ETTA DAVIS, 62, DEARBORN HOMES
VIEWS FROM LONGTIME TENANTS ON CHA ‘ TRANSFORMATION’
All these years later, Etta Davis, 62, is back where she was before the Chicago Housing Authority began work on the Plan for Transformation. And that’s fine with her.
She thinks the CHA’s Dearborn Homes development — 16 mid- and high- rises on South State Street — was vastly improved by a gut rehab completed in 2011. And that makes her wonder why the agency didn’t take the same approach with its other properties.
Davis first moved there with her teenage son in 1994 after a workplace injury forced her to leave a job with the Postal Service. Gang wars flared up regularly.
“It was no joke,” she says. “They were shooting from 27th [ Street] to 29th. I had to jump on the ground and stay down. I thought, ‘ Oh, my God, I moved my son into a war zone.’ ”
Many gang members didn’t live there but used it as a drug spot — “three cars lined up next to each other, selling drugs.”
The redevelopment made a difference, as did better management, according to Davis. “I thank God for the rehab. … It made people feel proud. You didn’t have to worry about the sinks flooding or the pipes busting. You have nice, new apartments with air conditioners.”
Davis now works with the Hope Center, pressing the CHA to build more housing. “I’ve lived in public housing for more than 20 years, and I can say that it does work,” she says. “It’s like a community to me. We’ve gotten a bad rap.”
The CHA says the housing crash stalled its plans to redevelop other properties, including former projects along South State Street that remain vacant. Davis doesn’t buy that: “For that land to sit there vacant for 17 years is ridiculous.” — Mick Dumke