"HUD did not do its due diligence," said Roderick Wilson, Lugenia Burns Hope Center executive director.
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Wednesday's hearing was to decide if the coalition of community groups had legal standing to bring their federal lawsuit in the first place.
The judge suggested that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development complete a full civil rights review to determine the impact of the project.
"What happened today really shows we're in a strong position," said Emily Coffey, with the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.
The group said the review was never done.
HUD officials said it wasn't necessary or required by law because the land has been vacant for decades.
SEE ALSO | Public housing advocates protest CHA's 2024 plan, say more affordable housing needed now
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An assistant U.S. attorney told the court, "An empty plot of land with no concrete plans doesn't inflict the same kind of injury."
Public housing advocates are trying to stop the construction of the two-story, 53,000-square-foot facility that would sit on the 23-acre swath of land owned by the Chicago Housing Authority on the Near West Side.
It's bordered by Roosevelt Road,14th Street, Ashland Avenue and Loomis Street and at one point had the second-largest population in the Chicago Housing Authority.
The Chicago Fire is financing the $80 million project and plans to invest another $8 million in nearby CHA housing and community spaces.
The team also said it will provide long-term employment for community members while generating an estimated $40 million for CHA to pump into housing.
"Every family living facility has already been torn down, the Ickes, Stateway, everything," public housing resident Earlean Braggs said.
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The public housing advocates said the CHA didn't keep its promise to build nearly 800 additional housing units at the site.
Attorneys for the agency told the judge there are plans to eventually build more housing, saying "the practice field has no impact on the units the CHA is going to build."
"That land has been vacant for 30 years. If there was any intent to build housing to house people, it would have been done," said Don Washington, with the Chicago Housing Initiative.
HUD, CHA and the Chicago Fire all declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The judge did encourage both sides to come to some sort of settlement.
He did not say when he was going to make his ruling.