Henry Horner Homes was a Chicago Housing Authority

Chicago Housing Authority

The Chicago Housing Authority is a municipal corporation established by the State of Illinois in 1937 with jurisdiction for the administrative oversight of public housing within the City of Chicago...

 (CHA) public housing

Public housing

Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...

 development. The development is located in Chicago's Near West Side

Near West Side, Chicago

The Near West Side, one of the 77 defined community areas of Chicago, is located , adjacent to the downtown central business district . The rich history of the Near West Side of Chicago has its genesis in the Hull House phenomenon...

 at Damen Avenue and Lake Street

Lake Street (Chicago)

Lake Street is an east-west arterial road in Chicago and its suburbs. Part of Lake Street is designated as U.S. Route 20. Lake Street begins in the city of Chicago and travels west and slightly north to the Chicago suburbs. It ends at the eastern terminus of the Elgin Bypass around Elgin, where...

 near the United Center

United Center

The United Center is an indoor sports arena located in Chicago. It is named after its corporate sponsor, United Airlines. The United Center is home to both the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League...

. The homes are named after former Illinois Governor Henry Horner

Henry Horner

Henry Horner was the 28th Governor of Illinois, serving from 1933 to 1940, when he died in office. Horner was the first Jewish governor of Illinois.- Political biography :...

. It is the setting for the documentary film Legacy

Legacy (2000 film)

Legacy is a 2000 documentary film directed by Tod Lending. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.The movie tracks 3 different generations of a family in Chicago that lives in the ghettos. Their lives change, however, after a life-altering event - the murder of a family...

as well as the non-fiction book There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America

There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America

There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America is a 1991 biography by Alex Kotlowitz that describes the experiences of two brothers growing up in Chicago's Henry Horner Homes...

by Alex Kotlowitz

Alex Kotlowitz

-Biography:Kotlowitz received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and is an alumnus of the Ragdale Foundation. He currently lives with his family just outside Chicago in the suburb of Oak Park.-Writing:...

.

History

Henry Horner Homes originally consisted of 16 high-rise buildings along with low-rise buildings (920 units) and was completed in 1957.
The Henry Horner Homes extension was added in 1961, which included 736 multi-story units. The original buildings consisted of two 15-story buildings and eight 7-story buildings, while the extension consisted of four 14-story buildings and two 8-story buildings all together totaling 1656 units.

A redevelopment project, referred to as the Plan for Transformation, is currently in progess to rehabilitate the buildings and create mixed-income housing. The new neighborhood will be called "West Haven". Phase I of the project, which involved the building of 461 replacement housing units, was completed in 2001. Phase II will be worked on in three stages: public housing, affordable housing and market rate housing.

The last high-rise building was demolished in June 2005. The last building in the original projects, a mid-rise, was demolished in 2008.

Problems

Gang activity has plagued the housing development for decades. The gangs, such as the Blackstone Rangers, assert authority over the area and residents are often in the middle of gang warfare and criminal activity.