Legacy of Inequitable Housing Access: How a Black Family’s Story Echoes Today’s Fight

A Chicago Defender article from 1946 that chronicles the Hemmons family becoming unhoused. This is Part Three of the Chicago Defender’s series Black and Unhoused: How Segregation Fueled a Homegrown Crisis, which is part of the “Healing Illinois” initiative.& The story of the Hemmons family is where racist policy, poverty and a lack of affordable housing options converge.& Carey Hemmons, his wife and 11 children were evicted from their South Side apartment in Chicago’s storied Black Belt nearly 80 years ago.& According to a 1946 Chicago Defender article, the Board of Health forced this Black family to leave because their cramped dwelling was deemed “unsanitary,” resulting in “overcrowded conditions.”& With few options, the Hemmons took up residence in the alley behind their former home, which the report described as a “scene of misery and fear.” According to the story, one official agency reached out to lend a helping hand while another told them to “report to the nearest police station.” A lot has changed since the Defender chronicled the plight of the Hemmons family. Today, Black Chicagoans who are unhoused or on the verge of becoming homeless have more services available to them.& They do not suffer the same constraints...