Blueprint for Disaster: The Unraveling of Chicago Public Housing

by D. Bradford Hunt

Now considered a dysfunctional mess, Chicago’s public housing projects once had long waiting lists of would-be residents hoping to leave the slums behind. So what went wrong? To answer this complicated question, D. Bradford Hunt traces public housing’s history in Chicago from its New Deal roots through current mayor Richard M. Daley’s Plan for Transformation. In the process, he chronicles the Chicago Housing Authority’s own transformation from the city’s most progressive government agency to its largest slumlord.

            Challenging explanations that attribute the projects’ decline primarily to racial discrimination and real estate interests, Hunt argues that well-intentioned but misguided policy decisions—ranging from design choices to maintenance contracts—also paved the road to failure. Moreover, administrators who fully understood the potential drawbacks did not try to halt such deeply flawed projects as Cabrini-Green and the Robert Taylor Homes. These massive high-rise complexes housed unprecedented numbers of children but relatively few adults, engendering disorder that pushed out the working class and, consequently, the rents needed to maintain the buildings. The resulting combination of fiscal crisis, managerial incompetence, and social unrest plunged the CHA into a quagmire from which it is still struggling to emerge.

           Blueprint for Disaster, then,is an urgent reminder of the havoc poorly conceived policy can wreak on our most vulnerable citizens.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Urban Studies, American History, Urban Planning, Sociology, Urban

392 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Patreisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I attended Roosevelt University in Chicago in 2008, I had the pleasure of taking Dr. Hunt's sociology course, Contemporary Urban Issues. In addition to learning about urban decal and renewal, Dr. Hunt gave profound insight and details into the atrocities surrounding public housing in Chicagoland. What really stuck with me is the mandatory class field trip, where my classmates and I visited several public housing sites in Chicago. Seeing the mass devastation that quickly permeated housing geared for the poor, Dr. Hunt not only discussed the policies that failed to help the poor, yet he also lectured on the architecture and architects of the time that where equally at fault for the demise of social housing.

If anyone has a chance to attend one of his lectures or take one of his classes, I highly suggest doing so. His teaching is what initiated by own passion for social and housing issues.

[Taylor Diem · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I was very skeptical of the opinionated nature of the author at the beginning, this book ended up being an incredibly helpful and well rounded in its discussion of Public Housing and Chicago. It is an extremely nuanced and sensitive subject. The author does a great job of presenting the facts and implications of the policy decisions. Worth a read!

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this book I questioned whether there was anything else to say on the history of Chicago's public housing. From journalistic accounts like Kowlotwitz's "There Are No Children Here," to sociological histories like Sudhir Vanketesh's "American Project," to general histories like Arnold Hirsch's "Building the Second Ghetto," the Chicago Housing Authority's failure has been rigorously chronicled by legions of researchers over the years. Still, this may be the best general history of the CHA out there, and maybe the best history of public housing I've ever read.

The author starts with an in depth examination of the 1937 Housing Act which started the public housing program, and convincingly contradicts the analysis of writers like Gail Radford and James Patterson that its frugality represented a triumph of conservatives. He shows that in fact most of the amendments were proposed by liberals and housing activists like Catherine Bauer, at the time at least, celebrated it as a radical achievement. He goes on to show how the intersection of slum clearance ideologies and attempts to rehouse the desperate black poor lead to public housing concentration in the ghetto, not simply white racist opposition. His largest contribution is to emphasize the importance of skewed child-adult ratios (averaging over 2 minors (under 21) per adult in the CHA, versus 0.5 in the city as a whole) and the "indefensible spaces" of the high-rises as creating the basis for social chaos. Although I think he overstates the simple importance of this ratio, it was certainly one of the crucial factors in the CHA's decline into crime and vandalism.

Although this is a case study of a single city, the author provides a better and clearer overview of changing federal housing policies than any other book I've read, and deftly shows the interaction between federal and local politics. Despite some problems (it's occasionally disorganized and the barrage of facts can be hard to follow) this book should become the essential history of America's public housing disaster.

[John NM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-argued and thoughtful account of the CHA from inception. Some of the theses are more provocative than they are empirically supported, but still interesting. A herculean effort to manage the numerous and complex threads, but it makes for necessary reading in order to think about the arc of public housing in the US.

[Zak Yudhishthu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely detailed history of public housing in Chicago - mostly focused on its earlier years, and then zooms through the 70s up to the 2000s. So much rich information with useful perspective. Also a book that made me very sad.

[Lisa Krissoff Boehm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read for students of Chicago history or those interested in public housing. The point about the ratio of children to adults in
Chicago’s public housing is especially important.

[Caroline]

Academic, dense, probably great, just not what I was looking for. Stopped about 50 pages in.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really approachable and digestible history of the troubled CHA. Do wish more had been written about the CPD/CHA police. A more integrated history of those agencies would’ve made this outstanding.

[Marigny777 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the often overemphasized and generally repetitive nature of the writing, the author manages to bring to light a tragic public policy oversight in the second city which continues to this day.
Illustrating all of the major players in the decline of the public housing movement since the 1939 public housing act, the book so far has brought many jaw dropping moments, especially in the form of statistics triangulating an overwhelming concentration of poverty, race, and youth demographics in the CHA projects.

[UChicagoLaw]

"For Chicago residents, D. Bradford Hunt’s Blueprint for Disaster: The Unraveling of Chicago Public Housing recounts the city’s largely failed experiment in public housing. I have substantial reservations about Hunt’s ultimate diagnoses, but he uses unique access to public housing records to sketch a compelling perspective on a tragedy that unfolded only slowly over time." - Aziz Huq

[Ajabee · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the author did belabor certain points, Hunt's emphasis was not misplaced nor a reading distraction. This book is written for any interested reader and is critical look at several issues facing the shape and reshaping of both Chicago's neighbors and those of all cities. The research is thorough, well cited, and masterfully used to paint a picture of the plight created by poor planning. Well done.

[Crysta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting look at the evolution of public housing and how legislation, federal mandates and spectacularly terrible management set Chicago public housing up for failure. Read in combination with JS Fuerst's compilation of interviews of former residents (When Public Housing Was Paradise), I've gained an excellent overview of how and why the system evolved as it did.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-researched, multi-faceted and critical look at why public housing high rises failed. The author explores all relevant political aspects without engaging (at least to my reading) in spin or bias. He tells it like it was. An academic but very enlightening read.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read on the history of public housing in Chicago. Provides a compelling narrative of CHA as well as some new interpretive frameworks which can help understand the failure of public housing in the city.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good historical perspective on the implications of housing policy in Chicago over the last 50+ years.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

See especially the discussion of the high child to adult ratio.

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Goofy AF argument