and many others on behalf of the residents from the 1960s until she died in 1996. some Cabrini
Green tenant activists organized to prevent themselves from becoming homeless and to protect
what they and their supporters saw as the right to public housing for the city's poorest residence
ultimately these activists obtained a consent degree guaranteeing that some buildings would
remain standing at the same time new structures would be built so tenants can stay in their homes
until new ones become available the document also guaranteed displaced Cabrini residents a home
in the new neighborhood in 2001 a tennis group sued the cha over relocation plans for displaced
residents of Cabrini Green under the city's plan for transformation a 1.4 billion dollar blueprint
for public housing renewal Richard Wheelock an attorney representing the tenants said
the Authority's demolition program had outpaced its reconstruction program thus leaving families
with their responsibilities to find options Beyond equally dangerous and segregated areas elsewhere
in the city or to become homeless Cabrini Green's name and problems were highly publicized
significantly Beyond Chicago the project often gained press coverage for its chaotic New Year's
Eve celebrations where gang members fired guns into the air causing police to block off nearby
streets yearly now this is something I can personally attest to as my first apartment
in the year 2000 was on LaSalle Street on the 13th story directly overlooking Cabrini Green
and indeed gunshots rang out through the night I also watched the physical demolition of the
project from that same apartment which we'll get to in a moment anyhow several Infamous incidents
contributed to Cabrini Green's reputation for example one unanticipated result of the steel
fencing installed to secure the previously open gangways at Cabrini Green was that it
became difficult for Chicago police officers to see through the steel mesh from the outside
on July the 17th 1970 Chicago Police patrolman Anthony n Rosato and Sergeant James Severin were
shot and killed by gang members while patrolling community housing for an all-volunteer walk and
talk project as the police officers proceeded across the Cabrini-Green baseball field the
assailants opened fire from an apartment Window it was no accident the shooting aimed to seal a pact
between two rival gangs both officers were killed in the attack three adults and one juvenile were
later charged with murder the two shooters were sentenced to between 100 and 199 years in prison
for two counts of murder and the list of these types of situations goes on and on for example
in 1981 the gang killing of 11 made national headlines and hence something needed to change
the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development is an administrative division of the
U.S federal government responsible for carrying out government Housing and Community Development
programs established in 1965 under President Johnson it ensures equal access to housing and
community-based employment opportunities they finance new housing public housing and housing
Rehabilitation projects they also ensure mortgages and carryout programs that serve the housing needs
of low-income and minority families plus the elderly were disabled mentally ill and so on
furthermore the agency protects consumers against fraudulent practices by land developers ensures
the safety of manufactured homes and defends home buyers against abusive mortgage loan practices
so as things escalated by 1996 the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development retained control
over the cha to recover the program however mayor Richard M Daly regained control of the
cha in 1999. this constant changing of hands only created further in efficiency but in the end the
Chicago Housing Authority revealed its plan for transformation that proposed that the demolition
of high-rise public housing the first Tower in the Cabrini Green complex was demolished in 2000 and
the last in 2011. today new mixed income housing sits in its place all the remains of the original
complex are row houses consisting of 137 units however these structures have been boarded up and
uninhabited for years in 2019 the cha announced plans to demolish the buildings and redevelop
the area though the details of this plan are still somewhat unclear the legacy of Cabrini Green lives
on in pop culture the 1970s sitcom Good Times depicted a family living in the caprini green
complex the 1999 film white boys centers around the main character's trip from the middle of Iowa
to Cabrini Green to experience the Gang Lifestyle and the 2001 movie Hardball was filmed there but
most famously the 1990s horror Candyman was set and filmed at Cabrini Green in 2019 producers
announced a sequel to the film which will be filmed in The Abandoned and soon to be
demolished Cabrini Green row houses when filmmaker Nia DeCosta was given a chance to create a sequel
to Candyman she strove to show a different side of the mangled projects to preserve the scariness of
the original film well importantly separating the monster from the community itself you see
the original Candyman was inspired by Cabrini Green's rotting buildings and broken elevators
shoddy construction even meant that some of Apartments connected through their bathroom
mirrors the primary detail that would show grisly effect in the original Candyman Cabrini Green was
home to 15 000 people at its peak mostly living in mid and high-rise apartment buildings crime
and neglect created hostile living conditions for many and Cabrini Green became momentum for
problems associated with public housing in the United States the attention to this community
was Monumental and the changes or lack thereof remain demolition of the project was completed
in 2002 part of the site was added to Seward Park whereas construction of new mixed income housing
on the remainder of the site began in 2006. New Market rate housing now almost wholly surrounds
the remaining public housing and luckily crime has dramatically decreased as the population has
shifted though I must admit even all these years later if someone told me to exit that division
I'd probably still think twice now I'm curious to hear what other chicagolands feel about this story
perhaps some of you out there have had Direct experiences with Cabrini Green let me know in the
comment comment section below and if you'd like to hear about the time that I actually visited the
project personally with my camera as a photography student then click that join button and perhaps
I'll put up a video about the account until next time guys this is Ryan silkash signing off