(CAIRO, IL) — A government plan to tear down a public housing complex in the southern Illinois town of Cairo has sent roughly 200 families searching for new homes. It’s also sparked fears the once-thriving river city could come to an end. Cairo was once a shipping hub and home to 15,000 people. But racial strife, flooding and economic troubles have left the town with just 2,600 residents, a vacant downtown, abandoned buildings and little habitable housing. If the residents of the buildings slated for demolition aren’t able to find new homes in Cairo and leave for other communities, the city’s population would be cut by 15 percent. The school district would lose nearly 40 percent of its students. Longtime resident Paul Lambert says, “It’ll be a ghost town.”