Facing dire economic times and dwindling resources, more people are not only becoming homeless – they’re then at risk of facing physical assault. State Rep. Thomas Holbrook (D-Bellville) introduced a bill, HB5114, that would create stiffer penalties for offenders who target the homeless, veterans, active duty members and reservists of the Armed Forces. Instead...
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When Elaine Mohamed took her son, Zachary Vanderslice, for his regularly scheduled check-up, doctors found high levels of lead in the then 9-month-old child’s system. Mohamed, who lives in a 1920s property in East Rogers Park, hadn’t noticed any unusual symptoms in Zachary, now 8. She soon learned, however, that her apartment was filled...
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Access Living, governed and staffed by people with disabilities, is Chicago’s only center for independent living that focuses on full equality, inclusion and empowerment of all people with disabilities. On Thursday, Feb. 11, Access Living will host a Historic Six-City Listening Tour organized by the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy...
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Residents of the Lathrop Homes public housing project ramped up their campaign to save the development on Wednesday, with leaders announcing that talks between a residents’ committee and the Chicago Housing Authority have come to a standstill. Robert Davidson, president of the Lathrop Homes Local Advisory Council, said the CHA wants to move forward...
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Police and business owners in Uptown recently joined forces to develop a strategy to clean up a two-block stretch of puddles of urine, empty beer bottles and unsavory characters on Clifton Avenue, more commonly known as “Blood Alley.” The focus of last week’s meeting at Harry S. Truman College was the ongoing problems of...
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Teen Living Programs, a Chicago non-profit that provides housing and services to youth who are homeless, is looking for a few good “friends” to volunteer this holiday season. But unlike most charities that ask volunteers to spend a few hours at a shelter wrapping gifts or serving turkey and stuffing, Teen Living is asking...
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A barren Ravenswood parking lot may soon be home to a grocery store, parking garage, condo complex and more — if the developer’s “plan B” manages to appease the community that gave a cold shoulder to his first attempt earlier this year. The “Ravenswood Station” mixed-use development would be built on a now-vacant Sears parking...
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As they pick up the pieces of their dashed Olympic dreams, city officials this week are hashing out a “plan B” for a piece of land on the Near South Side that they once hoped would be home to a bustling Olympic Village. The home of the now-shuttered Michael Reese Hospital campus, located on...
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By Lorraine Swanson, Editor, Lake Effect News In a packed auditorium at Swedish Covenant Hospital, a North Side audience snacked on chocolate Macadamia nut cookies donated by a local Costco and got a few lessons in gangbanging. Much of the information presented at last week’s community gang awareness seminar hosted by Cook County State’s...
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By Dimitrios Kalantzis, Contributing Editor, Lake Effect News Last month the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University released a study, which found a significant increase in Chicago rental vacancies, from 5 to 5.7 percent in the last year. Such findings seem intuitive. As the Chicago region’s unemployment rate rose to double digits throughout the...
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