March 28, 2013

Photo: Housing for all!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – MARCH 28, 2013

Tenants say: BJB has got to go!
Press Contacts:
Arbie Bowman, 773-302-5171
Melvin Jennings, 312-256-6772

The tenants of Rogers Park's Astor House are fighting to take back their building.
Using signs and banners, as well as face paint to look like the mice and bedbug­s that plague their residence, the tenants will picket today outside the Astor House at 1246 W. Pratt to send the message that they're not giving up.
At a 10:30 a.m. press conference, tenants will discuss the mass eviction that is currently under way in the building, as well as serious problems with their units -- including bedbugs, mice, roaches, contaminated water, broken elevators, and inadequate heat.
Jamie Purcell, the developer who is the principal of BJB Properties, owns the building through a subsidiary. His company has filed over 40 eviction cases since it bought the building last fall; at least two residents who have been forced out by the current management are already homeless. Purcell is also trying to evict residents from the Chateau Hotel building in Uptown. 
Residents will tell Purcell and BJB “that we're not planning on leaving – that we're planning to fight back,” says tenant Arbie Bowman, who has lived in the building for two and a half years.
They will be joined by neighbors and Loyola University students who are helping them fight back, as well as supporters from Northside Action for Justice, Metropolitan Tenants Organization and Communities United Against Foreclosure and Eviction.
We are trying to get our building back for people to stay here, who can't afford any other housing than what we have got now,” Bowman says.
Tenants and their supporters have launched a boycott of BJB Properties, asking Loyola students and other community members not to rent from BJB until the company drops eviction cases against Astor House residents and agrees to negotiate with all tenant associations in its buildings about keeping its apartments affordable.
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Please sign this petition refusing to rent from BJB and FLATS unless they agree to negotiate on these issues.


March 23, 2013

We are mobilizing for a massive education rally on Wednesday, March 27 at 4pm at the Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington, to demand:

1) NO SCHOOL CLOSINGS!
2) No More Charter Schools
3) YES to a community-based transformation process, and
4) YES to an elected, representative school board.

CPS announced that 54 schools are slated to close, including Stewart, Stockton, and Trumbull.

Please be there on Wednesday! Email us at info@actionforjustice.org if you need transportation to the rally.



March 16, 2013

NA4J Members Marc Kaplan and Alan Mills quoted in Streetwise Article about loss of affordable housing on the Northside:

Streetwise: Affordable Housing Priced Out On North Side

March 07, 2013


Over 200 People Protest Alderman Cappleman's "War on the Poor"

NA4J and our allies protested outside the Alderman's Office on Wednesday, March 6, chanting "Uptown for Everybody!" and "Housing is a Human Right, Not Just for the Rich and White!" We are protesting the Alderman's plans to push out low and moderate income residents from his ward and plans for developers to build high-cost housing available only to the wealthy.

Here are a news stories from yesterday's protest:
Mark Brown, Chicago Sun-Times: Cappleman Free to Show He's Serious About Helping Homeless
DNAInfo: Resident's Rally Outside Cappleman's Office to Protest 'War on the Poor'

Check back soon for more updates, and click below to receive email updates from NA4J:




   
   
   











March 05, 2013

Upcoming Actions and Events

Please join us this Saturday, March 9th for our next General Meeting, 10am at 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, 1st Floor. We will have updates and action planning on all of our issues, but this meeting in particular will go in depth into the fight for affordability, education, and youth programs.

Additionally, please join us for the following important actions taking place throughout March:


1) Wednesday, March 6: Gathering at Alderman Cappleman's Office to "Feed the Poor In Uptown" and to protest the Cubicle Hotel Ordinance, the displacement of people in our community, and the selling off of our community to the highest bidder. Meet at 5pm at 4544 N. Broadway

2) Friday, March 8: People's Board Meeting from 6:00-8:00pm at the Hyde Park 1st Unitarian Church, 5650 S. Woodlawn (see flyer below). We are arranging for transportation to and from the event. If you are interested in attending and need transportation, please contact us as soon as possible. Email education@actionforjustice.org

3) Wednesday, March 27: Citywide Rally Against School Closings, 4pm, details to be announced 

As always, please email us at info@actionforjustice.org with any questions. See you there!

