You a City like its people has its generations when it grows old a new city must take its place a Grown up fast spreading over what seemed a century ago an endless plane In the process Chicago produced the world's first skyscraper and some of its finest architecture But the city grew without a comprehensive plan Inevitably some of it grew chaotically.
It is not weathered well Today the endless plane is gone.
We must build a new city on top of the old Today we have and have to have a comprehensive plan for the city of Chicago Taking into account the needs of all the people to have a decent place to live The need for living space for convenient transportation systems and commercial centers for playgrounds and schools for parks grass and trees All the elements that make the city a good place to live The comprehensive plan designates 47 areas in Chicago for renewal 25 of these have been completed The city also is saving old buildings that are still sound and useful Maintaining the character of a neighborhood and renewing it where that is possible But We are tearing down what stands in the way of a better city Some buildings must go simply because they occupy space needed for something else But for the most part, it's the worn -out areas of the city that are making way for the new Places that are no longer habitable Places beyond repair Each year 3 ,000 families are displaced by urban renewal This is only 1 .7 % of the 175 ,000 Chicagoans who move in a year Still, those displaced rarely find it easy This film is about some of those people Real people who will tell the story in their own way I've lived here so many years it's just kind of hard to tear up the roots I know the children want to move, but now I couldn't take their part.
I'm just giving you my opinion Yes, I'll be glad to move.
I just don't want to move anywhere I don't want to be thrown away regardless to how old I am You'll move a whole lot more people mister before you move me, believe me Me after 72 years? An old man after 76? Hey, they're very nice, you know Where are we gonna go? Gonna find me a place? Well, the city is going to help find a place That is the job of the relocation worker The Department of Urban Renewal has 125 such people working every day to help families from renewal areas get relocated in good housing Betty Stewart is one of those relocation workers How did it get this way? There are more good people than bad people living in these run down buildings And yet they have to suffer the In sanitary conditions, the unsafe conditions, the fires, all the havoc that goes with this kind of living Take the money! What do you want? Mrs.
Bay, I'm in the store for urban renewal relocation As you know, I'm going to have to move and I think I'll be able to help you You'll be the first one Well, we have some things to talk about that I'm sure will make it much easier for you Won't you let me come in and explain it to you? Alright, come on in Thank you Turn that television down Jane, this is Mrs.
Stewart Good morning Mrs.
Stewart, how are you? Fine, thank you.
I'm from Urban Renewal Relocation Division Yes, ma 'am And as I explained to Mrs.
Bay, I'm here to help you find a place to move Uh -huh You know, the city has purchased this building from the owner Yes, ma 'am, we knew that.
When we rented the place, the guy told us that the building would be torn down Well, this is correct and as I said, I'm here to help you find another place and a good place We have time on our side.
We have time to prepare for this move We'll make it as easy as we possibly can You mean with 12 children, you can make it easy? You have 12 children? Yes, I have Well, needless to say, this is a problem, but we're going to do it Well, that would be better than we have given.
We've been searching for 10 years Well, it's our job to look for housing on a daily basis, including housing for families like yourself, large families Uh, but let's not go into that right now.
May I take a look at your apartment? The first visit to a family by a relocation worker is a sort of fact -finding mission Usually it takes time for all the families in a building to relocate, and usually the building is in pretty bad shape The relocation worker checks for dangerous conditions which the city, as new temporary landlord, must take care of The city will patch up plumbing and wiring, board up windows and vacant apartments to discourage vandalism Make sure there's enough heat and so forth, whatever is needed to make the place as livable as possible until all the tenants are out The worker must know whether there are any special problems, like 12 children, that will affect the effort to find a new place to live What sort of resources does the family have for acquiring new housing? What kind of housing do they want? Can they afford it? In general, a history of each family and its needs We moved in this place here because at least it had heat.
Where we moved from, from out on Green Street, we had no heat We moved here in the dead of the wintertime just before the big snowstorm, and we were lucky to get in here and find someplace to keep warm There are 12 children in the Bay family.
According to Mrs.
Bay, they've moved 25 or 30 times in the last 10 years Have we moved them before? According to Mrs.
Bay, no.
Mr.
Bay is a skilled worker.
He's a carpolster by trade and a very good provider, it seems After Betty Stewart finds out what the situation is, she reports it to her supervisor, Archie Hernandez Mr.
Hernandez's job is to know what's needed, make sure it gets done, and to coordinate the special services of the division Now, Mr.
and Mrs.
Whitehall, we found a unit for them.
They accepted it.
They were to go and sign the lease tomorrow However, Mr.
Whitehall has been fired for alcoholism A great deal of the relocation division's time is absorbed by problem families like the Whitehalls The division works closely with other public and private agencies to help such families, providing public assistance, job training and placement, health care and other services Relocation for many families has meant not only better housing, but a better life Will do Fine, thank you.
Ray, how is your workload coming along? Pretty well.
