BPI's public housing work is an outgrowth of its groundbreaking Gautreaux case, in which a federal court determined that the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) had unconstitutionally segregated African American public housing residents and provided an expansive remedy. As counsel for public housing residents in the Gautreaux case, BPI lawyers have worked for over 30 years to break down the racial segregation and economic isolation that produced what may have been the worst public housing system in the nation. Today, BPI promotes both housing mobility and the revitalization of public housing communities.

CHA's $1.5 billion Transformation Plan, begun in 2000, creates the possibility of extending Gautreaux's promise to thousands more families. Under the plan, CHA has pledged to provide 25,000 new or rehabilitated public housing units. While the resulting relocation of thousands of public housing families and re-creation of whole communities are endeavors of enormous proportion, the opportunity to help Chicago's public housing residents on the scale made possible by the Transformation Plan is equally dramatic. BPI is working to protect residents' rights by developing programs that are compassionate and effective in addressing residents' needs and ensuring that new mixed income communities created under the Plan are viable and inclusive.