March 02, 2013

Ald. Cappleman treats poor "like pigeons"?

Mark Brown's column March 2
(reprinted from Sun-Times without permission ... apologies to Mark Brown)

Ald. James Cappleman (46th) informed the Salvation Army on Friday that it is no longer welcome to feed the poor in Uptown from its homeless outreach trucks.
Cappleman gave the social service agency one month to find a new North Side location — outside his ward — before ceasing operations, said Capt. Nancy Powers, who oversees the Salvation Army’s homeless program in Chicago.

“He decided he felt the unit was pulling homeless into the area, and he does not want us to feed them,” Powers told me.  Powers said the Salvation Army will depart willingly.
“We don’t want to be where we’re not wanted,” she said.  But Powers expressed concern for those living in the neighborhood who rely on the truck for a daily hot meal — which the agency uses as a lure to connect the homeless with its social workers.

This ought to clear up any lingering doubts as to Cappleman’s motivation in seeking to close the Wilson Men’s Hotel, one of the city’s last two cubicle hotels, the subject of several recent columns.
He’s obviously decided to rid the 46th Ward of unsightly poor people — with a not entirely dissimilar approach to the one he has employed to disappear pigeons.

When I wrote about the pigeon situation (remember the Indiana farmer and his “pigeon shoots,”) I thought Cappleman was just a little aggressive. Now I’m starting to think he’s downright dangerous.

For his part, Cappleman told me via email Friday: “We continue to be concerned about the plight of the homeless, especially during these cold winter months. As the Salvation Army mobile outreach unit tapers off, we are working with other social service agencies to try a new approach that we believe will be more effective with empowering these individuals experiencing homelessness to get out of the cycle of homelessness.”
Naturally, Cappleman did not identify these “other social service agencies” or this “new approach.” Nor did he give a direct answer to my questions about whether he blames the feeding program for bringing the homeless into his ward — or what he thinks is wrong with feeding them.
“There’s always the question of the chicken or the egg,” acknowledged Powers, who went out of her way to avoid casting this as a fight with Cappleman.
I’m well aware of the conundrum surrounding services to the poor. The agencies who do a good job of providing those services try to locate in the areas where they see the most need, but others argue the availability of the service then attracts more who need it.
That has long been a bone of contention in Uptown, where a decades-old pocket of poverty has given rise to some of the city’s most well-established social service agencies, which in turn are seen by some residents as an obstacle to neighborhood revitalization.

Powers said the Salvation Army began bringing its mobile outreach unit to Uptown at the request of Cappleman’s predecessor, Ald. Helen Shiller, soon after its creation in 2009.
While Salvation Army personnel serve up bowls of hot soup, two social workers specializing in substance abuse and mental health mingle with the crowd and try to forge relationships with the homeless to identify those who are ready to get off the street.
A “chaser van” goes along to immediately transport anyone who is ready to enter rehab or go to the hospital.
Operating from a location at Wilson and Marine, the unit feeds 100 people on average at midday Monday through Friday, Powers said. In recent years, most of those lining up for food have been residents of nearby single room occupancy buildings who can’t afford to eat, she said.
Cappleman informed the Salvation Army it was welcome to continue to provide the social workers, but not to feed anybody.
Powers said the program won’t work that way.
“[The food] is our calling card to get people to come to us,” she explained.
The mobile outreach unit also operates daily from four other locations in the city. In addition, the Salvation Army operates mobile feeding trucks that go to 22 other sites — but with no homeless support. The Uptown location is the only North Side site.
Powers said she has been in discussions with Cappleman about his concerns for several months, but that he delivered his final decision in a meeting Friday, word of which leaked out to me.
The Salvation Army will ask other Lakefront aldermen to provide a location to fill the void.

As a “licensed clinical social worker,” Cappleman claims special insights into how to deal with the problems of poor people. I guess that’s why he treats them like pigeons.