I want to discuss a few of the problems I encountered when I was in the field yesterday Go ahead Remember the daughter, the younger daughter Ray Cheris, like Betty Stewart or any relocation worker, must work with families with problems However, the main job and the first duty of the division is to find good housing for every family that moves For the average families that need nothing more than a good place to live And remember the Orton's that we're moving, well I went to see them and they've lived in this place, you know, for 13 years And they're distressed and distraught about moving from this place, although it is most inadequate They find it home and dislike moving There is a good income and a steady income.
Mr.
Orton's worked for 21 years at the same place Attention please, last call for the Burlington Railroad Hello, morning Zephyr, train number 21 is now loading through gate number 12, last call Harvey Orton came back from World War II and went to work at Union Station He's worked there ever since For the last 13 years, he and his wife Elizabeth have lived in a studio apartment in the Norwell building at North Avenue and Wells Now the building's coming down and finding a place for the Orton's is Ray Cheris' responsibility Hello, this is Mrs.
Cheris, the Department of Urban Renewal Oh, I called you about an apartment that you had advertised in the paper, I'm interested in it for one of our channels Betty Stewart, meanwhile, is house hunting for the Bay family The policy of the relocation division is to offer families as many choices as possible This means some hard searching because there's only so much housing available for families on limited income And not any place will do Where people move is their own decision But if the city is to assist in that move, the new place must measure up to the city building codes And it must cost no more than 25 % of a tenant's income Frequently, the greatest service the relocation division can perform is simply to inform people of the choices open to them Families are advised that they have first priority on FHA loans and public housing if they want it And they have the energies of the department's relocation workers to help them find the kind of place they want All their married lives, Mr.
and Mrs.
Bay had wanted to buy a house, but thought it beyond their means Mrs.
Bay fell in love with this house, and with the help of an FHA insured loan, they were able to buy it Harvey and Elizabeth Orton, however, are confirmed apartment dwellers I'm the trees beautiful Harvey, she's the tree beautiful And this is your apartment and this is your balcony How nice You know, this is, I told you, was a rehabilitated building This building was rehabilitated with a low interest government insured loan for moderate income families The Ortons looked at several places, but liked this one the best They signed a lease and got ready to move The Department of Urban Renewal pays for moving expenses up to a maximum of $200 It will pay the mover directly if the family chooses a mover as the Ortons have Or it will pay a flat fee per room of furniture The Bays decided to do their own moving After moving 30 times in the past 10 years, sometimes in the dead of winter, this move was a picnic Even the Bay's dog, McCloud, came along for the ride Please sit down if you can find a spot Oh, that's not so difficult You gonna play us a tune Harvey? I don't believe so, Nanny Do you think you're gonna be happy here? Oh, we like it.
It's clean, it's been redecorated, the plumbing is good, in good condition And there's a nice fridge there, the stove works But the gas man and the telephone man were here and we missed them So I don't know about the gas When did the gas man say he was going to get the gas on for you? He said he'd be back on the 28th, that's three days away Well, I'll call the office and see if our management aide can get that gas installed for you before the weekend You know, one has to eat if he can You've got to have coffee and so forth, you know How do you like this place, Mr.
Orton? Oh, it's a big difference over the old place There's more room here, it's quieter And what bugged me about the old place was the elevator would go on and blink And you had to walk up four floors Here on the second floor it's easier to walk up and down There's no elevator to worry about here It's very nice and quiet And the rent, not much more than what we paid down there Of course we had to pay our own utilities here, but it's worth it, it's quieter It's a nice courtyard and there's more room, so we're happy Hi, Mrs.
Day, how are you? Come on in and take a look at the place Oh, I'd love to, thank you Do you have any problems yet? No, except it'll look better after we get furniture in it But I'm pretty proud of it anyway I would imagine it's lovely and the lawn is beautiful Boy, you should see the back one It's nice, have all kind of flowers out there The only thought I find in the backyard though is the bees Oh, the bees, you don't have a beehive No, I don't imagine so Very good, I think that's a little better than those other little things that crawl around, don't you? Oh, that's better than the other place The Bay's new house is lovely A good kitchen, a bathroom where the plumbing really works The house is the kind of house we dream about for most of our families The recreational possibilities in the basement, for example The children being able to entertain in the basement The aesthetic part particularly appeals to me as it appeals to Mrs.
Bay The grass, the trees, the flowers, the ability to go outside and do something So the children are not underfoot most of the time The Bay's have always dreamed of a house They just didn't know the formal steps to take All of our families do not move to standard beautiful places They sometimes move from substandard to nice places Or maybe not so nice because there isn't this grass, this outside area, all the other things the Bay's have There are times when the city is unable to meet all of its relocation standards It happened, for example, when fire drove the tenants from this building on South Kimbart Street Among them, a mother of four who receives aid to defend the children The relocation division found another apartment within three days But it is not adequate to this woman's needs It is difficult when there is no father in the home and no money The city, in this case, paid the two months' advance rent required by the landlord It arranged to move whatever furnishing survived the fire and replaced some that were lost, including beds for the children But the apartment is small The family had six rooms in the old place Here there are only four The dining room had to be converted into this second bedroom to make enough sleeping space for all The mother, her two daughters, and the two sons The family is crowded here However, the building is basically sound The mother has told her relocation worker that she does like the new neighborhood That she's grateful to have found a place so soon after the fire And she will make do until something better can be found for her as it has been for others What? What? What? Andrew Chitwood, Jr.
and his family moved into public housing at 2745 West 25th Street It's not fancy, but they like it My children got plenty of places to play It's a real convenient neighborhood here We all are in better health here And it's a nicer place And we have four bedrooms for the children Which we were living in furnished apartments We had lots of bugs and so on and so forth It was really run down building We didn't have no place to go Didn't know anybody that could help us So this lady from the renewal service came along Took the application for the project And there she went to work on it Finally got us in And with the help of the urban renewal service It's really been good to us Mrs.
