No Simple Solutions: Transforming Public Housing in Chicago [Paperback]

In this book, Sue Popkin tells the story of how an ambitiousand riskysocial experiment affected the lives of the people it was ultimately intended to benefit: the residents who had suffered through the worst days of crime, decay, and rampant mismanagement of the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), and now had to face losing the only home many of them had known. The stories Popkin tells in this book offer important lessons not only for Chicago, but for the many other American cities still grappling with the legacy of racial segregation and failed federal housing policies, making this book a vital resource for city planners and managers, urban development professionals, and anti-poverty activists.Susan Popkin is asenior fellow and director of the Neighborhoods and Youth Development initiative in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute.

All things considered, this is an important book that comprehensively and critically documents Chicagos Plan for Transformation. It is a valuable book for anyonescholars, practitioners, policymakers, community organizations, and studentsinterested in these important housing policies. Journal of Urban Affairs

The book does a great job in presenting cutting edge social research, while tracing the remarkably important role that the author (who has over 30 years of experience studying CHA residents) and her colleagues played in shaping the social service component of Chicagos public housing transformation. . . Because No Simple Solutions represents the first major book on the conditions of HOPE VI relocatees, I recommend it to housing scholars and practitioners on both sides of the Atlantic. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment

Applied sociologist Popkin presents vivid snapshots portraying the lived experiences of individuals, families, and neighborhoods impacted by public housing policies and revitalization efforts. In 1999, Chicago embarked on an ambitils!