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In mid-November, the Lake-view Action Coalition held an affordable housing assembly that drew 300 people to address the Chicago North Side neighborhood's dramatic loss of housing to gentrification. Alderman Gene Schulter agreed to all the group's demands, then asked to address the assembly.

"You may speak briefly, sir," one leader on the upfront panel told Schulter, who began, "Thank you for having me here tonight-"

"-that's enough, alderman," the leader said laughing. Schulter laughed too, but he and the audience both got the point about who had the power at the group's housing assembly meeting, on the theme of development without displacement.

LAC, a sponsoring organization of neighborhood groups' national housing trust fund legislation, addressed local and national issues at the meeting.

First they took on Schulter and other local aldermen who committed to address tax breaks for owners of rental properties who keep their units affordable. The real focus of the meeting however was around the Diplomat Hotel, a threatened SRO property that is among the last of this type of housing available in the neighborhood. Another alderman agreed to take action to block the sale of the property to a condo developer at the meeting.

One leader told of his mother's recent rent increase: $300 a month more, virtually impossible for someone on a fixed income to pay. The woman must find a new neighborhood to live in-after 80 years in Lakeview. A school principal described the effect on her students of their families' frequent moves in search of affordable housing.

Public officials were also invited to address the idea of using tax increment financing to stimulate mom and pop businesses in the community. This would spur local development, rather than luring businesses from outside the area.

The meeting turned to a discussion of the national housing trust fund. This trust fund builds on neighborhood groups' FHA victories by taking the surplus created by lower numbers of foreclosures-a result both of the booming economy and reforms instituted by HUD thanks to groups' efforts. The trust fund would use this surplus, currently some $5 billion, to create and preserve affordable rental housing.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, stiffed the group by neither attending nor sending anyone to the meeting. Leaders wanted his support for the housing trust fund.

The outraged crowd vowed to take a 'field trip' to Durbin's office-which had a familiar result. A meeting is now being set up.