Chicago Dream vs. The Chicago Reality_Lauren Figley

Chicago Dream vs. The Chicago Reality Lauren Figley Lyceum 2020: Belt Tightening - Bungalows for the Millennial Family Faculty Advisor: Terry Boling When looking at the Chicago neighborhood of “Greater Grand Crossing,� it appeared that there is more of a problem than just needing millennial family housing. Poverty, crime, and food insecurity levels were very high for adults and children. Why would housing be needed in an area that wasn’t growing but steadily becoming more dangerous to live in? Obviously, this is a much bigger problem than housing alone.

How can architecture help halt the progression of poverty, crime, and food insecurity?

When thinking about how to stop this cycle of unhealthy community living, one thing seemed to make the most sense: instilling healthy ways of living in children by helping their single mothers become financially independent enough to provide a stable home for them. Breaking the cycle by starting with the next generation of children could potentially change the future of Greater Grand Crossing. By providing a healthy, stable environment for the children which would foster the importance of education from a younger age, it could help solve some of the alarming statistics in the area. In addition, showing them how to grow and prepare their own vegetables from the garden could help mend the food insecurity. I began doing research on transitional and supportive housing throughout the United States and specifically Chicago. Many programs exist to help support women in need which include assistance in setting up job interviews and savings accounts, the purchasing of groceries, and paying for rent. A lot of these programs also run monthly/weekly workshops on improved parenting or budgeting.

Transitional housing, or temporary supportive housing, would be an essential fit for this neighborhood.

The home will feature four units with three-bedroom/one-bathroom apartments that share a living room, kitchen, and a community room. These common areas in the home will foster the ideas of the program: supporting and educating the children. To combat food insecurity, a communal rooftop garden would be planted which would be taken care of by the mothers and children. Each of the apartments will have access to a balcony that connects to the shared rooftop garden.