A few years ago, Stevie Early’s family notified their South Shore landlord numerous times that their building was “being destroyed.”
The once clean, safe and “well taken care of” apartment building fell into disrepair. They could smell the mildew and mold in the hallways, roaches and other insects infested the building, their appliances quit working and the front gate no longer locked.
“What was happening to my home?” Early, 24, said. Her family moved around frequently as she grew up, and this place finally “felt like a home.”
Her family’s grievances to their landlord and maintenance never yielded a response.
“While we tried to figure out what to do, the Obama Center broke ground. And then we got a response. But it wasn’t from a landlord I knew, no,” Early said. “It was from someone I never met, someone that I had never heard of. They sent us a text saying, ‘I am your new landlord.’ That was how me and my family had found out that our building had been sold with no notice.”
Her family thought this was the chance for new ownership to address the deteriorating building. They told them about the infestations, the broken appliances, the mold.
“But they didn’t respond apologzing, no, they didn’t respond even promising to get maintenance,” Early said. “Actually, they sent us a new lease. A new lease asking for $2,450 to stay.”
That new rent price for her family’s three-bedroom apartment came in June 2023. It was an increase of a few hundred dollars, she said.
Her family negotiated a longer stay, though they were eventually priced out and moved to North Park. But Early said Saturday she is now moving back to South Shore.
Because of her experience, Early started organizing with housing advocacy organizations, primarily on the South Side. She said she has met many people through that organizing who have similar stories to hers.
The Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition met with residents Saturday at Bryn Mawr Community Church in South Shore. Coalition members shared stories like Early’s and expressed their desires to stay in their neighborhoods surrounding the Obama Center, but that it has become increasingly difficult to do so since the presidential center project was announced.
The Obama Center opened June 18, and its leaders have long touted the tourism benefits it would bring to the South Side. But the presidential center has led to increased property values, leading to increased rents, pricing out local residents, housing advocates say.
“Some media outlets tried to frame us as being against the Obama Center,” coalition member Paru Brown said. “Our response was simple: We’re not against the Obama Presidential Center. We’re for protecting the people who already call this community home.”
The CBA Coalition pushed the City Council to pass the Jackson Park Housing Pilot Ordinance last year and the Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance in 2020, both of which intended to protect South Side residents from rising rents and displacement caused by the Obama Center.
While housing advocates view both ordinances as wins, they remain cautious about the implementation of them and are still demanding more, most notably rent control, which would require state action.
“Without rent control, this is going to be a forever battle,” Early said. “We’re always going to be fighting and fighting and fighting for people’s rents to go back down, fighting for property taxes to go back down, so I think [we need] that control, limiting the percent that something can grow. [Rent increases] shouldn’t happen just because a building is bought, just because a beach is better to go [to] or just because a quantum center is going down the street.”