Jane Addams Senior Housing Bill of Rights
(2016-2017)
CURL worked with the Jane Addams Senior Caucus to develop the Jane Addams Senior Housing Bill of Rights. The project spanned 12 months and engaged over 250 seniors in a participatory process to identify key concerns and solutions in senior housing in Chicago.
CURL collaborated with Jane Addams leaders to conduct 12 Listening Sessions with seniors to identify key concerns. At these sessions, seniors named affordable housing, safe neighborhoods, accessible transportation, and quality health care as essential aspects of aging with dignity.
Additionally, five focus groups with seniors who live in senior housing focused on building management. Seniors in these focus groups identified management harassment/disrespect, lack of services in senior buildings, inconsistent building rule enforcement, and lack of accountability as main concerns with management.
Data was also collected through research meetings with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Heartland Housing, as well as an overview of existing senior building management laws.
Leaders of the Jane Addams Housing Justice committee advised that HUD require all HUD-funded buildings to publicly post a complaint number that residents can call if management acts irresponsibly and are requesting HUD increase resident participation in the building management review process;
Jane Addams leaders will be developing future demands to advance the Senior Housing Bill of Rights; and organizers at Jane Addams will continue to help senior buildings form tenant councils, which give residents much more power to hold their management accountable.
Research Team:
T. Neumann, CURL
K. Ocompo, CURL Undergraduate Fellow
Z. Enriquez, CURL Undergraduate Fellow
S. Schnell, CURL Visiting Scholar
M. Hoffman, Urban Studies
A. Simon, Urban Studies
J. Chervinko, Urban Studies
G. Runkel, Urban Studies
J. Sullivan, Urban Studies
J. Peloquin, Urban Studies
Jane Addams Senior Caucus staff
Community Partner: