Public Housing and Condo Owners Clash in Chicago Social Experiment

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Low-income apartment dwellers and middle-class condo owners have shared Westhaven Park Tower since the building opened in 2006 -- an innovative setup that the city hoped would unite residents and exemplify Chicago's $1.6 billion overhaul of public housing.

Proximity, however, has not led to harmony.

The most recent skirmish inside the 113-unit midrise on Hermitage Avenue on the West Side concerned building security. Another flare-up centered on the proper use of the lobby: Public housing residents -- who make up a third of the building -- saw it as a place to hang out; condo owners did not.

Kathy Quickery, president of the building's condominium association, put it bluntly in a letter to the CHA last month: "After living in the building for three years, I consider the project a failure for homeowners."

The struggles of Blue America.