Cairo Housing Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today I would like to bring attention to the southernmost city in my State, Cairo, IL.

Sitting at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, Cairo was once a booming port town and was home to Fort Defiance during the Civil War. In the 1960s, Civil Rights icon Representative John Lewis even spent a summer there to help integrate a number of businesses and public spaces.

However, in recent years, this southern city has faced a new challenge, as uninhabitable living conditions have force hundreds of public housing residents to relocate from their homes--and in many cases from their beloved community. Public housing in the city suffered years of neglect at the hands of local officials who are now accused of misusing Federal funds to bankroll lavish personal expenses, including multiple trips to Las Vegas and steak dinners.

And how was life for residents? By the time residents were forced to relocate, 185 families--including roughly 200 children--were living in housing overrun with rodents, bedbugs, roaches, crime, mold, asbestos, and lead. I am talking about rats in the couch, maggots in the freeze, and plumbing and heating that simply refused to work.

It was local officials who failed to provide its residents with safe and healthy housing; yet these families were the ones whose lives were uprooted as a result. Today, all 185 families have relocated, and the vacant housing complexes are set to be demolished. While the strength and resilience of these residents and their community in the face of this situation is inspiring, there is no question they deserved far more from their government.

It has been more than 2 years since the HUD Inspector General's Office began investigating alleged misuse of Federal funds by local officials, and it is beyond time for that investigation to be finalized and for the results to be made public.

Today I am calling--once again--for the HUD inspector general to do just that, but more remains to be done to restore the faith and confidence of public housing residents in our government. Transparent accountability must be had at all levels of government where mismanagement played a role in creating this crisis.

This is why, in May of last year, Senator Duckworth and I called for the HUD inspector general to also look into HUD's oversight of Alexander County Housing Authority. This July, the IG released its report that found that despite having early knowledge of bad conditions at Alexander County, HUD hesitated to intervene, while residents suffered.

This is unacceptable, and it cannot be repeated. HUD is responsible for ensuring public housing authorities meet their responsibility to provide safe and affordable housing, and it must be capable of performing this vital oversight. Senator Duckworth and I have urged HUD to quickly implement the recommendations included in the report to more effectively oversee public housing authorities, to which HUD has agreed.

I look forward to continuing to work with HUD to improve its oversight of public housing authorities. We cannot allow the local and Federal mismanagement that jeopardized living conditions in Cairo to be repeated in any other community.

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