Lathrop Preservation Campaign: social mobilisation to save public housing in Chicago

Abstract

This article provides an ethnographic account of the Lathrop Preservation Campaign, a grassroots effort to prevent the demolition of Lathrop Homes, one of the most diverse public housing developments in Chicago, Illinois. In 2000, the Chicago Housing Association implemented a Plan for Transformation to redevelop public housing throughout the city, based on a nationwide effort to deconcentrate poverty in subsidised housing and create mixed-income communities. The Lathrop Preservation Campaign, which consisted of residents, organisers and allies, worked to stop the demolition of Lathrop Homes, minimise the loss of public housing units and to prevent the displacement of residents. Through participant observation and interviews, the authors trace how the community came together to challenge the use of poverty deconcentration programmes and to mobilise around issues of historic preservation and racial discrimination.