A South Side alderperson has introduced a sweeping ordinance to help residents worried about being priced out of their neighborhoods because of the Obama Presidential Center’s development in Jackson Park.
Introduced by 5th Ward Ald. Desmon Yancy on Thursday and drafted by the Obama CBA Coalition, the measure seeks to address the South Shore neighborhood’s affordable housing crisis — an issue that has been festering for years.
Although members of the Obama CBA Coalition believe that the presidential center, scheduled to open in 2025, will usher in investments to the South Side, they have concerns that it will lead to increased home prices and rents that long-term residents will find unaffordable.
“The South Shore Housing Preservation Ordinance ensures that we can have development without displacement, protecting renters, homeowners, and condo owners alike,” said Dixon Romeo, executive director of Not Me We, a housing advocacy organization that focuses on South Shore and surrounding neighborhoods.
“South Shore residents deserve to be able to stay in their neighborhood to benefit from the Obama Center and future development — not to be pushed out and replaced,” Romero added.
The 54-page ordinance seeks to centralize housing enforcement responsibilities currently carried out by multiple city departments under one roof, creating a single point of contact for residents in South Shore.
The ordinance would also pilot a rental registry, which renters can use to attain housing information such as unit prices and lease terms.
That would level the playing field for tenants in their negotiations with landlords, and help hold landlords accountable for any misconduct, said Brandon Peterson, an advocate for the coalition’s ordinance.
Additionally, the ordinance would help South Shore fend off the threat of gentrification by mandating the allocation of all city-owned vacant lots for affordable housing, setting aside 30% of new developments for affordably priced home construction and implementing a preference policy to assist displaced and at-risk residents during the leasing process.
For years, organizers from the Obama CBA Coalition have advocated to prevent displacement of residents near the Obama Center. Its campaign led to the passage of the Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance in 2020, the coalition said.
Since 2021, the coalition has focused on South Shore, where over 75% of residents are predominantly low-income and rent-burdened.
At an Obama Presidential Center community event in 2017, ex-President Barack Obama told activists he opposed signing an agreement that would legally bind the center to providing benefits for the surrounding communities because it would not be inclusive enough of all the interests of the community.
“The concern I have with respect to a community benefit agreements in this situation is that it’s not inclusive enough because I would then be signing with who?” he said. “What particular organizations would end up speaking for everybody in that community?”
In February, South Shore residents voiced overwhelming support for the proposed ordinance, passing a ballot referendum about the measure with 89% support, organizers said.
Woodlawn residents also showed strong support, passing a referendum concerning the development of affordable housing on vacant lots at 63rd Street and Blackstone Avenue with 92% support. Yancy’s measure also proposes earmarking an area at 63rd and Blackstone for affordable housing.
“Since 2020, the city has failed to allocate the vacant lots at 63rd and Blackstone for affordable housing development, despite it being mandated by law as part of the Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance,” said Linda Tinsley, a member of South Side Together Organizing for Power.