Chur has just made several trips and called us different times In finding out if we were satisfied or had the right kind of housing Andrew Chitwood came to Chicago from Tennessee And landed a job as a punch press operator Things went pretty well Until he got rheumatic fever An illness that left him forever unable to do any kind of heavy work Today he's receiving public aid And trying to learn a new and less strenuous craft James Reske owned the Guys and Dolls Tavern at 1702 North Larabee It was torn down and he was sorry to see his tavern And the block he lived on go I naturally missed the neighborhood of course when it was standing there And then when it was gone it was just like moving from any place as far as I was concerned I have all my friends in the old neighborhood It's been hard for me because I still go down there now I don't really My daughter has found it hard because she was We've been in that neighborhood 13 years and she's 17 And she's used to her friends and school Now she'll have to change all that But with me it makes no difference to me Because as long as I have my family with me that's all that matters Mrs.
Vicki Jenkins is a painter So she needs an apartment with studio space She had one she liked and the thought of leaving it didn't please her I think I had butterflies in my stomach You know it's a feeling of disappointment And covered with anxiety I think about the future Whether I'd find a place I liked and all that sort of thing We were quite sentimental about the other place We had liked it, we had a fine landlord and been comfortable there And we're just a little bit disappointed certainly in having to move But now that we're here I'm satisfied In fact I like it better Truthfully I like it better I don't think I ever wanted to live in it because it was something new I've gotten rid of that I'm happy to be in here now I wasn't used to this type of a building Not used to seeing it even though I had seen Marina City I still had a peculiar feeling about the building wondering what it was looking like on the inside Mrs.
Blanche Walton has taught music in Chicago for 50 years and still teaches three days a week This apartment in the Raymond Hilliard Homes for Senior Citizens costs her $52 .50 a month But now I've gotten used to the outside I think it's beautiful You know when some people begin to get old and begin to get up in years See they seem to have a feeling of not being wanted or not being needed or not being a part of a society But when they come into a building like this they're made a part And they're made to feel that they are a part The whole thing together has been a very beautiful set up For natural I'm more than happy to be able to say that I'm a part of the Senior Citizens at 30 West Sir Mac Road The city of Chicago looks to the day when every one of its citizens will be proud of his home and his community That is the goal of those assigned the task of building and rebuilding the city And it is the goal of those concerned with relocation of its people The director of that program within the Department of Urban Renewal is Mrs.
Ozzie Baddall The job of relocation is to help people who have to move to find a decent place at a price that they can afford The housing is available in Chicago but it becomes a matter of matching the people with the right kind of housing Whether they want to rent an apartment or to purchase a home In most cases the job can be done in a matter of days or a few weeks But for the large family with low income the job takes much longer in most instances It may take months and maybe a year or more Sometimes we have to settle for a halfway situation before we find the right kind of housing The biggest problem with the large family are the landlords who refuse to take families with children The worker has to then persuade the landlord to look at each family individually Not to merely make the statement that they don't want children but what kind of family are they talking about The relocation worker's job is a very sensitive job It's not simply a matter of helping to find housing It's also a matter of trying to find out what other human needs the families have There are all kinds of problems that come up in the search for housing There is the lack of employment helping the family to find a place to get a job There is the problem of physical ailments and not knowing what clinics and what facilities are available for them to go to There are many other kinds of problems and there are many agencies that can provide help And it's surprising how many people don't know what is available to them Or are frightened by the vast size of the kind of agency that they can go to for help A relocation person has to be a very sensitive person Relocation workers are under civil service And he has to have not only the ability to pass the examination but he also has to have a feeling for people He has to care about people, care about communities, care about the city and the way of life in a city We deal every day with people who begin to feel like non -persons living in the city A city is a place in which people can get lost They don't know their neighbors, they don't know the people who live in their building They feel that nobody cares about them whether they live well, poorly or live at all We try to make them feel that they are wanted, that there are things that can be done for them Moving out of the slum does not always solve all the problems For some, the hurt of living in the slum is a lasting one But for most of the families, the opportunity of new housing, the opportunity of a decent neighborhood Makes many changes in their lives It provides them with the opportunity for doing and solving the other problems they may have Without having to worry about the kind of housing they do live in This is the kind of work that the relocation worker is charged with It's the kind of help that can be given to people in Chicago to better the quality of their living To give them the dignity that every Chicagoan should have Urban renewal is primarily human renewal It is making Chicago a better place to live The city of Chicago is a city of The city of Chicago is a city of The city of Chicago is a city of The city of Chicago is a city of
