They keep talking of tearing down the projects in Chicago, but one thing always comes up. First we must find a new place to relocate these people too.
Not to be too cold hearted but WHY??
If my landlord decided to sell the building, he’d give me a notice and out I’d go.
Why must we relocate these people? Or is it you don’t legally have to it is just good PR.
No on has any guesses
WAG, but the low income housing was probably built in the first place due to a legal requirement. Something that said that a certain proportion of the housing in the area had to be available to low-income families. Tearing down a building and not replacing it would decrease that proportion which would bring them into non-compliance with the law.
Also, I think your landlord analogy is flawed. If your landlord evicts you, in most of the country it’s quite easy to find a new place to live. If you are making so little money that you need to have your housing subsidized, finding that new place will not be as easy, and will probably be impossible. They don’t exist, so they have to be built.
In one new subdivision that my roommate and I moved into, a certain percentage of the new homes had to offered for low-income housing. So rather than bite the money bullet, the developer built cheaper models of homes: 2 rather than 4 level, no garages, etc. I understood the requirement was a Fairfax County, VA, law, since the county in general has a higher per capita income, and officials didn’t want to “evict” lower income families by letting developers only build houses that middle-to-upper income people could afford.
Then in southern Arlington Co., VA, they evicted all the residents of a low-income, run-down apartment village called Arna Valley. (They then let local fire departments practice firefighting by setting them on fire and putting them out.) Finally, the whole area was razed, and brand new apartments and townhouses are being built. Even if Arlington requires that some are for low-income people, there’s the fact that a couple hundred families were bumped to do this. 