Looters and Thieves: the art of destroying a neighborhood through gentrification

My neighborhood has been victimized by looters and thieves for years, and I'm not talking about shoplifters or those who smash windows, but those who systematically and strategically exploit the poor so they can structure the neighborhood to meet their goals.

In this post, I want to elaborate on what I said in Our Rebellious Mission, where the decisions of a few can be very destructive and harmful to the poor and vulnerable. Right next to CCO we've been sadly watching this old building being torn apart to build a fancy new place. The Wilson Men's Hotel offered cheap rent to people who could barely afford to live anywhere else. All of these older men are now gone, evicted, scattered throughout the city! This demolition caused plenty of tragic tales, but the one that struck me the hardest was how Bart, an 84-year-old blind man, who’d been living there for 15 years, ended up homeless and on our doorstep, alone, seeking shelter. We took him in, but Bart’s story speaks of how often money and progress are more valued than the lives of our most vulnerable citizens. His story speaks of how decisions made behind closed doors view folks like Bart as collateral damage.

the redesigned lofts - police enforced

As someone who’s been advocating for and assisting those experiencing homelessness for a couple decades, I’ve seen the damage of this systematic and strategic exploitation of the poor. I’ve watched our neighborhood change. I've watched the demolition of many buildings that once housed the poor and disenfranchised. I’ve lamented how we can no longer help people find affordable housing in Uptown, the place they've often called home for years. I lament how the lack of subsidized units has pushed homeless families out of Chicago. I lament how landlords on the North Side utilize and abuse the system to exclude people - by charging an overly priced non-refundable fee to do a background check, where someone's income, rap-sheet, and credit score is revealed, denying them a housing opportunity. I lament how these moves purposefully scatter people out of Uptown, pushing them to the south and west sides. 

There's plenty of illustrations of how exclusive meetings influence what happens in Uptown, but the destruction and redesign of Stewart School trump them all. What transpired on this site was the result of those in power abusing their privilege to cast out those deemed undesirable, to bring in those they've deemed worthy. Money spoke, the poor and homeless weren't listened to, and it's fate was determined behind closed doors. And that's why a few local Black Lives Matter rallies ended at this location. 

Stewart School was once a safe place for poor children and those experiencing homelessness (including CCO residents) to be educated. Knowing what a vital part of the community it was, many in the neighborhood cried for it to stay open, but Mayor Rahm Emanuel and our alderman (James Cappleman) did not listen to these voices, and it was shut down in 2013. A tent city grew in the abandoned lot, along with pleas for affordable housing, but again our alderman and his crew did not listen to these voices, so the police forced them off the land, gates were put up, and they were scattered. We cried out again, we wanted this forsaken school to be used for something beneficial for the whole community, yet despite pretending to hear our voices, the alderman decided to turn it into a luxury apartment building. The Stewart School Lofts now sits in the middle of Uptown, gated, with cameras, and threats of police enforcement. We lament, as most of her past students and tent city residents could never afford to live in such a place - they have been shunned and excluded. 

For more about this, read: Stewart School Blues

where the tent city was once located 

People know how to use their money and privilege to gain power and get what they want. They manipulate the system, the police, city hall, exclusive meetings, to get tax-breaks, to punish who they want, to exclude who they want, and to make this neighborhood look and function a certain way. It's a form of violence. It's looting. It's stealing. It's strategic. It endangers and threatens the health and well-being of the most vulnerable among us. Uptown is full of looters and thieves dressed in fancy clothes, using politically correct catch-phrases, proclaiming their innocence, while their actions are contradicting their words and political ideologies. 

Walk beyond the Stewart School Lofts and observe what's happening. On one corner we had a building that once housed endangered youth, only for it to be torn down and turned into an expensive highrise that has only catered to the wealthy. We asked for affordable units, but behind closed doors, that idea was nixed. Despite the protests, they received a whopping 15.8 million TIF dollars which could have gone towards helping the people living in tents just outside their door. The police obeyed their orders, came en masse, and forced those living under the Wilson viaduct to move. As they sought safe housing, as some relocated their tents, as some moved into our homeless shelter, they watched this enormous building proudly rise up into the sky. 

Don’t be fooled, these awful ironies aren’t unusual - this destruction is constantly happening throughout Uptown. Over 2000 units of affordable housing have recently been victims of gentrification's violence. But that's not all, people are also using mass incarceration and countless other tools at their disposal to inject their ways! It's constant. It's strategic! Groups meet to use their power and privilege to determine and create a neighborhood that’s right for them. Groups meet to loot and rob our community from what it once was. 

Let's look at the monthly CAPS meetings, where people gather with the police to discuss what they perceive are problems in their beats. An alliance is formed where the attendees are encouraged to call 911 on anyone who looks suspicious, they promote the arrests of who they perceive as the “bad” guys, they seek to shut down what they perceive as “trouble” buildings, they focus on whether shelters are complying with their expectations, and then they schedule the "good" guys to go to court as advocates to keep the “bad” guys in jail for longer. They do it all in the name of safety, but who's safety? Such focus and intent screams of white supremacy. 

It's hard to find hope when the rich get rewarded for their looting and robbing, while the poor are getting punished. It's hard to find hope when you know backroom deals are causing some to make a profit, while others are cuffed, shackled and sent away. It's hard to find hope when our neighborhood is now overrun by fences, permit parking, and threatening signs giving us the message to get out, stay out, and get lost. It’s hard to find hope when park benches were removed secretly overnight. It's hard to find hope, but there is hope! I’ve seen it, I’ve experienced it countless times in my years of ministry. We have to cling onto those slivers of hope as often as we can.

Like Bart, Ken stayed in the Wilson Men’s Hotel. He was stressed, facing the prospect of homelessness. Days before his eviction, Ken had a massive heart attack, where the doctors told me he wouldn’t make it through the night. I prayed for him, thinking I’d never see this man alive again. Over the next week I couldn’t believe what I saw, Ken opened his eyes, started talking, started walking, and before I knew it he slowly shuffled over to our shelter, needing a place to lay his weary head. Over the next few months, there were moments of distress, but we persevered, we came together, we gave him what he needed, we didn’t forget about him, and the good news is, today Ken sits successfully housed in his own subsidized safe apartment. This gives me hope! 

Just walk into our homeless shelter, despair does not govern, there’s hope! Visit someone in jail, and despite the bars, you'll see hope. There’s hope in the resilience I see every day. There’s hope in the troops that join forces to uplift one another. There’s hope in those who persevere and protest for a better tomorrow. There’s hope in those who get alongside others and help them navigate this difficult world. There’s hope in those victories, like when another person gets their keys or a new job. Looters and thieves try to rob us of that hope, but it won’t be squelched, because our God sides with the poor, the weak, and oppressed, and through the death and resurrection of Jesus he has the power to right all wrongs. 

“Don’t walk on the poor just because they’re poor,

    and don’t use your position to crush the weak,

Because God will come to their defense;

    the life you took, he’ll take from you and give back to them.” 

Proverbs 22:22-23