Chicago City Council approves long-awaited plan for redevelopment of vacant Lathrop Homes
A long-planned redevelopment of the former Lathrop Homes public housing development along the North Branch of the Chicago River is finally set to move forward.
The Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved a financial package that clears the way for construction to start.
The southern end of the site will be turned into 309 mixed-income units, and a new five-story structure will be built south of Diversey Parkway.
Construction is expected to start this summer.
When the Julia C. Lathrop Homes were built in 1938, there were more than 900 public housing units across 32 acres bordered by the North Branch of the Chicago River, Clybourn Avenue, Diversey Parkway, and Damen Avenue. It was one of the first Chicago housing projects, and the largest complex on the city's North Side — predating Cabrini-Green a couple of miles directly to the southeast on Clybourn Avenue.
The Lathrop Homes were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
In 2017 — 11 years after the Chicago Housing Authority announced plans to redevelop the site — the organization joined developers to break ground on a huge project to renovate all of Lathrop.
The north side of the project, north of Diversey Parkway and crawling up Clybourn Avenue to the intersection with Wellington Avenue and Leavitt Street, was transformed into a sparkling mixed-income complex with redesigned floor plans and upgraded amenities. This area features a riverwalk and a dog park.
But the south side of the development, south of Diversey Parkway along Hoyne Avenue and Leavitt Street, remains fenced off and decaying. A Google Street View image from November of last year shows the vacant buildings with some windows covered by DAWGS steel window guards and others broken, and graffiti all over the exterior of the buildings.
Graffiti can be found inside the buildings too.
The vacant buildings in the complex have been a breeding ground for crime.
In a CHA news release more than eight years ago, the agency referred to "nearly a decade and a half of delay." It's now been well over 20 years of waiting for redevelopment.
The pace of construction has drawn ire, including at a 2022 protest.
In 2024, a CHA official said figuring out a funding formula involving historic tax credits had gummed up the next steps.
