HOUSING
IN OUR PALENQUE…
We unapologetically advocate for our community, for BIPOC, and for our most vulnerable neighbors. • We build community to make change, getting to know our neighbors and creating powerful connections. • We provide a platform for folks not usually heard -- a safe space Palenque. • We create opportunities to become a leader. • We put pressure on elected officials to provide resources that meet needs of our communities. • We educate our community by bridging information gaps. • We foster and provide mutual aid to give our people necessary resources. • We organize people and build community ownership.
Our housing strategy consists of three components:
Generate new affordable housing
We use our platform and networks to advocate for specific equitable housing developments, like the Lucy Gonzalez Parsons Apartments, the Encuentro Square development, and the planned affordable housing development at an existing lot at 2525 N. Kedzie Avenue in Logan Square.
We also partner with Elevated Chicago, LUCHA, and Center for Changing Lives to develop a work plan with a set of strategies around equitable transit-oriented development to prevent further displacement and preserve Logan Square’s long-established culture. Logan Square’s eHub is advanced by a Community Table led by these three organizations in partnership with other organizations. The Logan Square Blue Line is one of Elevated Chicago’s four Community Table sites.
2. Preserve affordable housing
We advocate for policy development and changes that support equitable transit oriented development, minimum density development, reducing deconversions and demolitions, and more.
Here to Stay Community Land Trust
Four community organizations with a combined 175 years of housing experience have joined forces to launch a community land trust in Hermosa and West Logan Square called Here to Stay. The group buys properties through the community land trust and sells the buildings on those properties to moderate-income buyers from the community at a discounted rate, ensuring long-term affordability.
606 Ordinance
Since 2012, the median home prices around the Bloomingdale Trail have risen from $97,000 to $461,500 in mid-2019. In an effort to slow the displacement of lower-income residents, we, with the help of Aldermen Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) and Roberto Maldonado (26th), proposed rules that put a pilot, six-month moratorium on building and demolition permits and zoning changes.
During this time, we have also been working on long-term strategies for addressing the 606 affordable housing crisis. As a result, the 606-Pilsen Demolition Permit Surcharge Ordinance was extended to April 1, 2024. The measure imposes a fee of $15,000, or $5,000 per unit, whichever is greater, on permits for the demolition of buildings with residential units along the 606 trail and in Pilsen, one of the city's most in demand real estate markets.
3. Change the rules of the game
We've been successful in winning hundreds of new affordable housing units in our service areas, but these opportunities are often not accessible to local families because of barriers due to immigration status. This includes ineligibility for public housing through the CHA, and lack of resources from banks and government programs that unnecessarily exclude people who are undocumented (e.g. banks refusing loans to people with an ITIN, or banks making loans more expensive with higher interest rates for people with an ITIN). We leverage our role as a community-based organization and access to partners in law, housing, and other industries to challenge these systems.
Read more about this work on Bloomberg: Chicago Taps Brakes on Gentrification With a Tax on Teardowns
Additional Housing Projects
MMRP Assistance
We are part of the Chicago Micro Market Recovery Program (MMRP) in the Hermosa/Logan Square neighborhoods. Through this program, we can work with homeowners to help find ways to lower their housing and energy costs. We can also assist homeowners with housing court issues and apply for home repair grant programs. New homebuyers in the area may be eligible for a $15,000 down payment assistance grant.
For more information please call Susan at (773) 384-4370.
Somos parte del Programa de Recuperación del Micro Mercado de Chicago (MMRP) en los vecindarios de Hermosa y Logan Square. A través de este programa, podemos trabajar con los propietarios para ayudarles a encontrar formas de reducir el costo de la vivienda o de energía. También podemos ayudar a los propietarios de viviendas con problemas de la corte de vivienda y solicitar programas de subsidios para reparaciones de viviendas. Los nuevos compradores de vivienda en el área pueden ser elegibles para una subvención de asistencia de pago inicial de $15,000.
Para obtener más información llame a Susan al (773) 384-4370.
A Study of Logan Square by Rose Werth
Rose Werth developed a community report with findings from the study conducted in Logan Square over the last couple of years. It is a high-level report oriented towards the community organizations that participated in the project. Rose collaborated with Luis Tubens (Logan Lu) to create a poem conveying the experience of gentrification in Logan Square. The words of the poem are either directly from participants, inspired by participants, or inspired by Luis's experience growing up in Logan Square.
In October 2023, Rose Werth developed a new report, in collaboration with Palenque LSNA, to discuss the history and causes of gentrification and mass displacement in Logan Square, Hermosa, and Avondale. Demolition, Deconversion & Displacement; Green Gentrification in Logan Square provides data on how these neighborhoods have been disrupted and impacted by demolition of multi-family homes and lack of community protective policies, which have led to rampant unaffordable housing.
Chicago united for equity racial equity assessment
In 2018, the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) proposed a redesign project for North Milwaukee Avenue from Logan Square to Belmont, aimed at increasing safety for residents using varied forms of mobility. The proposal inspired urgent questions from residents and advocates who were simultaneously excited about the new streetscape and concerned about its potential impact on local residents. LSNA and LUCHA invited Chicago Unity for Equity (CUE) to conduct a racial equity impact assessment (REIA) on the project, leading to a series of REIA community meetings that engaged over 140 residents. The assessment helped LSNA and LUCHA recommend changes to CDOT’s proposal that would allow it to be more equitable.