This collaborative study between the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) and the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) compares health and water-related conditions in Little Village to the Near North Side, and to Chicago city-wide.
Chicago neighborhood data is reported by “community area”: 77 areas with defined boundaries that can include one or more neighborhoods. Little Village is within the South Lawndale community area. After reviewing health and water data all 77 community areas, the Near North Side community area was selected for comparison to South Lawndale, to illustrate the stark differences that exist between Chicago’s neighborhoods.
COMMUNITY OVERVIEW
People & Local Economy
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, South Lawndale was home to German, Czech and Polish residents. By the 1970s, the population had shifted to become a mostly Mexican community.i Today, South Lawndale is home to nearly 75,000 Chicagoans. Cook County Jail, located in the southeast corner of the community, is one of the largest jails in the country.
Housing
South Lawndale has a mix of mostly single-family homes and 2- to 4-flat buildings. About two-thirds of housing is occupied by renters. Most homes are older, built before 1939. Very few homes have been built after 2000.
ISSUES IMPACTING THE COMMUNITY
Little Village residents have expressed concerns to LVEJO around the following issues.
- COVID-19
- Lack clean, running water at home for personal hygiene, cooking, and drinking; and
- Polluted rain running off from industrial sites.
This section examines the publicly available data for these issues. Data was available by ZIP Code, rather than by community area, and so is reported for the ZIP Codes that intersect with the community area.
COVID-19 Pandemic
Early in the pandemic, South Lawndale experienced one of the most severe COVID-19 outbreaks in all of Chicago. Between March 1, 2020 through August 1, 2020, South Lawndale ZIP Codes reported over 9,000 COVID-19 infections and over 300 COVID-19 deaths. South Lawndale’s infection rate was approximately 1.7 times the city-wide infection rate —and 3.5 times higher than the Near North Side’s infection rate.
Clean Drinking Water
Up until recently, the City of Chicago disconnected drinking water service to homes with unpaid water bills. In a twelve-year period, nearly 3,000 water shutoffs happened within South Lawndale. South Lawndale’s water shut-off rate is approximately 1.2 times the city-wide rate — and 52 times higher than the Near North Side.
Flooding
In Chicago, most flooding is urban flooding – flooding that happens when the local sewer system cannot cope with the amount of rain during a storm. This type of flooding is unrelated to the Chicago River or Lake Michigan. Chicagoans experience urban flooding as sewage backing up through basements, rain flowing under basement doors and windows, and impassable streets or underwater yards. Flooding causes property damage, lost work time,xxi and and physical and mental health issues.
The Link Between Health, Jobs, Water, and Economics
Nationwide, COVID-19 exposed the existing systemic inequities in our communities. Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people have higher rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths across the U.S. There are complex reasons for these persistent disparities.