Latino groups have won an important victory in their fight for equal access to the Chicago Housing Authority’s subsidized housing programs, though the win could prove more symbolic than real depending on the outcome of a larger conflict in Washington over the future of all subsidized housing.
Fed up that Hispanics constitute only 2 percent of the CHA’s clientele even though they make up 25 percent of the city’s income-eligible population, groups led by Latino United in early 1994 sued the public housing authority and the federal agency that funds it. Their complaint cataloged the many ways in which Spanish-speaking people are discouraged from applying for and getting either public housing or rent subsidies, including CHA’s use of English-only forms and its lack of bilingual staff.
Last May the Department of Housing and Urban Development settled out of court, promising an additional 500 Section 8 rent subsidy certificates to low-income Hispanics seeking to rent privately owned apartments. Now the CHA has settled by agreeing to implement a number of reforms aimed at eliminating any anti-Hispanic bias. There will be Spanish-language forms and telephone instructions, an expanded bilingual staff, new intake offices in two of the city’s largest Hispanic-American neighborhoods and a repositioning of Hispanics on CHA waiting lists that will more fairly reflect their presence in the eligible population and remedy past purgings from the lists of Hispanics who didn’t understand instructions given in English.
Most of the reforms were long overdue, though their long-term efficacy is clouded, to say the least, by the shabby way in which low-income housing programs of all kinds are being treated in the ongoing federal budget battles. For instance, funding for new Section 8 certificates has been eliminated, and the renewal of existing rent subsidies is meeting increased resistance from congressional budget-balancers.
So while it’s good news that low-income Hispanics will get their fair share, it remains to be seen whether that share will come close to meeting the need.
![Volunteers who have been providing care packages and assisting migrants off of buses and onto trains at Wilmette’s Metra Station urged the Wilmette Village Board to not follow neighboring communities by adopting a busing ordinance during Wednesday night’s meeting. Despite concerns, trustees voted unanimously to limit unscheduled bus drop-offs to weekdays between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Village Manager Michael Braiman, who told Pioneer Press in early January the village had no plans to move forward with busing ordinances, said increased late-night drop-offs have begun to cause concern. According to the village, 68 buses with approximately 2,700 people have arrived […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PPN-L-WLM-busingordinance-050224-01.jpg?w=467 "Volunteers who have been providing care packages and assisting migrants off of buses and onto trains at Wilmette’s Metra Station urged the Wilmette Village Board to not follow neighboring communities by adopting a busing ordinance during Wednesday night’s meeting. Despite concerns, trustees voted unanimously to limit unscheduled bus drop-offs to weekdays between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Village Manager Michael Braiman, who told Pioneer Press in early January the village had no plans to move forward with busing ordinances, said increased late-night drop-offs have begun to cause concern. According to the village, 68 buses with approximately 2,700 people have arrived […]")
