Chicago Reader61%
South Shore and Washington Park community members’ fight against displacement near the Obama Center is ongoing 39%
By Corli Jay51%
7/2/2026, 11:20:09 AM
Keywords: Listings, Reader Recommended
BS Summary: This article contains 29 faulty reasoning types, including Anecdotal, Optimism Bias, and Framing Effect, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 19.2% saturation with 266 hits. Analysis detected 1,597 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,385 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 44.4% and a BS Rank of 39% (13,469 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 61.50% of the article peer group.
Days after the opening of the Obama Presidential Center, residents of nearby South Shore and Washington Park are still fighting to stay in their communities.
“I don't stay in South Shore anymore because, last year, I was displaced,” said Mashawnda Price from the pulpit at Bryn Mawr Community Church.
“We experienced plenty of dehumanizing things while being present, but it went unheard, and each year got worse and worse to the point where the building was shut down.
Price described the conditions she faced while residing at 7500 S.
South Shore, which included rodent infestations, broken appliances, plumbing issues, and ignored calls from property management.
The building was ordered to be evacuated by a Cook County Circuit Court judge after a high-profile immigration raid last summer.
Price's experience mirrors what others detailed during the fourth annual Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) Summit on June 27 in South Shore, which was organized by the CBA Coalition, a group that largely includes community residents and organizers with housing advocacy group Southside Together.
During the event, residents spoke out against the displacement happening around the newly opened Obama Presidential Center, due to rising rents and deteriorating infrastructure that has gone unaddressed by several property managers.
Tenants at the 7500 S.
South Shore property created a tenants union with the help of Southside Together, securing funds from both the property management and other sources to help with moving costs.
The small victory gave Price hope for what can be won for community members as they continue to organize and fight toward their goal of preventing displacement.
“Organizing puts us in a better position,” Price said.
“The fight is not over, but at the end of the day, I was still displaced from my home.”
The CBA Coalition has fought for more than a decade to ensure communities surrounding the Obama Center can stay in their homes and reap the benefits of the development.
Wins secured by the coalition include the 2020 Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance and the 2025 Jackson Park housing pilot ordinance.
The ordinances established that city-owned vacant lots in Woodlawn be set aside for affordable housing, provided property-tax relief grants for South Shore homeowners, and expanded Fair Notice Requirements, which requires property owners to provide “long-term residents with extended notices of lease non-renewals.”
“This campaign proved that working-class families can speak truth to power and win.
It showed communities across the country that community benefits agreements are possible, and inspired organizing efforts beyond Chicago,” said Paru Brown, a member of the CBA Coalition, to the dozens of summit attendees.
“It created a blueprint for future housing protections, and, perhaps most importantly, it reminded people that power isn't something that you're given; power is something you build.”
Though the ordinances were celebrated by advocates as victories, the coalition is still demanding protections for residents in South Shore and Washington Park, who they say were left out.
Southside Together executive director Dixon Romeo explained that some details of the ordinances must be tweaked to ensure they are enforceable, such as defining which vacant lots will be used for affordable housing.
Romeo said efforts will continue to ensure further funds are allocated to resources for homeowners, such as property tax relief and fighting back against the prohibition of rent control at the state level.
“There are things that are in neither ordinance that are needed,” Romeo said.
“There has to be something, either an amendment to that ordinance or an additional one, to get more money allocated for these things.”
City Council members Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward) and Desmon Yancy (Fifth Ward) were present at the summit but did not speak to the crowd.
Dixon said, with their support, the coalition hopes the City Council will pass a measure with more robust protections for residents.
“You're starting to see different people come [to the CBA Summit].
It's not the same ol’ people, because people are now feeling the brunt of what organizers said what would happen.
People are actually living it,” said Taylor, who has seen her own rent increase in recent years.
“We need to get more money into the Woodlawn Housing Ordinance, but we also need to work on a citywide CBA.
Every time [a] large development comes to communities, the people who live there shouldn't be displaced.”
Amending the existing ordinances or creating a new ordinance altogether is needed to expand its reach, according to organizers and City Council members.
“It’s important to make sure the city enforces the ordinance, because protection requires enforcement,” Yancy said through a text.
“Hyde Park residents are having the same concerns about rising rents and property taxes as in Woodlawn and South Shore.
The next steps include expanding protections for them, as well.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson introduced the Protecting Renters Ordinance during Monday's Committee on Housing and Real Estate.
The ordinance would establish a rental registry and a new body to oversee housing disputes between landlords and renters.
A rental registry has long been a demand of the CBA Coalition.
As residents gave similar experiences during the summit, they also shared a will to continue the fight against displacement from the community that some have called home for decades.
Lavern Craig has lived in South Shore for 31 years.
Craig was a resident of a building at 68th and Paxton, which CKO Real Estate formerly managed.
Craig detailed her experience of having human waste coming out of the drain in her bathroom.
Southside Together helped to expose the conditions she was living in, which helped her move to a different building.
Through that experience, she learned how the power of community can ensure Black people can stay in their community with better living conditions.
The building was one of 30 in CKO's portfolio that residents complained of having similar issues—or worse.
“We need the people.
The power is in the people standing together, saying no more.
We have a right to our community.
We have a right to have comfort.
We have a right to live somewhere that's nice,” Craig said.
“Why should we be put out of our homes and out our neighborhood because we don't have the right income or we're not the right color?”
South Shore resident Brent Bradford said he fell in love with the neighborhood while visiting his grandparents.
Bradford decided to call South Shore his long-term home after moving to the area and visiting “one of the best beaches in the city.”
Bradford said he joined the fight so he could stay in the neighborhood.
“What's the reason they want us out?
Because they don't want to see struggling Black people in this community anymore,” Bradford said to the crowd.
“They don't want us in our schools, they don't want us in our homes, and they certainly don't want us to know what it's like to live in a community full of resources.”
On June 16, just three days ahead of the grand opening of the Obama Center, organizers with the CBA Coalition and Kenwood Oakland Community Organization gathered for a press conference blocks away from the new development.
Stevie Early detailed how her mom was forced to leave the three-unit building on 67th and Paxton because of rising rent.
“We loved our home, but that was taken from me and my family when suddenly the building was in disrepair for weeks.
Our front gate stopped locking suddenly, pests in the building became far more frequent, and there were rancid smells through the hallway,” Early recounted.
“We did not get a response promising to repair the damages done.
No, what we got was a lease saying you have to pay $2,450 a month.”
As residents continue the fight against increased property taxes and rents with the newly opened Obama Center, they are also fighting for protections against the quantum computing megadevelopment under construction in South Chicago.
“If you know the history of Chicago, Lincoln Park was a Puerto Rican working-class neighborhood; not the same anymore,” said Shannon Bennett, executive director of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, on June 16.
“Bronzeville could end up like that.
Woodlawn could end up like that.
South Shore: not on our watch, not on our watch.
So let us be the canaries in the mine.”
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100%flagged-word coverageMashawnda Price
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