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Our mission is to preserve, promote, and propel the right of all people to a place where they can live and prosper—a place to call home.

    Transformation

    Kids tumbling on mattresses outside of a high-rise apartment

    The Past, Present, and Future of Chicago Public Housing

    Patricia Evans, Boys Jumping, Stateway Gardens, 1998. From the View from the Ground photo archive, courtesy of the Invisible Institute.

    • National Public Housing Museum, 919 S. Ada Street, Chicago, IL 60607

    • Free
    • Register

    This year marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of Chicago’s Plan for Transformation, the most ambitious public housing redevelopment initiative in U.S. history.

    Join the National Public Housing Museum, Invisible Institute, and Impact for Equity for an interactive storytelling event about the past, present, and future of public housing in the city of Chicago.

    Listen to and share your own stories about the impact of the Plan that forcibly displaced so many families from their homes, and transformed the civic life of our city. 

    Hear from Jamie Kalven, Patricia Evans, and Francine Washington about the release of the View from the Ground archive: a searchable collection of original reporting and photography from the final chapter of high-rise public housing in Chicago, documenting life at the Stateway Gardens public housing development on the South Side.

    Learn about the recommendations from Impact for Equity in a new report, Building the Future: Restoring Communities and Renewing Chicago’s Commitment to Public Housing. The report examines barriers and potential policies that support a future where everyone has a safe and affordable place to call home. It also issues a call to reclaim and reinvest in public housing, in part by redeveloping the hundreds of acres of still-vacant land held by the Chicago Housing Authority.

    Register for the Event

    FREE. A delicious light dinner will be served. Space is limited. Please register in advance.

    Schedule
    • 5:00 Doors open, light dinner, museum open for exploration
    • 5:30 pm Program begins
    • 7:30 pm Event ends
    About the event partners

    Invisible Institute is a Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award-winning nonprofit journalism organization based in the South Side of Chicago.

    Impact for Equity, a fierce advocate for equity and justice, is a public-interest law and policy center combating racial, economic, and social injustice for and with communities most disadvantaged by systemic inequities.