BELMONT CRAGIN — Northwest Side organizers and elected officials on Thursday urged immigration enforcement agents to leave their neighborhoods, denouncing the arrests of at least 10 people by masked agents in the area this week.

The Palenque LSNA, Northwest Side Rapid Response Team and elected Northwest Side leaders gathered outside the Home Depot in Belmont Cragin, where at least one day worker was arrested by immigration officials this week, according to members of the rapid response team tracking arrests and sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

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When David Amato walks into eviction court Thursday, he’ll have a lot on his mind. Anger at the new landlord who he says plans to double rent after booting him and refused to negotiate after purchasing the Logan Square building where he lives. Pride in the six-month rent strike he and his tenants union are waging in response.

And bitterness that a tool he believes would have given him and his neighbors the power to outmuscle a rich corporation to instead buy the 16-unit building themselves — and stay in their homes — materialized just months too late.

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Flor Mata, a 21-year-old Portage Park resident, attended Saturday’s event for the first time, motivated by her passion for affordable housing. Mata said she felt compelled to get involved after learning about housing issues during a summer internship with Palenque LSNA.

She emphasized the need for community awareness and action. “I definitely think it’s important for people to become more informed and learn about what they can do and what their actions can do to impact other people’s lives,” she said. “These vacant houses could be used by people who really need them, especially during the winter and the holiday season.”

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LOGAN SQUARE — Three Logan Square homes will soon house families looking to stay in the gentrifying neighborhood after two longtime neighbors donated their buildings — worth more than $1.5 million combined — to an affordable homeownership program.

Sally Hamann, 76, and Anne Scheetz, 73, community activists and friends who have been fighting for the preservation of affordable housing in Logan Square since 2015, donated their workers cottages to the Here to Stay Community Land Trust, which helps younger families with roots in the area become homeowners.

“This was a fulfillment of a dream that we were to donate these two houses that belonged to my husband and me,” said Scheetz, who lived in Logan Square from 1986 through last year.

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We caught up with Soto-Espinoza this month. Today, she’s a unconditional cheerleader for the program, and she continues to lead trainings and meetings for families, keeping them running virtually through the pandemic. 

“It’s not about the hierarchy, but it’s always about the goal. It’s about inspiring and admiring each other,” she said. “Once you do that change within yourself, you’re able to achieve a change in the schools and our communities. We’re not just parents in schools. We’re activists, we’re organizers.”

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