In this exposé of the interplay of unscrupulous landlords and housing segregation, the Peoria Journal Star suggested that blacks in Peoria were limited in their housing options. They might live on the South Side or in these five restricted areas: the Taft Homes Area, the North St. Francis Area, an area along the War Memorial Drive near the stadium, a small court just north of Hunt’s Drive-in , or an area in the University-Nebraska Gale triangle near the Agriculture Laboratory.
Since the average African-American families in Peoria held an annual income of $4000 — $2000 less than a white family’s median income of $6000 — they found themselves turning to cheaper housing options and renting dilapidated shacks from the corrupt landlords on Peoria’s South Side.