According to the Sun-Times:
Crime was worse in neighborhoods where former Chicago Housing Authority residents used vouchers to move into private apartments, a new study found.
From 2000 to 2008, violent crime was 21 percent higher in neighborhoods with high concentrations of voucher-holding former CHA residents — when compared to similar neighborhoods without them, the Washington-based Urban Institute found. Property crime also would have been lower without relocated residents in those neighborhoods, the study said.
via Chicago Sun-Times.
This is rather indicting. Of course, the most powerful quote comes at the end of the story:
Some communities are not very happy to have them. Chatham, where generations of African-American teachers, lawyers and other professionals have called home, has seen an influx of former CHA residents with vouchers — about 120 of them.
“It has been disastrous for Chatham,” said Keith Tate, president of Chatham-Avalon Park Community Association.
“Never did we see individuals sitting on their cars drinking 40-ounce bottles of beer.”
Tate said the community is experiencing a clash between longtime residents with a strong work ethic and former CHA residents on the dole.
“We have opened our arms to accept anyone into our community,” Tate said. “But it has caused a tremendous problem. We have had more burglaries than normal, more shootings. . . . We’re fighting on all fronts now to satisfy the needs of the long-term residents and the new residents who just moved here.”
Yikes!