After Obama Center Opening, South Siders Discuss Next Steps To Prevent Displacement

SOUTH SHORE — Just over a week after the Obama Presidential Center’s star-studded grand opening, its neighbors gathered to discuss next steps in protecting residents from displacement and development they fear could push community members out.

Saturday saw the Fourth Annual Community Benefits Agreement and Neighborhood Union Summit at Bryn Mawr Community Church, 7000 S. Jeffrey Blvd. in South Shore, where attendees met to plan how to implement and build on previous key housing protections. Organizers said there is still work to be done to protect people who live near the Obama Presidential Center, which is now welcoming visitors.

Organizers from the Obama CBA Coalition, Southside Together and other groups invited community members to join them in their efforts to consider how they can ensure longtime residents aren’t pushed out by development that may be spurred by the center — a common concern among residents of nearby South Shore, Woodlawn, Washington Park, Hyde Park and Jackson Park.

“This meeting today isn’t about policy,” said Southside Together organizer Pat Hightower. “It’s not about Obama. It’s about our fight and our plan for the neighborhood, and inviting you into that fight.

“I’m going to visit the Obama Center. … My issue is not with the center; it’s with the process and what it means for us.”

Obama CBA Coalition members gave testimonials during Saturday’s summit, their remarks focused on what protections they hope to see in the wake of the Obama Center’s opening and based on their personal experiences living in and around South Shore. Speakers talked about having to withstand rent increases, building closures, inattentive landlords, development and deteriorating conditions, all of which inspired them to action. 

Audience members regularly shouted “That ain’t right!” throughout the program.

Kiara Hardin, the South Shore CBA campaign chair, emphasized that neighborhoods close to the Obama Center shouldn’t have to bear the cost of development they didn’t ask for and that the work of local organizers is “far from finished.” 

Alds. Jeanette Taylor (20th) and Desmon Yancy (5th) attended Saturday’s meeting and were initially set to give remarks but did not.

With the Obama Center now open, organizers plan to continue advocating for expanding local housing protections set by last year’s Jackson Park Housing Pilot Ordinance and the Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance that preceded it. They also want to push for provisions that may have not been included in both.

“Today, we continue fighting for the protections that were left out of the Woodlawn Ordinance, including an Office of Tenant Advocacy and a rental registry program,” Hardin said.

Dixon Romeo, executive director of Southside Together, said he and others are also still fighting for rent control, more money to support tenants and homeowners, addressing landlords who may be allowing their properties to deteriorate and force out residents, and other expanded tenant protections in communities across the city. 

“I think the pressure has been the same since the start,” said Romeo, who is a member of the Obama CBA Coalition “We’ve been doing this since 2009.”

Similarly, residents such as Mashawnda Price, who no longer lives in South Shore following last year’s ICE raid of an apartment building, view the focus on Obama Center by landlords, developers and the city government to be a “distraction” from developing a plan to prevent more residents from being displaced.

“We have to make sure everyone is organizing in their individual buildings so they can’t ignore us. When we come together, that’s how we make the landlords fix what’s broken,” she said. “That’s how we make sure we stay. We’ve got to control the narrative how they try to control the narrative of our buildings.”

The city of Chicago should also develop infrastructure and systems that help residents keep their homes, as well as put more of its budget toward protections for homeowners and tenants over private companies and sports teams, Price said.

The Obama CBA Coalition and Southside Together are in support of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed Protecting Renters Ordinance, Romeo said. Set to be introduced at Monday’s Housing and Real Estate Committee meeting, the proposed ordinance attempts to modernize the 1986 Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance by creating a citywide rental registry that would disclose the owners of major buildings and new Bureau of Rental Housing Services for enforcing tenants’ rights, among other provisions.

For 64-year-old Dianne Price, a member of Southside Together who has lived in South Shore for over 30 years, the summit emphasized how important collective action and community organizing will be for maintaining South Side neighborhoods like the one she lives in. 

“Every time we have a meeting or something, I hear more and more people have come on and stuff like that, which is a good thing because you can see that the organization is growing,” Price said. “I believe this meeting right here is going to prove to us in a couple of weeks how many more people are really serious [about this]. You have to be serious about stuff like this.”