As housing costs soar near Obama Center, residents speak out: 'What am I supposed to do?'

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Chicagoans who live near the Obama Presidential Center, on the city's South Side, have asked the city to help them with skyrocketing housing costs.

“I’m mentally, physically [and] emotionally drained,” said Stephanie Curry. “I’ve been asking for help, and I feel like the people over here don’t have a voice.”

Curry, a single mother of two boys, said that after months of trying to catch up on her rising rent, she will need to vacate her home in the Jackson Park Terrace Apartments. The building is located directly across the street from the slow-moving footprint of the Obama Presidential Center.

“We don’t have a voice,” she said.

Curry was among a coalition of Chicagoans from South Shore, Hyde Park and Woodlawn who said development of the nearby Obama Center prompted banks and developers to initiate a “land grab.” Rising property taxes and rents, meanwhile, have priced out both homeowners and tenants.

“We were one of the very first Black families to move onto my block and into Woodlawn,” said Christiana Powell.

Powell was evicted from her home of more than 60 years just last week.

She said an undisclosed change in her mortgage plan made the costs unaffordable.

“I fought to stay, and my fight is not over,” Powell said.

Another resident, Woodlawn homeowner Hattie Knazze, told WBBM that her property tax bill went from about $2,000 last year to nearly $7,000 now.

“I’m 77 years old,” Knazze said. “I’ve been a resident for 25 years. I’m retired. What am I supposed to do? I guess, get another job.”

A cancer survivor, Knazze added that one thing she knows how to do is fight, and that’s what she and other residents intend to do: continue to speak out and demand more affordable housing protections for all Chicagoans.

Powell echoed that sentiment. She said families just like hers long ago tilled the ground and planted the seeds in their neighborhoods.

“And now that there is a harvest, we’re being told we’re not allowed to come to the table,” Powell said. “How dare you. We’re not asking to come to the table, and we’re not demanding to come to the table; we’re going to take our place at the table.”

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