Saving our Homes: The Lessons of Community Struggles to Preserve Affordable Housing in Chicago’s Uptown
Carmen Marine
(03/1991 – 08/1995)
In collaboration with Organization of the NorthEast (ONE) a community organizing group on Chicago’s north side, CURL worked to produce a study of nine affordable housing buildings in Uptown and the tenants’ and community organizations’ efforts to keep the housing affordable.
The story of each of the buildings provides different lessons for tenants, housing organizers, community organizations, government policy makers in Chicago and in every other city of the country. This report was an effort to give voice to some of the working poor who struggled to preserve the affordable housing that was their road to self-sufficiency in the diverse neighborhood of Uptown on Chicago’s north side.
The research process included open-ended interviews with community leaders and close-ended resident surveys in eight sample blocks in Edgewater and Uptown along with less-structured interviews with additional residents on these blocks. The interviews touched on a wide variety of issues, but a primary focus was to gain an understanding of racial, ethnic, and social class conflict and cooperation in the two communities. The goal was to provide information to the community organization that could be used in developing an action agenda aimed at reducing points of conflict and building cooperation between the diversity of groups in Edgewater and Uptown.
Research Team:
P. Nyden, Loyola University Chicago
J. Adams, Senior Researcher Department of Sociology and Anthropology
G. Auguste, Loyola University Chicago
M. Barz, Loyola University Chicago
I. Calhoun-Farrar, Loyola University Chicago
E. Jones, Loyola University Chicago
M. Mason, Loyola University Chicago
M. Maly, Loyola University Chicago
Drew Astolfi, Organizer, Organization of the NorthEast
Deborah Hughes, 707 Waveland
Denice Irwin, 920 W. Lakeside
Kathy Osberger, Carmen Marine
Cynthia Reed, Sheridan-Gunnison
Prince Walker, Lakeview Towers
Kim Zalent, Executive Director, Organization of the NorthEast
Community Partner: