Open courtyards are one feature of Lathrop's unique 1930's architecture that distinguish it from high-rise public housing, which led to the complex being placed on the National Register of Historic Places. This section now sits entirely empty, with all the units boarded up.

Lathrop Homes, a public housing complex along the Chicago River in the Lakeview neighborhood, has lost hundreds of residents over the 12 years that the city’s Plan for Transformation has been going on.

Now, with only 170 families left, the section that sits along Clybourn Avenue has been closed entirely and residents have been relocated to the portion that lies along Diversey Avenue. These photos are of Lathrop’s survivors–a few of the families who remain living there, waiting for the transformation to come to their homes.

[Photos by William Camargo]