Fairview Relocation Plans May Surprise You

JOLIET, IL - Five days after a 24-year-old Joliet gang member was gunned down in a rear parking lot, Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk, Housing Authority CEO Michael Simelton and several others walked the city's Fairview Public Housing complex. A year from now, the entire public housing complex should be demolished and the land will be left vacant.

During Thursday's walk, O'Dekirk and City Councilwoman Bettye Gavin visited with numerous residents to ask them about their future housing plans. The Joliet Housing Authority intends to start distributing the housing vouchers to Fairview residents beginning in September. Once everyone has moved away from Fairview, the property will be turned over to the Joliet Police Department to use briefly as a training facility.

Then, it's time for bulldozers and heavy machinery to tear down this notoriously dangerous public housing complex. Joliet resident Jim Murphy, who is running for Will County Board in November, also walked with the mayor and the Joliet Housing Authority officials on Thursday afternoon.

"It's long past time to move forward with a project like that," Murphy told Joliet Patch. "It was a housing model from the late 1960s that just doesn't fit in 2018, and people deserve better, and they're going to get it."

MAYOR COMMENTS

O'Dekirk reminded Patch that he spent a decade patrolling the Fairview area when he was a Joliet Police officer in the 1990s. He said there was a common theme he heard Thursday afternoon during his conversations with the residents.

"Everybody is looking to go," he said. "It is tough for people to live here."

O'Dekirk explained there's a long-standing misconception that Fairview is overflowing with killers and violent criminals who live here. It's quite the opposite, he said. Most of the killers and hardened criminals show up here to deal drugs and to shoot people because the place is an easy target.

Criminals know that the overwhelming majority of Fairview Public Housing residents are usually too afraid to call and report them to police. For instance, in last Saturday night's murder, the Joliet Police Department said there was a large crowd of people who gathered around the shooting victim who was shot outside shortly before 11 p.m. However, the people Joliet Police officers tried to interview at the crime scene told them that they did not know who the gunman was.

The homicide victim was Joliet gang member Eric Ervins, who had a long criminal rap sheet at the Will County Courthouse. Ervins just got out of jail in late June and he did not live at Fairview. No arrests have been made in connection with his slaying.

"If you snitch," Murphy told Joliet Patch, "they will kill you."

'MOVING TO CHICAGO'

Joliet Housing Authority Commissioner Bob Hernandez, who often walks Fairview late at night and produces a Facebook video of his event, told Patch on Thursday afternoon that he has spoken with dozens of residents in recent weeks about their upcoming housing plans.

"Some of them are moving as far away as Mississippi and Alabama," Hernandez said. "Quite a few are moving to Chicago. Another one I spoke with plans to move in with family in Arizona. They are going all over, and I'd say 60 percent are going to leave Joliet."

Patch also interviewed Simelton, who was just awarded a new five-year contract by the Housing Authority board on Wednesday, increasing his annual salary from $125,000 to $155,000.

'HUD IS EXCITED'

Simelton said the demolition of Fairview can begin once all of the residents have vacated the property.

This month, the Housing Authority has been hosting financial literacy classes to help the Fairview residents transition from living in public housing units to moving into a neighborhood with a private landlord.

"This is really something HUD is excited about," he told Joliet Patch.

Fairview consists of 168 housing units and about 150 to 155 are currently occupied, he said.

He is expecting a large exit of tenants over the next 60 to 90 days.

Simelton said he does not have a particular area or neighborhood that he is encouraging residents to go. The most important thing is that wherever they relocate, it's an area with nearby "commerce and transportation and amenities," he said.

"There's just a lot of preparation that has to take place," he said. "We're trying to prepare everyone for a relationship and what to expect from a landlord in the private sector. The housing authority is not going to be your landlord anymore. We just provide a subsidy for those residents who can't afford market rate rent."

As of this week, the Joliet Housing Authority has not set an official demolition date, Simelton said. "We've got to wait until everyone is gone, until everyone is out."

RELATED PATCH COVERAGE:

• Huge Raise For Joliet Housing Authority CEO
• Joliet Mayor Walks Fairview Public Housing In May
• Murder Victim At Fairview Was Joliet Gang Member

Images via John Ferak/Joliet Patch Editor