What's life like in Chicago-area trailer parks?

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Society & Culture, Education, Public, Chicago, Arts, City, Radio, Curious, Investigation

4.8 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chicagoans live in two-flats, three-flats, bungalows and skyscrapers. And hundreds of households live in Chicago’s only trailer park, Harbor Point Estates. Beyond the city’s borders, there’s another 18,000 mobile homes in our metro area. Reporter Linda Lutton answers a question about what life is like in Chicagoland mobile home communities, as told by residents themselves.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Curia City producer Jason Mark.
0:06.4	Trailer parks get a bad rap.
0:09.8	They're the brunt of jokes, fodder for stereotypes.
0:12.9	It's one of the most stigmatized forms of housing.
0:16.1	Lots of cities, including Chicago and many suburbs,
0:18.9	have zoning laws meant to keep mobile home communities outside of their borders.
0:23.8	Curious City got a question about trailer parks from someone interested in affordable home ownership.
0:30.0	First thing they wanted to know, are there any trailer parks inside Chicago City limits?
0:35.1	Last year we sent WBEZ reporter Linda Lutton to check it out.
0:40.9	Hi. Hi there. I'm good. Are you Sheila or Wendy? Hey, great to meet you. Thank you. Thank you guys
0:48.9	for letting me come out. I'm so excited. So I'm on the far southeast side of the city, Hegwish neighborhood.
0:56.2	You can actually see the Indiana border from here.
0:59.3	I'm in the rental office for Harbor Point Estates.
1:02.7	I'll see if we can help you out with that.
1:04.9	Okay.
1:05.1	I'm talking to Sheila Chandler and Wendy Jabzinsky, their property managers here, and I've got
1:12.4	the curious city question with me.
1:14.8	Hang on here.
1:15.6	But I don't get very far before they cut me off.
1:19.1	The person wrote, are there any trailer parks in the city of Chicago?
1:23.2	We hate that word.
1:24.6	Manufactured housing community.
	...

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