Public Housing Residents Pushed Out Again

Another Cabrini-Green High-Rise Set To Come Down
Residents At 1230 N. Larrabee St. Given Eviction Notices
CHICAGO (CBS) ― Original

The Chicago Housing Authority has sent out eviction notices to residents of one of the last remaining high-rises in the Cabrini-Green development.

The building at 1230 N. Larrabee St. has 134 units, but only 31 families still live there. They all received 30-day eviction notices Tuesday.

CHA Chief Executive Officer Lewis A. Jordan said the decision to close the Near North Side building -- a moved deemed an "emergency closure" -- was spurred by increasing crime and low occupancy.

"First and foremost, our job is to put people in better and safer housing," Jordan said in a statement. "We can no longer tolerate seeing good people live in deteriorating and unsafe conditions. . . . The families there are at great risk."

The 48-year-old building, nicknamed "The Himalaya," is one of only a handful of high-rises remaining in the development, which once sprawled from Evergreen Avenue on the north to Chicago Avenue on the south, and from Orleans Street on the east to Halsted Street on the west.

The Larrabee Street building was one of eight high-rise buildings that once made up the William Green Homes, the portion of Cabrini-Green north of Division Street. Now, it is only one of two Green Homes buildings remaining; the other is at 1230 N. Burling St.

Two red brick mid-rises south of Division Street are also still standing. The red high- and mid-rise Cabrini buildings were constructed in 1958, and demolition of those buildings has been underway since 1995.

Since demolition first began, mixed-income developments have risen around the development, which abuts the wealthy Lincoln Park, Old Town and River North neighborhoods.

The Cabrini rowhouses, which date from 1942, are not scheduled for demolition.

The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.