Currently just 144 Lathrop units are occupied. But remaining residents and allied neighborhood groups have continued to challenge the CHA’s redevelopment plans, drawing public attention to the importance of preserving the large stock of family-friendly public housing units in an integrated neighborhood with ample job opportunities, access to transportation, and good schools.
Another point of concern is the possibility that project-based vouchers—a five-to-20 year contract between a private owner and a housing authority to maintain a privately owned unit as public housing—will make up the bulk of the replacement units. The court order specifies that to count as a replacement unit the contract must be made for 20 years; if the CHA enters into a project-based voucher contract for, say, ten years, then the unit only counts as half of a replacement. It remains to be seen whether the court order will lead to the creation of lots of short-term affordable housing units, or provide housing approaching the long-term affordability of true public housing units.
Update, December 27, 11:53 AM:
