WRITTEN BY Kevin Stark

Altgeld Gardens will soon be the site of a city-sponsored green jobs training program and a brownfield solar farm.

After years of community demands for investment, green jobs and development are finally coming to one of Chicago’s poorest and most isolated neighborhoods.

Altgeld Gardens, a sprawling public housing complex home to about 5,000 mostly African American residents, is surrounded by landfills and industry in an area once dubbed Chicago’s “toxic doughnut.”

The past year has brought reasons for hope, though. In May, the Chicago Housing Authority signed a $145,000 contract to develop and execute a solar and energy efficiency training curriculum for residents focused on entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency. Then, in October, the city announced it was seeking a developer to construct a solar farm on a brownfield abutting Altgeld Gardens.

The success is in no small part due to the organizing work of Cheryl Johnson, who runs People for Community Recovery, a local community organization.

“Hard work pays off, right?” Johnson said. “Would this have happened if we weren’t advocating in the area about green opportunities instead of the brown opportunities that currently exists, which are going nowhere economically?”

Lloyd DeGrane / Energy News Network

Chicago is seeking a developer to construct a solar farm on this brownfield near Altgeld Gardens. The public housing project, home to about 5,000 residents, is surrounded by landfills and industry.

Altgeld Gardens is located in the Riverdale neighborhood on Chicago’s far Southside, where the unemployment rate is five times the citywide average. Many residents with jobs spend more than an hour commuting each way.