Displacement around Obama Center to be focus of ordinance proposal at next month’s City Council meeting

An ordinance protecting against displacement in the South Side neighborhoods surrounding the future site of the Obama Presidential Center will be proposed at next month’s City Council meeting, two aldermen in the affected wards said at a community forum Thursday.

The proposal would come after years of sustained efforts from hundreds of organizers and activists in Woodlawn, Jackson Park, Hyde Park and Washington Park, who demanded the neighborhoods’ current residents see at least some of the Obama Center’s benefits without being forced out of the area by skyrocketing rents.

Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) and Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) said they would meet with community organizers on Monday to begin drafting the “community benefits agreement” ordinance. The proposal will call for 30% of new housing in the area to be set aside for affordable housing; a property tax freeze; funding for local jobs; job training and workforce development; and the creation of a community trust fund for home repair and tax relief for longtime residents.

Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) is among the 19 organizations that makes up the Obama CBA Coalition, which has led the charge for the CBA since the plans to use 19.3 acres in Jackson Park for the Obama Center were first introduced in 2016.

Nader Issa/Sun-Times

A member of STOP, 29-year-old Devondrick Jeffers, said at Thursday’s forum at Hyde Park Academy High School that he and other residents were still excited for what the Obama Center could bring to the South Side, but that organizing was needed to make sure the communities’ real needs were met.

“It went from being all celebration to serious consideration,” Jeffers told the crowd. “You all set the tone and changed the conversation around the Obama Center.”

The Obama Foundation and former President Barack Obama repeatedly opposed a community benefits agreement, at first saying the Obama Center wouldn’t cause displacement. After residents kept pushing the topic, the foundation offered job training and protections against displacement but still hasn’t agreed to a CBA with the community.

Last year activists turned their focus to City Council in an effort to pass an ordinance they hope will create a model for similar agreements around development in other neighborhoods down the line.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said she supports such an agreement.

In a statement Friday, the Obama Foundation said there’s a need to “bring opportunity to a community that has been overlooked and underinvested.

“The Obama Foundation looks forward to working with Mayor Lightfoot and other elected officials, on efforts related to housing, education, and other issues we agree are vital to the revitalization of this community,” the statement read. “We also look forward to working with the many community organizations and indigenous groups that have long been doing this work across Chicago.”

In February’s municipal elections, just under 90% of voters in parts of two South Side wards supported a CBA in a non-binding measure. Those voters cast ballots in four precincts in the 5th and 20th wards that were chosen because they offer a sampling of voters from Jackson Park, Woodlawn and Washington Park, organizers said.