Housing Discrimination in Chicago: A History of Injustice Discrimination throughout the United States has formed from historical events in the country’s history such as slavery and segregation. Segregation is a system that keeps different groups separate from each other. Discrimination is defined as treating a person or particular group of people differently (Cambridge Dictionary). Discrimination in this country has been alive for centuries, especially in cities such as Chicago, IL. Housing discrimination has been a major issue in Chicago since the late 1800s. Housing discrimination is unjust and should not be tolerated. Housing discrimination leads to unfair disadvantages for people who experience discrimination.
Discrimination today in Chicago might not be what you would expect when you hear the word “discrimination.” For example, discrimination is not only black versus white people, even though that has been the majority of the city’s history. The city of Chicago has a history of issues such as discrimination, segregation, and racism. Even today our city is segregated by race and class but not by some coincidence or accident. “Blacks in Chicago weren't always severely segregated—it's just been that way for about the last 110 years. As black migration into the city rose modestly around the beginning of the 20th century, the black belt formed on the south side between railroad tracks” (Bogira). Segregation has played a role in our city’s issues today just as discrimination has. Even though these issues of the past have become our issues of today, that hasn’t always been the case. “Chicago had not always been a segregated city. Black Chicagoans traditionally lived on the city’s South Side, with much smaller numbers scattered through parts of the West Side” (Satter 39).
A major issue that has been the offspring of discrimination, segregation, and racism is housing discrimination. Housing discrimination has been the act of landlords and property owners discriminating against people based on the classes of race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion, source of income, and national origin to name some. Today discrimination isn’t blunt as in saying, “You can’t buy this house or work here because you're black.” Discrimination in Chicago today is more “hidden in plain sight.” Either way, people still discriminate in Chicago today. According to JoAnn Newsome of the Commission on Human Relations, “Starting in the late 1990s, people used more subtle or ‘hidden’ ways to discriminate against people and sources of income.” One method was called “steering,” which was steering people away from buying a home in a neighborhood because of their class and even suggesting another property in an under-resourced neighborhood. The other method was by simply saying they did not accept Section 8 or housing vouchers and their units would not be approved by Section 8. The Fair Housing Act is a federal act under the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, which was passed in 1968. According to WBEZ News, Before the Fair Housing Act, racism was open and virulent. “No blacks allowed” signs were common. Today, it is illegal to deny housing based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion, familial status, and disability. Additionally, in Chicago, it is illegal to discriminate against someone for their source of income, such as student loans or Section 8 housing vouchers. People today still use the methods of “steering” and not accepting housing vouchers to discriminate against people in housing, which is illegal.
History shows that discrimination and hate evolved overtime throughout not only the United States but the entire world. People might have their prejudices towards people but when those prejudices turn into unfair acts and racism towards a group of people, that is where discrimination comes into play. “The legacy of segregation has made it difficult for poor black families to gain access to the economic activity in other parts of the city. This segregation has meant that African Americans live near worse educational opportunities and fewer jobs than other people in Chicago.” ("Chicago’s Awful Divide" ). Housing in Chicago in the past was critically impacted by segregation and racism. According to Housing and Race in Chicago: The housing market in Chicago was tight even before the end of World War II when veterans returned in need of housing. African Americans were primarily limited to an area of Chicago known as the “Black Belt,” which was located between 12th and 79th streets and Wentworth and Cottage Grove avenues. Housing discrimination in Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s was blatant but still present. The houses and apartments in the Black Belt were overcrowded and remained under poor conditions. “In an effort to keep the newly arriving African Americans out of their neighborhoods, whites within a residential block formed “restrictive covenants,” legally binding contracts that specified a house’s owner could not rent or sell to black people.” (“Housing and Race in Chicago”). These restrictive covenants were a way of “hidden” housing discrimination. “In the middle decades of the 20th century, southern blacks streamed into Chicago and other northern cities, seeking jobs. Chicago had three kinds of neighborhoods then: white, changing, and black. Or, as white Chicagoans knew them, good, going, and gone” (Bogira). In response to the “Black Belt,” the
Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) started building high rise apartment projects such as the Robert Taylor Homes. “These apartments were inhabited by the poorest of the poor and the quality of life in the CHA quickly deteriorated” (“Housing and Race in Chicago”) . These high rise apartments, such as the Robert Taylor Homes and Cabrini Green, were demolished later on. According to Chicago Magazine, “More than 98 percent of all the family public-housing units built in Chicago between 1950 and the mid‑1960s were built in all-black neighborhoods.” The housing discrimination during the time was discrimination and segregation going hand and hand with each other. From the “Black Belt” to the high rise projects, housing discrimination was going on throughout the 20th century and up until the early 21st century.
Housing discrimination is an unjust act towards people and should not be tolerated. Ta-Nehisi Coates, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, wrote: If you sought to advantage one group of Americans and disadvantage another, you could scarcely choose a more graceful method than housing discrimination. Housing determines access to transportation, green spaces, decent schools, decent food, decent jobs, and decent services. Housing affects your chances of being robbed and shot as well as your chances of being stopped and frisked. And housing discrimination is as quiet as it is deadly. It can be pursued through violence and terrorism, but it doesn't need it. Housing discrimination is hard to detect, hard to prove, and hard to prosecute.
