(Pamela Williams shares a story about the realities of her building, 920 West Lakeside)

As the economy tumbled throughout 2009, community residents struggled with the lack of financial resources for families and institutions. Leaders from ONE identified the loss of employment, the disintegrating state budget and decreasing quality of the housing that is available to people with low incomes as the major fallout impacting our community from the global crisis.

While ONE leaders concerned with employment and the state budget have taken action steps in coordination with local and national allies on large scale solutions, leaders concerned with housing conditions have taken the opposite approach – starting local – very local.

Community residents have met in living rooms and laundry rooms; taken pictures of mold to deliver to their landlords; met with pest control experts in their buildings; collected letters of support from their neighbors; delivered clever holiday petitions to their landlords. Throughout the community there have been a series of actions around the deteriorating conditions experienced by many residents in their homes – many of which have been reported here at onechicago.org.

At the November 16th Action Council, ONE leaders came together to discuss these concerns and begin the process of identifying winnable solutions. The council shared the difficult realities impacting our friends and families. After Andy Geer of Heartland Housing explained what tenants should expect from their landlords, Pamela Williams spoke about how the policies in her Section 8 building have led to families being separated and youth being forced onto the streets. Nelly Rebollar shared the horrifying story of finding a roach in her son’s ear. Laverne Johnson testified to the deplorable conditions in her building.

Since ONE is a group of people and organizations that are about positive results for our community, it did not take long for people to come up with ideas to address the problems we are confronted with.

Here are some of the ideas:
• Use the City of Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance to hold landlords accountable
• Door knocking to gather support using petitions
• Educational workshops for tenants and landlords
• Work with Alderman and bring community together to support residents
• Publicize the negligence of slum lords
• Let owners know about the issues clearly and firmly
• Organize building residents to demand that owners provide adequate living conditions
• Organize rallies in support of tenant solutions
• We need to know our rights as tenants – educate ourselves and neighbors
• Get organized to gain power and don’t be afraid to raise our voice
• Document all the problems and keep a record of everything like photos, videos, complaints, etc. Create clear systems to register complaints
• More tenant and community inspections
• Connect laborers who need work with property owners looking for affordable labor
• Work with refugees and include them in ONE efforts
• Meet with owners face to face
• Work with tenants to build strong tenant associations

These are just some of the ideas that came out of the Action Council and many of them have already been enacted by teams of leaders from ONE members.

Come our on January 25th to North Shore Baptist Church for an update at our next Action Council. The meeting will start at 7pm and will take place at 5244 N Lakewood. Other items on the agenda include the strategic planning process being led by the ONE Board and the effort to create a complete count in the 2010 Census. See you there!