- Browse Repository
- Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
- HOPE VI (x)
- National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities
National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities
Show moreMixed-income development has been embraced by policymakers across the country as a promising means of deconcentrating poverty and revitalizing inner city neighborhoods. The unprecedented scale of Chicago’s effort at mixed-income development provides an important opportunity to learn about the possibilities and challenges of this approach. Most of the new developments have completed at least one pre-occupancy phase of construction, marketing, and resident outreach. This paper explores the perspectives of two key actors in the mixed income development process: private developers and social service providers. In Depth interviews were conducted with 26 individuals working on nine of Chicago’s major new mixed-income developments. This qualitative analysis uses the perspectives of these key actors to identify some of the major early challenges of the mixed-income development process in Chicago. Implications for the future of mixed-income development and public housing transformation in Chicago and across the country are considered.
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Show moreIn the largest poverty deconcentration effort in any city in the US, all high-rise public housing family developments in Chicago have been demolished and are being replaced by mixed-income developments. Advocates for public housing residents have worked hard to negotiate a ‘‘right to return’’ to the new mixed income developments. Yet, as in other cities across the country, the rates of return to the new developments have been very low. Little is understood about residents’ perceptions of their options or the factors that drive their relocation decisions. This article examines relocation decisions using data from in-depth interviews with a panel of relocating residents and a sample of ‘‘returners’’ at three mixed income developments in Chicago. Our findings about relocation decisions include the relevance of attachment to people and place, challenges to the notion of resident ‘‘choice,’’ conceptions about the anticipated benefits of mixed-income communities that refute popular theories about the value of higher-income neighbors, and anticipated trade-offs and risks associated with a move to a mixed income development.
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