CAT Tracks for April 12, 2017 FAIR & AFFORDABLE HOUSING: THE CAIRO EXPERIENCE

A Google search for other than local coverage of the current housing crisis in Cairo produced this 28-page history lesson from 1982.

An excerpt beginning on Page 19:

"Apart from a few exceptional older homes and the houses later constructed by the Egyptian Housing Development Corporation, the best housing in Cairo for low-income persons was the public housing administered by the County Housing Authority. Cairo had two large multi-family projects which had been built in the 1940s and several smaller projects built for elderly persons. When the family projects were built in the 1940s, the federal government directed that they be segregated and specified different standards of quality for the white and black projects. Pyramid Court, the black project, had approximately 237 units, and. Elmwood Place, the white project, had 159. The Authority continued to operate these projects on a segregated basis even after H.U.D. changed its policies in 1966 to specifically forbid segregation in public housing. Neither H.U.D. nor the State of Illinois, whose laws also forbade segregated public housing, intervened.

In 1969, the Lawyer's Committee filed suit against the Authority to end segregation in its various projects. Four years later, the Justice Department filed its own suit to end the segregation. The two suits were consolidated and a consent decree entered in October 1974. The decree forbade the Authority from segregating tenants on the basis of race and required it to take some modest steps to integrate the projects..."

CONCLUSION

"When the Lawyer's Committee arrived in Cairo in 1969, the community was being destroyed by racism and violence. The Committee was able to channel the grievances of black citizens into the courts. For those who believe that litigation is an effective alternative to street fighting, the strategy of the Lawyer's Committee must be regarded as a success. The lawsuits initiated by the Lawyer's Committee, and its successor, the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, largely achieved the limited goals sought.

This is not to say that all is well today in Cairo—the community continues to contend with the twin legacies of poverty and racism. Though the lawsuits have not reversed economic stagnation in the community,144 they have established the framework for an ongoing dialogue. If this dialogue continues and if the community can forget old antagonisms, the future need not be as bleak as past events would seem to portend.

Lawsuits have made a difference in Cairo. They have not produced a color-blind society, but they have helped blacks participate equally in society. Those who would disparage "judicial activism" or the ability of law to effect social change only need look to Cairo and consider the alternatives."