On the Verge of Homelessness: Historical and Sociological Cross Examination of Public Housing Residents and the Unhoused Before and After the Chicago Housing Authority's Plan for Transformation

The following accumulated work is an attempt to combine historical and sociological study of the unhoused and the residents of public housing in Chicago within the context of an increasingly diminished market for affordable housing throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Discussions of these two segments of low-income city residents are often seen as separate because of their possession or lack thereof of housing. This difference is an understandable epistemological consideration as to why the study of these two groups are kept separate. However, the circumstances of Chicago's redevelopment which had a direct affect on the contraction of the affordable housing market and the subsequent exacerbation of housing insecurity in Chicago during this time directly implicates both the population of unhoused people and public housing residents. The effects on both populations are evidenced by a comparative examination of two alternative media sources, Homeward Bound and the Residents' Journal, which acted as outlets for activists for the unhoused and public housing residents in Chicago respectively. Through this examination, and with partnered consideration of mainstream Chicago news, the story of the modern affordability crisis in Chicago is informed by looking at two populations affected by the peripherization of poverty from the center of the city. The combined study of homelessness and public housing with its implicit considerations, not limited to the idea that a government ought to provide housing for its population, substantiates further inquiry into comparative qualitative studies of the unhoused and public housing residents and encourages new conversations on housing as a human right.