West Calumet Complex Relocation (Gary, Hammond: section 8, apartment complexes, rent)

[valpofan11]

As the 1000+ residents of the East Chicago housing complex are being forced to relocate due to the lead crisis, I wonder where will they go? Will they stay in North Lake County in EC/Hammond/Gary, or will they move south or east to places like Highland, Griffith, Merrillville, and Portage? Thoughts?

[jvr789]

I assumed that the East Chicago Housing Authority would try to relocate them in East Chicago (as much as possible) to continue to collect the federal public assistance $$$ that comes along with providing public housing. What do you think?

[Northwest Indiana]

For residents that can afford to go into private housing (where they will just pay the difference between the listed rent and the voucher portion), most may probably stay in the immediate area and try to stick with landlords whom accept the vouchers. Others may try to transfer to another housing authority like Hammond (whom just last week opened up their wait list for a day again) or to Gary, which has just acquired new sites.

Aside from that, the only suburban area that I see some residents going to is Merrillville only because that is the suburban area that seems to have the most voucher-friendly apartment complexes and private housing. However for folks whom do not have transportation, Merrillville is quite a hike from EC and while the public transportation in Merrillville is better than other suburbs, it is not the greatest. Any whom may have had jobs in East Chicago may need to get new ones in the Merrillville area.

People also do need to keep in mind that while many of the residents were living there because that is all they could afford, many others have been on section 8 wait lists for years and this situation--albeit a sad one--gives them a boost to get into private housing sooner.