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You should read the article. These places weren’t built well, maintained well and then were abandoned. Obama even defended one of the developers from a lawsuit by the tenants.

Money talks.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/27/grim_proving_ground_for_obamas_housing_policy/

One factoid which I find quite 'interesting' is that the slumlord and convicted felon Tony Rezko was not merely a huge donor, bundler of donations, and faciliator of Obama's questionable home purchase with adjacent plot of land..... but (I hadn't seen this elsewhere) Rezko was THE seed money for Obama to launch his political career. It was wasn't that Obama started campaigning and then Rezko and others started to donate, it was solely Rezko and one other contributor who were there to fund Obama at the start of his first political campaign. Obama was a Rezko political project from the very start, and then others were drawn in later:

"All the while, Tony Rezko was forging a close friendship with Barack Obama. When Obama opened his campaign for state Senate in 1995, Rezko's companies gave Obama $2,000 on the first day of fund-raising. Save for a $500 contribution from another lawyer, Obama didn't raise another penny for six weeks. Rezko had essentially seeded the start of Obama's political career. As Obama ascended, Rezko became one of his largest fund-raisers. And in 2005, Rezko and his wife helped the Obamas purchase the house where they now live."