Many of the barriers erected by elected officials and civic leaders beginning in the 1930s to keep Black, Latino and White Chicagoans from living, working and playing in the same neighborhoods remain unchanged nearly a century later, according to a study.
The treasurer’s most powerful tool to return those properties, known as “distressed” by government agencies, to productive use and generate tax revenue “has done little to halt the downward trajectory fueled by the government-sanctioned racism and other discriminatory practices,” according to the study, authored by Hal Dardick, director of research affairs for the treasurer’s office and a former Chicago Tribune reporter.
The treasurer’s study mapped 41,450 properties considered distressed by the treasurer’s office, city of Chicago or the Cook County Land Bank in 2022 and found that nearly 63% of those properties were included on maps created in 1940 by the federal government in an effort to boost home ownership by encouraging banks to make mortgage loans — but only in places where White Chicagoans live.
Those maps also distorted Chicago’s real-estate market, making it possible for unscrupulous property owners to exploit Black residents eager to get their share of the American dream through contract-buying schemes, which they were falsely told would allow them to own home and build generational wealth, in areas covered by racially restrictive covenants.
“One example of that continued decay can be found on a single redlined block in North Lawndale, where one in four properties became vacant lots between 1938 and 1973 — before doubling to one in two, where it remains today,” according to the study.“The blight harms neighborhoods already facing entrenched poverty, rampant crime and dwindling populations,” according to the study. “Concentrations of vacant lots and abandoned properties exacerbate crime issues and lead to lower property values.
“The scavenger sale is mostly a symptom of the problem,” Dardick said. “We knew that it wasn’t working, but we didn’t know the cause. You have to know how you got there to try to address the problem.” However, few bids result in a final sale, and the bulk of the properties remain eyesores and magnets for crime, according to the study.
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