September-October 2005

Tenants unite, protect Section 8 housing in Woodlawn

CHICAGO – “We won’t go! No more condos!” shouted a group of about 40 tenants and community supporters during a March press conference and rally on an empty lot on Chicago’s south side at 62nd St. and Kimbark Avenue.

Three months earlier, management told the tenants of five subsidized buildings that they had to pack up and leave. The buildings were going condo. Some residents, including seniors in their 80s who raised generations of children in those buildings, chose to leave. They feared sudden displacement when a May deadline rolled around. Others decided to stay and fight.

Some thought the cause was lost from the start. Condos line blocks in the area and the Woodlawn neighborhood is amongst the most quickly gentrifying areas on the south side. With the University of Chicago encroaching from the north and developers marketing Woodlawn as an up-and-coming area close to the lake and university, low income residents are rapidly being priced out. As if this weren’t enough, the owner of these buildings, an organization called The Woodlawn Organization, was headed by the powerful Rev. Leon Finney. Rev. Finney is a close ally of Mayor Richard Daley and the University of Chicago and at the forefront of courting developers to build high-end housing. A group of committed tenants began working with organizers from the Student/Tenant Organizing Project (STOP) and a new community group called People Of Woodlawn (POW). Tenants found out management had illegally denied tenants the right to a year’s notice to determine the fate of the buildings before they were sold.  After a meeting STOP arranged between tenants and lawyer Steve Mckenzie of the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing, residents went to their neighbors with two important messages: Tenants had the right to stop the buildings from going condo. But, residents had to organize a tenants association that represented at least half of the 100 units in the buildings.The drive to form the Kimbark Tenant Association had begun.

Management caught wind of the efforts, cancelled a meeting called to explain move-out details and instead focused on displacement. Rather than wait for management to offer more information, tenants went downtown on the day management was to unveil a neighborhood development plan before the mayor.

Tenants joined with STOP and POW July 18 to protest the downtown roll-out of a Five Year Plan for Woodlawn’s development that included no concrete commitments to preserve, improve or expand affordable housing. The media jumped on the story, sending camera crews to interview tenants in front of the buildings. “My main question is where are all these people gonna go?" asked Robert Woods on Channel 7 nightly news. Referring to nearby developments, tenant Cynthia Walker was quoted saying, “Sure it’s affordable housing for those who can afford it, but not for us, who cannot afford it!”

“Land grab, we say no! We live here and we won’t go!” tenants chanted as they marched through Woodlawn. They were joined by others demanding affordable housing. Encouraged by media attention and a commitment from the Rev. Finney to negotiate the plan to turn the buildings into condos, residents continued to organize. When the Rev. Finney backed out of his promise to negotiate, a change in strategy was needed.

The mortgage for the five buildings, though held by the Woodlawn Organization, is subsidized by  HUD under its project-based Section 8 program. HUD is responsible for holding management accountable for the condition of the buildings. Residents stepped up efforts to get half of their neighbors to join a tenant group.In September, the  Kimbark Tenants Association was formed. Next came meetings with HUD, which confirmed Section 8 contract extend through 2009. Tenants invited HUD to attend a November meeting on the state of repairs in the buildings. The Kimbark Tenants Association shows what community organizing can achieve. Residents are living in the property, receiving needed subsidies, holding HUD accountable and keeping  greedy developers at bay.