How Discriminatory Housing Created a Public Health Crisis

Patricia Frieson was a caretaker, a nurse by trade who looked after her nieces and nephews when they were children, and tended to her mother in old age. When she became the first person in the state of Illinois to die of the coronavirus, news reports made note of her age, 61, and health issues like her severe asthma that made her more vulnerable to this deadly disease.

Less discussed were the details of her surroundings. Frieson lived in Auburn Gresham, which has the highest asthma rate of any neighborhood on the far southwest side of Chicago. Residents can smell ...