Peoples Housing's
Community Arts Program 1993-1995
I. INTRODUCTION TO PEOPLES HOUSING AND ITS EVOLVING VIEW OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
The Howard Theater, Rogers Park, Chicago
Peoples Housing was a nonprofit community development corporation founded by neighborhood activists in 1979. Peoples Housing was located in the north east corner of Chicago, in north Rogers Park. It ceased formal operation in December 1995.
Over the years Peoples Housing developed a number of initiatives and community improvement programs. Its main area of work was the development of 19 properties for low-income housing. In 1994 over 400 people lived in these properties. Half of the buildings are located in an area known as North of Howard, a neighborhood about 20 blocks with a reputation for high levels of poverty and crime. The bulk of this neighborhood is contained in Census Tract 101.
Approximately 51% of the residents of the Tract 101 are African-American. Whites and Latinos are roughly 25% each. The median household income in 1989 was $16,549. There are many young people in this community. In 1989, 1,353 residents or 21% of the total population of North of Howard was in the range 11 years old or younger. There were also 671 teenagers, or 10% of the total.
Over the years, Peoples Housing had expanded and revised its concept of community development. Originally concerned with issues of housing justice, it turned to producing affordable housing development in the early and mid-eighties and completed its first rehab project in 1983. Peoples Housing was one of the first organizations in Chicago to use the low income housing tax credit vehicle of financing projects. By 1995, Peoples Housing had generated $23 million of reinvestment in north Rogers Park.
At first, Peoples Housing was concerned with acquiring properties, renovating them and moving in low-income residents. But as time went on, Peoples Housing moved into a variety of community organizing and civic improvement issues. They hired community organizers who helped create block clubs, organized local school council elections, operated a youth drop in center and participated strongly in a pilot program for community policing. Peoples Housing also spent a great of deal of time and resources perfecting a low-income co-op model where residents "rented to own" their units.
In the late 80's the board and management developed a more complex framework for looking at community development. Asking themselves, "What makes a strong community?", Peoples Housing developed the concept of "a hospitable community" as a framework for talking about the kind of community they were working to develop.
Basically, the management of Peoples Housing came to the conclusion that a strong community needed four essential dimensions: (1) a stock of affordable and decent housing units, (2) a safe and neighborly streetscape, (3) a strong and effective public school, and (4) a set of vibrant and accessible cultural resources.
Over the years, Peoples Housing became more concerned with issues of human development and less concerned with physical development. Although Peoples Housing continued to produce low income units, its senior management became increasingly involved in issues of human development, community coalition building, crime and safety projects, gang intervention programs and economic development.
In terms of a mind set, one might say that in the early days of Peoples Housing, they considered their job essentially accomplished once a building was developed and brought on line for management. But, in the late 80's and early 90's that view changed to the realization that their work was only beginning when a building was completed.
