By Elli Brodsky, ONE Intern

Early Wednesday morning July 7th, 2010, ONE and LAC travelled with leaders from EZRA, Mercy Housing Lakefront, and Lincoln Park Community Shelter to City Hall. Stephanie Sideman from EZRA led the bus chants hailing “What do we want?” “Affordable Housing!” “When do we want it?” “Now!” All of the leaders and staff were gearing up for a day of excitement, learning, and the progression of the Sweet Home Chicago Ordinance in City Council. We listened in the City Hall chamber as Julie Dworkin, Director of Policy from the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and Alderman Walter Burnett, Jr. gave an overview of the ordinance and fielded questions. Many alderman such as Thomas Tunney, Helen Shiller and Ariel Reboyras, asked very challenging questions and discussed how the ordinance would impact TIF funds throughout the city and individual wards.

In addition, we had many leaders from all of the Coalition’s organizations present testimonies in support of the ordinance. Doug Baschiere from the Lawrence House represented ONE and did an amazing job discussing how the Sweet Home Chicago campaign could improve his living residence and many others. After a long day, we finally returned to the bus and as we ate lunch we were able to debrief the events of the day and hear feedback from the leaders. Many of our leaders were curious as to when we would have a vote that would take the ordinance out of the Joint Finance and Housing Committee. It looks as though that will happen at the next hearing on July 28th. At this point, we have 26 aldermen in support of the ordinance. With the help of Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI), the Coalition has been working hard to gain more support.