East Chicago families being relocated due to high lead, arsenic levels at Superfund site
Lethette Howard remembered growing up in Chicago at a time children could go out and play without parents worrying.
Now, Howard said life in her hometown has changed. The violence has gotten so bad that families aren't safe, Howard said, and she has no plans to return.
“It's just not a good place for kids to grow up in,” Howard said.
Unfortunately, the letter Howard received Tuesday could force her from her home in theWest Calumet Housing Complex of East Chicago, Ind., to the city she pledged her family wouldn't live.
“I just don't want to go to Chicago,” Howard said. “I'm just trying to stay in Indiana so my kids can go to school.”
Howard and other West Calumet residents received notice Tuesday that they must vacate their homes in 10 days and were given the addresses of where they'd be transferred. As of Wednesday, 67 families still live at West Calumet, according to numbers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Like Howard, many residents who want to stay in Indiana are set to be moved to available units in Chicago. For them, Chicago is not an option.
“A lot of people are upset about this,” Howard said.
Resident Detria Turner, who moved from Chicago to East Chicago, said she has two children who are still in school and her kids are comfortable in their schools. Turner said she doesn't understand why she'd pull them out of school with two months left in the year.
“We as adults, we know how to adapt,” Turner said. “Kids don't.”
Turner said she's raised her kids to avoid drugs, gangs and trouble, so she doesn't want to go to Chicago.
“I'm mad. I'm frustrated,” Turner said. “Now, they're trying to send me back to Chicago.
“Don't just throw us anywhere. I'm not going back to Chicago.”
HUD gave its approval for the East Chicago Housing Authority to begin emergency relocation by the end of March of the remaining families because of the high levels of lead and arsenic contamination at the complex, which is within the USS Lead Superfund site.
Officials agreed that the housing authority lacks the ability to keep the complex secure as residents move out, according to HUD, and that an adequate number of housing units were available to move people out of West Calumet.
The approval would give the East Chicago Housing Authority the ability to transfer West Calumet residents to other properties in East Chicago, Chicago and suburban Cook County, starting April 1, according to HUD officials.
Emily Coffey, of the Shriver Center, said HUD and the East Chicago Housing Authority should give residents more time to find new housing and allow them to stay until the end of the school year. She said moving residents out now will be difficult for them.
Coffey said the Shriver Center was told families being moved to Chicago were already planning to transfer to those housing authorities.
“That's not what happened,” Coffey said.
HUD said after March 31, the East Chicago Housing Authority will begin moving residents to their new units. Contractors will move people's belongings the week of April 3.
The West Calumet Housing Complex will be vacated by the end of the first week in April.
“It is not going to result in good outcomes for families,” Coffey said.
Advocates criticized the emergency relocations as it fails to consider the needs of the West Calumet residents, whether that's having kids in school for another two months, the potential loss of jobs and how the continuity of state services will be preserved.
“It's going to be a nightmare for the families,” Coffey said.
Howard has two children in school and a job in East Chicago. If she has to move to Chicago, that means having to find a way to get back and forth to East Chicago, Howard said, and she doesn't have a car, like many other West Calumet residents.
If she's forced to move to Chicago, Howard said she's not sure she'll be able to get her kids enrolled in a new school.
“They're not thinking about anything like that,” Howard said.
HUD and the Shriver Center, which helped a group of residents file a complaint last year about the relocation process, reached an agreement in November to make it easier for the people in West Calumet to move in a more organized and safer way.
HUD agreed to ensure all eligible residents of the West Calumet Housing Complex have access to relocation benefits, including housing vouchers, waiving any rent owed by residents from July 22 to March 31 or until their tenancy ends, and reimbursing rent paid for November.
Ever since that agreement took effect, residents have searched for new housing, many of them not being able to find a unit that accepts vouchers.
“We have been looking for places,” said resident Akeeshea Daniels. She said he's had trouble securing a new place because of paperwork delays.
“A lot of us have been doing the work,” Daniels said.
Howard said she's still looking for a place to move in Indiana and hopes to find something before the emergency transfer.
“I just haven't given up,” Howard said. “I just have to do what I have to do as a parent.”
Resident Tara Adams said she found a letter taped to her door telling her she'd be moved to a unit in Chicago. Adams said she has kids in school and is one class away from finishing her master's degree.
“I don't want to go to downtown Chicago,” Adams said. “I'm not putting my children in a situation where they can be harmed.”
Adams said since day one, she's been out working to find a place to move and working with other residents at the complex. She said no one is going to force her to move somewhere she doesn't want to live.
“It's time to rumble,” Adams said. “We're not going.”
The Rev. Cheryl Rivera said people must pressure public officials to block the emergency relocation and tell them the community is not pleaded with the decisions of HUD and the East Chicago Housing Authority.
“This is a real crisis that we have here,” Rivera said. “And it's getting ready to be a real tragedy.”
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