Dangerous Fairview Projects Almost A Ghost Town

JOLIET, IL - The notoriously dangerous Fairview Public Housing projects, a community trouble zone for decades, is in its final days. Only about 40 families remain at Fairview as of this week. That means the other 120 public housing apartment units on The Hill are vacant, and they will never, ever, be occupied again.

Joliet Housing Authority Executive Director Michael Simelton told Joliet Patch on Wednesday that his agency's contract calls for the complete demolition of the Fairview Public Housing units starting around May 1. The razing should take 30 to 45 days, Simelton told Patch.

"We have about 110 families that's actually moved out of the Fairview homes development," Simelton explained. "We have another 40 (still here) and of the 40, there's about half a dozen individuals that are waiting for inspections to be approved."

Joliet Patch was the only Will County news outlet on hand for Wednesday afternoon's inspection of the Fairview apartments. Also on hand for the tour were: Mayor Bob O'Dekirk, Simelton, City Councilwoman Bettye Gavin, who is running for re-election April 2, Joliet Police Department Deputy Chief Marc Reid and Bob Hernandez, Joliet Housing Authority commissioner.

"We're anticipating a May demolition date," Simelton said, "So, by that time we hopefully will have everyone out. Things have gone really well in terms of relocating all of the residents. There are some of concerns by some of the landlords who are looking at our residents for prospective occupancy. Some of that is centered around the element, or the stigma, from Fairview, and as everyone knows, most of the folks that create these problems within this development are not from Fairview."

Joliet's mayor told Patch he was pleased with the work of the Joliet Housing Authority over the winter months. The mayor fully expects that Fairview public housing will be flattened and left as open space in the coming months.

"Housing Authority told us they are trying to get one unit (vacated) a day, that's what they are shooting for, and they are hoping to have this empty within the couple months, by April it will be completely empty," O'Dekirk said.

As for the long-standing gang violence and drug killings, there hasn't been any shootings at Fairview over the past several weeks, the mayor was told.

"Crime has basically been gone down to nothing. This used to be one of the hot spots in the city. Arguably the worst neighborhood in the city was right here," O'Dekirk continued.

As for the efforts to relocate the residents of Fairview, O'Dekirk told Patch "it's been good for the city of Joliet. I know people in different parts of town ... are not necessarily concerned about what was happening on The Hill, but it was a drain on resources for the city, with police and fire and ambulances that had to be up in this neighborhood.

"Looking around today, you can see that most of the units are vacant, about 45 units are left which is a big reduction from where we were a few months ago. Last time we were here a lot of the residents were concerned," Joliet's mayor remarked. "They didn't think the process was quick enough, so I think that people are happy that they are in the process of moving (everyone) out."

Images via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor