Bernadette Campbell: "I value where I live now"

It’s quiet in the lobby of South Commons. A security guard smiles at guests as they present identification and sign the visitor’s log.

On the ninth floor, Bernadette Campbell sits in the shade of her apartment, in a white tee shirt and navy blue sweatpants, opening bills and preparing for an afternoon of running errands.

And somewhere in the stack of unopened envelopes on the glass table is the second warningthat her Housing Choice Voucher is in jeopardy of being terminated.

When she first moved to the new building from Madden Park Homes eight years ago, Campbell paid her own rent. She had a good job and was working hard to put her life back together. The move was a step up: Her apartment was spacious and clean, the lawn was neatly trimmed and her neighbors, like herself, were eager to move up in the world.

“I value where I live now,” she said, her voice raspy from emphysema. “

“The move made me want to do better for myself.”

She had already come a long way.

After graduating from college with a degree in psychology and law enforcement, Campbell lived on the North Side, worked full time and went out with friends during her free time. Life was going well for her until she started doing drugs.

“I wanted some of that fast money and I messed myself up, you know? I messed up,” she said.  “I should have just kept on doing what I was doing because I was doing good.”

Unemployed, broke and addicted to alcohol and crack cocaine, Campbell was forced to move into Madden Park Homes, a housing project on South Ellis Avenue. Raised by grandparents – retired factory workers who came from the South during the Great Migration-- Campbell grew up in public housing, but these were different projects from the ones she had known. When she was young, the row houses of Ida B. Wells were clean, and people planted tulips in their flower gardens.  The residents had so much pride in their community that one neighbor used to call the police if the children dared stray onto her front lawn.

By the time Campbell moved into “New Town,” however, nobody in the neighborhood cared about the grass anymore.

“They used to force you to use your house to bag the drugs up,” she recalled. “They would beat you up […] it was horrible living in those projects.”

Campbell survived those years the only way she could: She joined a gang and talked tough -- until the day she woke up and decided she’d had enough.

Drawing strength from her faith in God, she quit drugs and alcohol cold turkey.

She got a job she loved, teaching people with mental and physical challenges how to live independent lives, and when the opportunity came to move out of the projects, she took it.

“The Section 8 people came and they talked to us about the relocation program and they made it sound pretty good to us.”

Campbell had the choice to either move into another public housing project, move into scattered site housing or move into the private market. With her doctor nearby at Michael Reese Hospital, Campbell chose South Commons.

Others, she said, were happy to stay where they were.

“Some people love the projects. There are some people who don’t want to move out of the projects. They don’t feel safe,” she said. “They fear moving out because they’re afraid of paying rent, afraid they’re not going to be able to make it. When you’ve been in this environment all your life, it’s all you know.”

The move was more than just a change of environment, however. It was also a shift in mentality. In the beginning, Campbell said, she played her favorite music on her 1500 watt speakers the way she was accustomed to doing in the projects. It wasn’t long, however, before there was a knock on the door from the building’s management, asking her to turn it down.  She still receives noise complaints from time to time, but she says that these days she tries to be more respectful of the culture of the building.

And staying on top of her rent has not always been easy. In the beginning, she was working and paid her own rent -- $612 a month. When she lost that job, she took a part-time position and had trouble paying her rent, but was having a tough time getting around because of her emphysema. She lost her job, and fell back into a pattern of drinking and smoking. One day, while smoking with her oxygen tubes on, she set herself on fire.

The accident left her in a coma for months and permanently disabled. It’s been difficult for her to keep up with her rent payments, since she needs oxygen to get around. Today, she has to prove to CHAC that she still qualifies for assistance or else her housing voucher will be terminated.

Although times are tough right now, Campbell remains optimistic that she will survive this the way she has overcome everything else--with a little patience and a lot of faith.

She plans to return to school to pursue her dream of becoming a disc jockey for her favorite radio station, AM 1390.

“I just want to get on the radio and play gospel music,” she said.