Housing discrimination leads to lack of access to resources and inequality of resources. A method used today by fair housing organizations to crack down on housing discrimination is called “testing”. According to WBEZ News: They send two people, similar except for one detail: to visit the same landlord or housing provider. The volunteers are trained to carefully observe how they're treated and report back. A testing center might send a white man and a black man, a mother and a single woman, a person with a Section 8 housing voucher and a person without. Testing cases can originate in a number of ways. An organization might conduct a random test in a gentrifying neighborhood or they might follow up with a specific complaint. A class people discriminate against is someone’s source of income. “Section 8 is a form of monetary assistance created by Congress to aid low-income families in securing decent housing” (“FindLaw’s Appellate Court of Illinois Case and Opinions”). The Chicago Commission On Human Relations addresses complaints of discrimination and takes the complainant and respondent of the complaint to court. In the housing discrimination case, GODINEZ v. SULLIVAN LACKEY, the complainant claimed to have been discriminated against based on her source of income. This case was one of the earliest cases by the Commission On Human Relations. After reading through this case I learned that, in April of 1999, a woman by the name of Sullivan-Lackey had a Section 8 rental assistance voucher, which required inspection of her residence at the end of her lease. Her residence failed the inspection and she was forced to move in order to keep her vouchers. If she was unable to find a new residence before her vouchers expired, she would lose the rental assistance by Section 8. She found out about a vacant apartment located in the apartment complex where her daughter lived. Sullivan-Lackey and her
daughter met with the property manager to tour and apply for the apartment. She filled out a rental application after viewing the unit and paying $25 for the application fee. The manager looked into her application and saw that she was unemployed; at this point asked how she expected to pay her lease. She answered that she had a Section 8 voucher and he expressed that he didn't accept Section 8 payments since he did not want to be audited. He presented her with a deal where she could have the apartment if she paid $600 every month for rent. However, she didn't agree and did not take the unit. Sullivan-Lackey did not find a residence before the termination of her vouchers, making lose her benefits. Directly after, two fair housing testers called the property owner and manager to ask about housing properties they owned. The two analyzers received information about their property and were educated that they didn't take Section 8 vouchers. The owner and manager have never rented a unit to a tenant who paid rent with Section 8 vouchers. Sullivan-Lackey later filed a complaint with the Commission on Human Relations explaining that the property owner and manager violated the Fair Housing Ordinance by discriminating against her based on her source of income. There was a hearing which resulted in the offenders objecting to the complaint. A consultation officer assigned by the Commission issued a final decision. In July of 2001, the Commission issued its final decision, concluding the evidence showed that the offenders violated the Fair Housing Ordinance by victimizing Sullivan-Lackey. The Commission granted harms totaling $5,610 to Sullivan-Lackey and required a $250 fine against the property owner and manager. This case was one of many cases leading into the future where there were more complaints of housing discrimination were addressed and acted upon. In this specific case, someone was discriminated against for their
source of income and received justice for the matter. Many housing discrimination cases have to deal with discrimination of protected classes such as race, source of income and military status.
On a telephone call with JoAnn Newsome, Director of Human Rights Compliance/Fair Housing at the Chicago Commission On Human Relations, she explained to me that, There are different levels of authority towards discrimination. They are city, county, state, and federal level. The Chicago Fair Housing Ordinance is city level, the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance is county level, the Illinois Humans Rights Act is state, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development is federal level. The major differences between the three are that they all have specific protected classes of people and a certain amount of protected classes. According to the City of Chicago, “Fair housing means the right for a person to live where they choose to, free from discrimination. In the City of Chicago, the law that governs Fair Housing is the Chicago Fair Housing Ordinance (CFHO) enforced by the Chicago Commission on Human Relations” (“City”).
Discrimination and housing discrimination in Chicago is alive and well in our society today. It is and has been an ongoing problem that people face each day of their lives. It is sad that people of a different ethnic group or race cannot live in the same place as other people of different races because of injustice, racism and prejudices, and discrimination, which all serve as factors to keep a certain group of people from living freely. All people should have the right to live where they would like to live just as well as anyone else in this country. Even though some laws have been
made to stand against discrimination and specifically housing discrimination, it will continue to be an issue leading into the future as people continue to face inequality. Housing discrimination is unjust and should not be tolerated. If people cannot afford to live somewhere, they have the right to receive financial support and should not be judged or treated unfairly because of their financial support. In today’s world, we have the power to make changes in society which can impact the future generations of people. Thanks to the people at the Commission On Human Relations, people can get justice for unfair housing discrimination in Chicago.
Works Cited Beryl Satter. “Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America.” Metropolitan Books, 2009, p. 39.
Bogira, Steve. “Separate, Unequal, and Ignored.” Chicago Reader, Chicago Reader, 10 Feb. 2011,
Cambridge Dictionary. “DISCRIMINATION | Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary.” Cambridge.Org, 2019, dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/discrimination. Accessed 5 June 2019.
“Chicago’s Awful Divide.” The Atlantic, The Atlantic, 28 Mar. 2018, . Accessed 7 May 2019.
“City of Chicago :: Fair Housing.” Chicago.Gov, 4 Feb. 2019,.
“Civil Rights Group Finds Housing Discrimination In Chicago.” WBEZ, 9 Jan. 2019, Accessed 16 May 2019.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “This Town Needs a Better Class of Racist.” The Atlantic, The Atlantic, May 2014, . Accessed 4 June 2019.
“FindLaw’s Appellate Court of Illinois Case and Opinions.” Findlaw, 2016,. Accessed 30 May 2019.
“Housing and Race in Chicago.” Chipublib.Org, 2019, www.chipublib.org/housing/. Accessed 7 May 2019.
“How Housing Discrimination Created the Idea of Whiteness.” Chicago Magazine, 2014, Accessed 9 May 2019
Newsome, JoAnn Phone Interview. 31 May. 2019.
“The Test Used To Expose Housing Discrimination And Its Chicago Roots.” WBEZ, 19 Dec. 2018, Accessed 1 June 2019.