The Gautreaux public housing desegregation lawsuit has helped change the face of public housing in Chicago, as well as public housing law and policy, and has been responsible for the development of some of the nation's more innovative housing programs.
An End to Racial Discrimination in Public Housing
Gautreaux court orders forced CHA to abandon its discriminatory tenant assignment plan, which sent black public housing residents to buildings in poor black neighborhoods and white residents to buildings in white neighborhoods.
An End to Public Housing High-Rises
Gautreaux orders forbid the construction of any more high-rise public housing buildings for non-elderly families. These buildings were difficult to maintain, nearly impossible to secure and disastrous places to raise children.
An End to Backroom Political Dealing
Gautreaux put an end to the agreement between CHA and the City Council that gave aldermen veto power over the construction of public housing in their wards. Under that agreement, more than 99 percent of public housing for families in Chicago was built in poor, black neighborhoods.
Expanded Housing Opportunities For Public Housing Families
Through the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program, more than 25,000 people eligible for public housing moved to neighborhoods that offered them improved life opportunities. The Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program was the nation's first housing mobility program, helping families to move from poor, segregated neighborhoods to racially and economically diverse communities.
In 1994, inspired by the success of the Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program, the U.S. Congress created the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) demonstration program. MTO helps public housing families in five cities move to low poverty neighborhoods.
Through the Gautreaux scattered site public housing program, nearly 2,000 public housing units were constructed in more than 57 diverse neighborhoods throughout the city.
Mixed-Income Communities
Though Gautreaux generally restricts the construction of new public housing in segregated neighborhoods, the 1981 consent decree introduced the notion of building public housing in “revitalizing areas” – neighborhoods with a substantial minority population that were undergoing redevelopment sufficient potentially to foster racial integration. During the mid-1990s, the Gautreaux Court authorized the redevelopment of CHA’s Henry Horner Homes and Lakefront Properties into mixed income communities, declaring those communities “revitalizing…such that a responsible forecast of economic integration, with a longer term possibility of racial desegregation, could be made.” These mixed income communities, and the ones more recently authorized by the Court that are being developed through CHA’s Plan for Transformation, include public housing, affordable housing, and market rate options.
Private Management for Public Housing
In 1983, the Gautreaux plaintiffs' advocacy led CHA to experiment with private management of scattered site public housing. Then, in 1991, CHA agreed to transfer management responsibility for all scattered site housing to locally-based private or non-profit management companies. Today, based in part on the success of this pioneering effort in scattered site management, CHA has privatized management of all of its housing developments.
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