It was the cockroaches that got to Anna Jozwik. The Weinberg senior rehabilitates plenty of homes on Northwestern Habitat for Humanity outings, but when she began painting the bedroom ceiling, and cockroaches scurried out of the cracks, Jozwik squirmed.

“We have cockroaches falling on our heads,” she said, anxiously brushing her shoulders and arms — even when the cockroaches were gone.

With that greeting, Jozwik and eight other Northwestern students were welcomed to 1017 North Larrabee St., one of the high-rise buildings comprising the Cabrini-Green housing. Students in Habitat for Humanity are used to repairing homes in low-income areas. But Saturday was different.

When nine NU students took part in the rehabilitation of one of the most notorious structures in Chicago, they were not just painting the walls of an apartment — each coat of paint covered dark marks of the past and represented new hope for the future.

Cabrini-Green represents the “uglier” side of Chicago, a side not advertised in tour books. Created in 1942, the Cabrini-Green site at its height was home to about 15,000 residents and 3,500 public housing units. NU students, who associate the 20-or-so buildings with drive-by shootings and gang-related violence, don’t come here often.

But the infamous cluster of high-rises on the Near North Side won’t be around much longer. The Chicago Housing Authority is tearing down Cabrini-Green to make way for “income-integrated” housing.

This means current residents will have to prove they’re deserving of the affordable housing that’s replacing their homes. The quest to qualify for leases depends on how good a tenant is perceived to be, and that’s why Habitat volunteers were painting the two-bedroom apartment white, covering the muted-yellow stains left by a fire years before.

“From the outside it doesn’t seem so horrible,” said volunteer Stephanie Reeder, a Communication freshman, filling cracks on a bedroom wall slowly so as not to drip any on the tiled floors. “But then you go in and (think) ‘Ugh.'”

There’s the smell — a combination of broken plumbing, spoiled food and the collective body odors of eight bodies living in two- or three-bedroom apartments.

There are the walls — a collage of explicit words and gang symbols marking territories.

Still, as the students rolled the pure-white paint onto the walls, they said Cabrini-Green wasn’t the place they’d envisioned.

“It just shows how we have built this place up (in our minds),” said Daniel Clark, an Education sophomore. “(The residents) weren’t violent.”

A 10-year-old resident picked up a brush and helped paint her hallways for two hours. She and four other children — her cousins and siblings — “clung to us,” Clark said.

“Poverty isn’t just about cleaning a building up. It’s about changing mindsets,” said Bob Jewell, a volunteer for Hope Alive, a program that organizes the rehabilitation of the Cabrini-Green buildings. “It’s about overcoming the fear and stereotype of walking into Cabrini-Green and getting shot.”

To date, Hope Alive has helped more than 29,000 volunteers take part in repairing the Cabrini-Green projects.

Jewell is affectionately referred to as “Gangster Bob” because pretty much everyone — even members of rival gangs — listens to what he says.

He stood in the middle of the apartment’s main room wearing paint-covered clothes, telling the NU volunteers about his 14 years of experience working in the Cabrini-Green units and the relationship he has developed with the tenants.

“Anyone want to play ‘pitching’?” he asked.

Education sophomore Kate Gasienica took him up on his offer.

Outside on the sidewalk of 1017 North Larrabee St., “guys who either were in gangs or used to be in gangs” taught her how to toss nickels into a crack in the sidewalk and win all the change on the ground.

“I was in front of what was supposedly the most violent place in Chicago,” said Gasienica, “And I felt so comfortable.”

By the end of the day, the two-bedroom apartment that eight people call home was almost completely painted.

As the two NU vans pulled away, Weinberg junior Munveer Bhangoo, a Habitat for Humanity site leader, looked back through his rearview mirror as children waved goodbye.

“I was shocked,” he said quietly, shaking his head. “The smell …”

Gasienica nodded as the van turned on Lake Shore Drive, making its way back to suburbia — back to well-lit apartments where there are no bars on windows, no graffiti-covered doors, no cockroaches crawling along the walls.

Cabrini-Green may be a part of Chicago history, but it is a part that is rarely visited.

“Not many people take the time to go to the ‘uglier’ side of the city,” said Weinberg sophomore Liz Coleclough, an NU Habitat for Humanity site leader. “It’s a privilege to go.”

Reach Corrie Driebusch at [email protected].