Photo by Colin Boyle / Block Club Chicago

JCUA, Southside Together, and our coalition partners have scored a major victory in our fight for housing justice. On September 25th, the Chicago City Council passed the Jackson Park Housing Pilot. This critical legislation will ensure both renters and homeowners living near the Obama Presidential Center can stay in their homes, prioritize new affordable housing in the area, and even provide pathways for people to return to the neighborhood after having been displaced.

For more than a decade, the majority-Black neighborhoods surrounding Jackson Park have faced far higher rates of displacement and eviction than the rest of Chicago. Since the announcement of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, real estate speculation and rents have increased further, creating an even more difficult situation for the many low-income and cost-burdened renters in the area.

However, with a long history of community organizing, South Shore and Woodlawn residents were prepared to fight back to stay in their communities.

Residents first organized for a community benefits agreement — a legally binding contract with the Obama Foundation that would have secured their commitment to prevent further displacement. When this campaign faltered, they did not give up the fight. The coalition shifted to a new approach, drafting a city-level ordinance to pilot anti-displacement measures in the area surrounding the Obama Center. Southside Together and the broader coalition drew on the success of the 2020 Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance crafting measures to reverse displacement in the neighborhood.

One year ago, JCUA’s Housing & Economic Justice Committee elected to join the Obama Center campaign after a rigorous, member-led selection process and discussions with South side leaders. Last March, JCUA engaged many of its members on the South side, organizing a 100-person town hall in Woodlawn last March to hear from key supporters, educate and expand our base, and build momentum for the campaign. At the same time, our Northside membership worked to get other key alders on board to ensure that the ordinance would have the votes necessary to pass through the Housing Committee and ultimately through City Council.

All of this work led to the recent passage of the Jackson Park Housing Pilot ordinance, which contains much of the coalition’s initial vision. Key provisions passed in the ordinance include:

• Tenant protections, including expanded tenant opportunity to purchase provisions and fair notice rules for lease non-renewal
• Homeowner protections like a new $3 million property tax debt relief program
• The designation of dozens of city-owned vacant lots for affordable housing development and rehabilitation
• New Right to Return rules for people displaced from South Shore since the announcement of the building of the Obama Presidential Library, giving them preference for units in new affordable developments

There are, however, some key elements of the ordinance that were left out of the final version. We have not yet secured bans on move-in fees and caps on security deposits, the establishment of a City Office of the Tenant Advocate, or more stringent affordability requirements that would have made most affordable units in South Shore accessible to people at or below 30% of the Area Median Income. JCUA and our coalition partners are committed to continuing the fight until all of these measures have passed, and until the protections we have won for South Shore residents are extended to everyone in Chicago.

While this victory is a source of hope and celebration, our joy is tempered by the violent attack in South Shore last week, where federal agents broke down doors, tore sleeping families from their beds, abducted our neighbors, and then returned to trash their apartments. That the building was known to Southside Together and other organizers in the neighborhood as one with negligent, exploitative management underscores the fact that the fights for community safety, immigration, and housing justice are all deeply intertwined. We are fighting for a world where everyone has safe, affordable, quality housing free from the threat of displacement, whether that threat comes at the hands of marauding brownshirts or unbridled greed.

Working with Southside Together on the Obama Center campaign has been a meaningful experience for many JCUA members, especially leaders on the South side. We look forward to continuing to foster this relationship as the fight for equitable housing and vibrant, safe South side communities continues. Standing together with our neighbors and winning real structural change on an issue so clearly visible and pertinent in our neighborhood as displacement is what JCUA’s work is all about.

Jada Potter is a member of JCUA’s Housing & Economic Justice Committee, and Jimmy Rothschild is a Community Organizer with JCUA’s Housing & Economic Justice Committee.