[AUDIO] WBEZ Recently Reported on “Source of Income” Housing Campaign

by Lauren Goldstein
Organizing and Advocacy Intern, JCUA

WBEZ recently reported on the “Source of Income” campaign, of which JCUA is a partner. The campaign seeks protections for low-income residents in Cook County.

Today, in Chicago, we are fortunate enough that our city prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of a person’s source of income.

Regardless of how an individual earns an income, they can use that income for housing. Our neighbors in Cook County outside of Chicago do not enjoy safeguards against discrimination.

That’s right – outside of Chicago in Cook County, a person can be discriminated against by a property owner or landlord if they happen to pay their rent with a Housing Choice Voucher. This is codified discrimination happening in our very backyards.

As a partner in the Source of Income Campaign, JCUA has and continues to fight for a just amendment to this ordinance so that no Cook County residents may be denied housing due only to them being Housing Choice Voucher holders.

Listen to WBEZ’s recent coverage of the campaign (or read here):

[Event 1/31] “Lawndale Conversations Series: The Contract Buyers League”

by Max Harkavy
Communications Intern, JCUA

On January 31^st at 6pm, the Hull House on UIC’s campus will be hosting an event titled “Lawndale Conversations Series: The Contract Buyers League.”  The Hull House is convening in partnership with the North Lawndale branch of Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago (NHS), and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA) in order to raise awareness about the Contract Buyers League and the history of its neighborhoods, specifically North Lawndale.  North Lawndale has a rich narrative and many feel that in order to bring about change in the community this narrative has to be brought to light.

Contract Buyers League Protesters

The Contract Buyers League was a union of African Americans during the 1960s that fought the exploitative sale of homes to blacks through the selling of contracts.

“I think it’s really important to tell this story to make all the people that lived through it proud of their accomplishment, and to raise awareness among the younger population,” said John Wolf, an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer for the NHS North Lawndale office.

Neighborhood Housing Services seeks to promote positive change from within the community.  Director Charles Leeks believes that, “In order to turn a neighborhood around, you have to recognize what the community has been.”  Leeks explained that sometimes people choose to ignore the community’s past, “if it is not convenient for them at any given moment.”  The goal of this event is to raise awareness of North Lawndale’s rich past and to foster pride from within.

Beryl Satter

There will be three guest speakers at the event.  The first is Beryl Satter, author of the book, “Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America” which tells the tale of the Contract Buyers League and the struggle against unfair housing practices that occurred throughout the 40s to the 70s.  Satter’s father was an attorney who fought for equal rights for African Americans during the time of the Contract Buyers League.

Clyde Ross

The second speaker will be Clyde Ross, who was at one time the co-chairman of the Contract Buyers League, and was recently named the recipient of the Neighborhood Heroes Award given to him by the NHS.  Ross still lives in the house he bought under contract.

Jack Macnamara

The final speaker is Jack Macnamara, a Jesuit seminary during the time of the Contract Buyers League.  He also worked as a community organizer that brought people together on issues concerning the Contract Buyers League in the 1960s.

“The image of community and the way north Lawndale is projected in the press is often negative but this event is a way of talking about positives from the community and one the biggest positives of North Lawndale is its history,” said Wolf.

What Happens to Displaced Public Housing Residents?

by Lauren Goldstein
Advocacy and Community Organizing Intern

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As part of JCUA’s work with the Chicago Housing Initiative’s “Lease Up!” campaign, we have been engaged in research on public housing in Chicago. Specifically, we are gathering data on where residents move when they are displaced from their homes due to demolition or redevelopment, and what those towns look like.

Given that part of the goal of the Plan for Transformation involves creating a less isolating environment for residents both racially and economically, we wanted to find out if these goals are being met. The question is: Where are Chicago’s public housing residents moving, and what kinds of opportunities exist once they arrive there.

The Facts

A study done at UIC shows that between 2000 and 2007, 55% of moves within Illinois of public housing residents occurred between the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) and the Housing Authority of Cook County (HACC).  We looked into what towns in Cook County do have public housing developments in them, so that we could then paint a better picture of what life looks like in these new communities.

Chicago’s public housing residents moved to many different towns in Cook County, and we learned that many of them, over time, have in fact become racially segregated. Many of these towns…

Our Jewish Response to Chicago’s Soaring Foreclosure Crisis

Judy Levey

by Judy Levey
Executive Director, JCUA

An article this week in the Washington Post called attention to the economic suffering of many communities four years after the housing bust. Near the top of the list for the most suffering is our own Cook County. The article states:

The list of worse-off communities includes places such as Cook County in Illinois, where home prices have fallen nearly 20 percent, unemployment has risen and the inventory of foreclosures has soared.

Responsive to poverty and community needs, JCUA’s work addresses this devastation through our housing advocacy work and our Community Ventures Program. Community Ventures provides zero-interest loans for the redevelopment and preservation of affordable housing. The program currently funds the rehabilitation of foreclosed homes in North Lawndale and neighboring communities through a loan to Breaking Ground, Inc., in addition to predevelopment costs associated with the rehabilitation of the Rosenwald Building to create more than 230 affordable units in Bronzeville (see more Community Ventures projects here).

