* Molly Parker at the Southern Illinoisan and ProPublica Illinois…
Midday on July 4, Bria Embrey held her 7-month-old son in her arms as she talked to a police officer patrolling the public housing complex where she lives. In the middle of the conversation, the baby’s breathing became labored. With each desperate gasp, Embrey could see the outline of his rib cage.
The police officer called for help, and the baby was taken by ambulance to nearby OSF Saint Francis Medical Center. He spent five days in the intensive care unit as doctors worked their way toward a diagnosis of asthma.
A doctor wanted to know if Embrey had smoked in front of her children. No, she assured him. Then Embrey mentioned the mold and roaches inside her public housing apartment at Taft Homes, which is owned and managed by the Peoria Housing Authority.
When the hospital discharged the child, the doctor instructed Embrey to call Peoria’s code enforcement office and report the conditions in her apartment.
Though Embrey did as instructed, these problems have been documented for years — and little has changed.
Taft Homes has failed three of its five most recent inspections by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Peoria Housing Authority has delayed major repairs at the property even as it has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars over more than a decade to consultants and developers for plans that have yet to materialize, records and interviews reveal.
* As the article states, instead of putting adequate resources into fixing these homes, Peoria has diverted large sums for plans that never came to fruition…
In May 2009, the Peoria Journal Star reported that housing officials planned to hold off on spending a portion of $4.3 million in federal funds earmarked for repairs at Taft and instead direct the money into a redevelopment plan. “We don’t want to spend funds on siding and doors on a development that may not be there in a few years,” the then-director told the paper.
In 2011, a consultant issued a report on the housing authority’s behalf, suggesting that rebuilding Taft Homes as a mixed-income community at its current location near downtown represented a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to reimagine the apartment complex and neighborhood.
Instead, two years later, housing authority officials began exploring the possibility of leveling Taft Homes and leasing or selling the land to support the development of new, smaller apartment complexes throughout the city, with an aim, they said, of better integrating affordable housing into established neighborhoods. Meanwhile, others were eyeing the riverfront property where Taft sits for potential development.
As the housing authority held community meetings in 2014 to gather feedback on the relocation plan, Peoria homeowners by the hundreds, most of them white, packed meetings and voiced strong opposition. Over the months and years that followed, several different plans were created and ultimately abandoned.
Now, more than a decade later, families continue to live in unsafe conditions at Taft Homes. In 2018, the housing authority quietly settled with an Ohio-based developer for more than $500,000 over its dashed redevelopment plan, audit records show. With HUD’s blessing, the company was paid from federal funds awarded to the housing authority to help the city build replacement housing.
* This is a problem throughout the state…
Peoria’s case is extreme. But in many ways, the Taft Homes exemplifies the plight of publicly subsidized housing throughout Illinois. From Chicago to Peoria to Carbondale, some apartments for the state’s lowest-income families are deteriorating at a time when the need for them is rising. […]
Our new analysis shows that problems are widespread across the state of Illinois.
Illinois’ HUD inspection failure rate is among the worst in the nation for the two types of properties that the department funds and inspects: apartments owned by public housing authorities and complexes run by for-profit or nonprofit owners under contract with HUD to house low-income people. (Look up properties in your area using ProPublica’s newly updated HUD Inspect tool.)
- Waffle fries. - Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 11:51 am:
Addressing social determinants of health and adequately funding social services has never risen to the same priority level as education and corporate healthcare in the General Assembly.
- Soccermom - Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 11:53 am:
Molly Parker is such a good reporter. Big fan.
- SpfdNewb - Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 11:54 am:
I think it is telling that this post has been up for about an hour, yet not one person has commented. But as soon as a post about pensions or taxes comes up, 40+ comments full of logical fallacies, bad faith arguments, and factual rebuttals are up within 30 minutes. SMH.
- SpfdNewb - Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 11:56 am:
Ok, nvm. Only two comments before mine and only one actually calls out the General Assembly. Waffle fries, you are 100% correct.
- Gmma - Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 11:56 am:
Living in Peoria, its been interesting to see the local responses to this article and to the rebuilding of this complex. MANY people believe that they should not be rebuilt, that “these people” deserve to live in substandard housing. This attitude has contributed to worsening housing conditions in Peoria. Disgusting.
- NIU Grad - Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 12:02 pm:
The state needs to play a stronger role here, especially because Carson’s work at HUD will neuter the agency for years to come (even with a liberal president, it will not be easy to undo this administration’s damage). These municipalities have proven that they cannot be trusted to manage this themselves.
I wonder if the role of the Illinois Housing Development Authority needs to be expanded?
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 12:26 pm:
At some point a building is past its useful life. The idea of selling premium property to rebuild newer and smaller homes scattered throughout the community was a good one. It’s too bad Peoria citizens opposed this plan.
- Jimbo26 - Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 12:50 pm:
I wonder how a Director on contract who is working full time at Springfield Housing can give Peoria enough time to solve these problems.
- Southern Illinois Mayor - Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 1:14 pm:
I had a friend that was in the army during the 90s, he told me they called Christiane Amanpour the angel of death because when she showed up somewhere something bad was getting ready to happen. I have to assume housing authority people feel the same way about Parker. Good for her, she is top notch and will continue fighting for what’s right. This is a good example of why we need newspapers.
- NoGifts - Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 1:24 pm:
Minimum fix leaking roofs, windows, and plumbing. That will fix the mold problem and must be done. Any building will need this maintenance, even new ones.
- Generic Drone - Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 2:24 pm:
And is some tiwns, section 8 houses are being built brand new. So it depends where you live.
- Froganon - Wednesday, Dec 18, 19 @ 2:37 pm:
What a disgusting situation. Generations of kids born into housing that permanently damages their health paid for with our tax dollars. Housing vouchers for safe, appropriately located housing should be issued by next week. Hotels will do if necessary. Someone with a minamal level of competence must take this out of Proria’s hands asap. Clearly, the City is not adequate to the task. Priority One, get every resideng into clean, safe housing. Priority Two, demolish and rebuild for these residents - no luxury units until each and every existing resident is housed in clean, safe, permanent housing.
- SOIL M - Thursday, Dec 19, 19 @ 7:11 am:
I have had the opportunity to speak with Molly on several occasions over the last few years, and have to say she is not only an exceptional reporter, but an exceptional person as well. Its good to see that the work she did exposing the conditions and the corruption that permeated the Alexander County Housing Authority is continuing to expose the same conditions across the State.
The sad thing is, until we address the root problem that is the common denominator in everyone of these Housing Projects, the conditions will stay the same.