WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

As high-rises have come down, the Chicago Housing Authority has had to readjust plans for mixed-income developments amid the economic downtown.

Life got better for residents who moved out of notorious CHA high rises during the past decade, but the same study suggests children suffer from low-performing schools and chronic violence.

The agency says it will redouble its efforts to hire and contract with more public housing residents and community members.

It's been 12 years since the Chicago Housing Authority embarked on its Plan for Transformation, the effort to dismantle the city's notorious high rise housing projects. So far the results so far have been less than stellar. 

Lawrence Matthews isn't even sure how he ended up in the nursing home.

The Chicago Housing Authority has spent almost 13 years implementing a sweeping and controversial effort to remake public housing. Among other things, this Plan for Transformation tore down public housing high-rises and in their place put up mixed-income developments.

The Chicago Housing Authority opened its first technology center in a resident development on Wednesday.Dearborn Homes, near 29th and State Street, now has a lab with 28 computers.