My rabbi, Rabbi Kensky of Beth Hillel Congregation Bnai Emunah, spoke about the need for a Jewish voice in working to combat injustice in his Dvar Torah last Shabbat on the story of Noah. He generously shared his Dvar Torah with me and gave me permission to share it here. In it, Rabbi Kensky explained:

JCUA Joins Campaign Demanding the City Lease Up of Vacant Housing Units

by Lauren Goldstein, Community and Policy Intern
(2nd year student at the University of Chicago, Social Service Administration MA program)

As winter nears, it is evermore concerning that there are currently over 68,000 low-income families and senior citizens waiting for the Chicago Housing Authority to afford them a place to call home. What’s more, CHA has failed to lease over 2000 vacant units of public housing across Chicago. These units could, and should, be providing homes to the people who desperately need them. This is why the JCUA is a member of the Chicago Housing Initiative’s “Lease-Up!” campaign.

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Lauren Goldstein

It’s that time of year again here in Chicago – the leaves are falling, the temperatures are dropping, and darkness is falling earlier and earlier. Before winter sets in, it is of grave importance that the 68,000+ low-income families and senior citizens who have been waiting for housing from the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) are afforded a place to call home. Given the CHA’s failure to properly and efficiently address the thousands of vacant units currently shuttered across the city and allow some of the 60,000 families who remain on the wait-list (as of March 2012) to lease these units, the JCUA has decided to join the Chicago Housing Initiative’s (CHI) “Lease-Up!” campaign. We firmly believe that housing is a human right, and have chosen to take a stand.

JCUA in Letter to Rahm: Keep Lathrop Homes Public

JCUA speaks up in solidarity with Lathrop Homes residents in a letter to city officials, stating: Keep Lathrop Homes 100% public housing, and lease up the hundreds of units at Lathrop that are currently vacant.

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Lathrop Homes

Sefer Hasidim (a 12th-century legal text) teaches that “if a community lacks a place of worship and a shelter for the poor, it is first obligated to build a shelter for the poor.”

Since 2010, JCUA has been working directly with residents at the Lathrop Homes public housing development, to empower the voice of the residents in the debate over the future of Lathrop Homes. The future of Lathrop Homes is critical for the following reasons:

• There are tens of thousands of families in Chicago on the waiting list for public housing.
• There are tens of thousands more who could not get on the waiting list since it was full and closed.
• Even with all this tremendous need for housing in Chicago, under 150 of Lathrop’s 900 units are currently occupied. Over 750 units of housing stand vacant in this development alone.
  

JCUA advocates for affordable housing protection in Cook County human rights ordinance

JCUA amplifies a Jewish voice in a campaign to amend the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance to make discrimination based on Section-8 housing vouchers illegal (read JCUA’s letter to Cook County’s Board President here).

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JCUA members and allies at a housing rally

Background

One important focus of JCUA’s work is to prmote access to affordable housing for low-income people in the Chicagoland Area. One such affordable housing option is through “Section-8″ vouchers. Section-8 housing vouchers allow low income families to live in privately owned buildings. Section-8 residents pay 30% of their income in rent (similar to public housing residents). In the voucher program, the program pays landlords the difference between that 30% and the ‘fair market rate’ for the housing unit (up to a limit).

JCUA Supports Affordable Housing Proposal in Humboldt Park

Over the summer JCUA’s teen activists interned at Latin United Community Housing Organization (LUCHA) (see blog post on that).

Recently, LUCHA has reached out to JCUA to endorse the organization’s proposal for an affordable housing development project in Humboldt Park, a predominantly Latino community on Chicago’s west side.

JCUA proudly supports this proposal, and has expressed this support in a letter to Alderman Roberto Maldonado (26th Ward). Click here to read JCUA’s letter to Alderman Roberto Maldonado. This letter will be part of the file LUCHA submits with its proposal. Now this proposal includes a Jewish voice for more affordable housing in a community that needs it.

JCUA Mourns the Passing of Public Housing Leader Barbara Moore, and Celebrates Her Legacy

Barbara Moore

The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs mourns the passing of Barbara Moore, a strong public housing leader and a valued JCUA partner. Ms. Moore passed away on August 10, 2012.

Barbara Moore graduated from Carver High School in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and lived in the Robert Taylor Homes on Chicago’s south side for over 40 years. Ms. Moore was the building president of 5266 at Robert Taylor Homes for over 20 years, was the vice president of the local advisory council of Robert Taylor “B,”  and was a board member of We The People Media.

Ms. Moore was also a leader and board member of God’s Gang – a youth run organization providing positive programs in public housing.  In the early 2000s, JCUA partnered with God’s Gang to fight for the rights of the residents and especially the youth who operated the activities of God’s Gang. JCUA assisted God’s Gang in successfully suing  CHA for displacing God’s Gang from the Robert Taylor Homes, thus ensuring the continuity of programs following displacement.

Sukkot Action for Housing Justice: Oct. 11

This graphic banner will be used in the portable Sukkah at the housing action day.

With American bankers meeting just feet away next week, Chicagoans will share stories about how the economic crisis has affected them.

It all happens on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at a special interfaith Sukkot action and press conference inside a makeshift Sukkah in front of the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago.

Representing shelter in a time of wandering and crisis, or the halfway point between slavery and liberation, this may be the first time a portable Sukkah has been used in a protest action.