Newsletter | April 2018
ATU and Albany Park Defense Network are hosting a screening of Hey Arnold!: The Movie. The animated film follows Arnold and his friends as they fight to rescue their neighborhood from a greedy developer who plans on converting it into a huge shopping mall. Sound familiar? There will be food and a discussion on gentrification and community resistance. We will be collecting donations to put towards purchasing our own interpretation equipment.
The film will be screened in English with Spanish subtitles.
Friday, April 20, 6:30pm at 3253 W. Wilson Ave
Logan Square Press Conference and Call In
On March 29th ATU coordinated a day of action in support of tenants fighting eviction at the hands of Barnett Capital LTD. Tenants and allies arrived at Daley Plaza bright and early to hold a press conference ahead of the tenants’ eviction hearing against Barnett, a predatory company that buys buildings & evicts working class people all over Chicago. Later in the day, ATU held a massive call-in campaign that left Barnett’s phones ringing off the hook for a few good hours.
Barnett is trying to evict tenants including children, the elderly, and people with disabilities from their community of Logan Square. ATU made clear that we say no to displacement and no to corporate monsters like Barnett breaking up our communities.
ATU was actually formed in 2016 by individuals that were evicted by Barnett from their home in Albany Park! That same year, ATU supported tenants in Little Village fighting against a Barnett eviction. In this case, Barnett failed to notify tenants of the change in ownership within the time frame specified by the law. This was only the beginning of repeated acts of miscommunication, posted notes without explanation & lots of confusion for the tenants.
A Somos Logan Square organizer lives in one of the buildings & after learning (through public records) that Barnett had bought the property, contacted ATU & Somos for support. Since then, the tenants have organized into a union to fight & defend their rights together! We demand that Barnett Capital end the court process & negotiate with the members of the Altgeld-Harding Tenants Union in good faith. Fight with us against all attempts by developers like Barnett Capital to displace our neighbors from our communities!
Delegation & Flyering with Edith and Tom
On the afternoon of March 17, ATU visited elderly tenants Edith and Tom at their Albany Park apartment where they’ve lived for almost a decade. Though they once had a close relationship with their in-building landlords, William and Maria Sanchez, they’ve recently been subject to hostility and verbal assault. When they asked that William and Maria make repairs to their unit, they were met with threats of eviction. The prospect of being kicked out of their longtime home has already manifested in stress-related health problems like elevated blood pressure. We stood in support with Edith and Tom as they attempted to reason with the landlords to no avail. William and Maria were more concerned with saving face in front of the neighbors than the health of their tenants.
So, on March 24, we returned to let the community know about the practices William and Maria would rather keep behind closed doors. We papered the block with fliers condemning their callous treatment of Edith and Tom. We think they (and their neighbors!) got the message: treating vulnerable tenants as disposable is unjust and will not be tolerated.
Financial Literacy Workshop
On March 24, we were able to present a workshop to the community about the myths of credit, how to build it without having an ITIN number, and understand that credit is a game was created by those in power to categorize and control people based on their income.
It is crucial for the working class to be equipped with understanding of the game, in order to stand a chance of changing it. We hope to do more workshops like this in the future, and let us know if you have any suggestions for topics!
Rent Control Vote
Because of tireless organizing by groups like Lift the Ban, Chicago weighed in on rent control last month: and voted resoundingly in favor of lifting the Illinois-wide ban. In the ten wards where the question appeared on the ballot, 75% voted yes. That Chicagoans want affordable housing shouldn’t surprise us, as recent studies show 53 percent of renters spend more of their income than is considered manageable on rent each month. This is a undeniable victory in the fight for housing justice.
As rent control legislation is sent to Springfield, we recognize this fight is a long one with many components. Though rent control would be an important first step to securing affordable housing, it wouldn’t necessarily halt evictions on its own. For example, after rent control was passed in L.A., landlords took advantage of a loophole that allowed them to legally evict tenants and tear down buildings to start anew--this type of eviction more than doubled from 2016 to 2017. Unscrupulous landlords may also use the threat of deportation against undocumented tenants to get around rent control protections.
This shouldn’t discourage us from pursuing rent control, but on the contrary encourage us to push harder for even stronger renter protections. As long as housing remains a commodity, the interests of landlords and renters will be at odds. However, we can and should build popular support for policies that can help us fight.
