Housing In The Shadow Of The Obama Presidential Center

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**Sasha-Ann Simons** (0:42)
Hey, Chicago, I'm Sasha-Ann Simons, and this is In the Loop.
Make sure you stick around for a breakdown of the day's top stories in the Chicago area at the end of this episode. But first, big development projects often come with even bigger promises. Take the Obama Presidential Center, for instance. City leaders and community advocates have long talked about protecting residents in the surrounding neighborhoods from being pushed out, preserving affordable housing and creating job opportunities for people in the area. But more than 10 years after those conversations began, a new investigation from the Illinois Answers Project started raising questions about how some of those commitments are actually playing out. In this episode, we dig in to that reporting and discuss what the findings might mean for daily life in the Woodlawn and South Shore neighborhoods once the museum opens. And later, we dig in to another issue drawing attention on the Southside, the growing number of short-term rentals near the Obama Center. A team of WBEZ journalists looked in to that angle.
At the table to kick things off, however, Infinity Gantt, Southside Together housing organizer and former Woodlawn resident. Sidnee King Pineda, who's a reporter with Illinois Answers Project.
Now, Infinity isn't just working to help current residents. She also has a personal connection to Woodlawn. So she started off by telling us about growing up in the area. Here's Infinity.

**Infiniti Gant** (2:06)
I grew up in Woodlawn and went to school in South Shore. So that big tall high rise on 63rd and Stony Island, Island Terrace, that's home.
That's where I spent a significant portion of my childhood. However, due to the building not keeping up maintenance and just not taking care of what we were complaining about, we had a pest infestation and we got displaced. So ever since then, I have been trying to move back. Well, you know, I was a child. So ever since I've become, you know, an adult coming back to Chicago, yeah, I've been trying to get back to Woodlawn.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (2:59)
You're trying to make your way back because you ended up moving further south, right?

**Infiniti Gant** (3:03)
So now I'm like right across the street from Chicago State on 95th and King Drive. But yeah, I work in Woodlawn and I want to make sure that I can come back to South Shore or Woodlawn so that I can better do my work, so that I can be comfortable in like where I grew up.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:26)
Yeah, what's familiar, right?

**Infiniti Gant** (3:29)
Exactly.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (3:29)
So when the Obama Presidential Center announcement happened a little over 10 years ago, tell me your initial thoughts then, knowing your personal connection to the area where it was going to be built.

**Infiniti Gant** (3:41)
I think when I first heard about it, right, there is the initial excitement that the Obama Center is going to be in the neighborhood. And so my view was north facing of Jackson Park. So I knew that like, oh, if I can get back in this building, that's the perfect view to see it, to still see downtown and all of that.
But honestly, I, around the time that I found out about it, because it was just like, whispers before 2015 is like when I went off to school. So by the time I came back, I saw like before and after pictures of Jackson Park. And I just kind of knew what that, the implications for the neighborhood, right? I knew that like, when something big comes in, the assumption is that you get to benefit. But in practice, that's not always how it happens.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (4:39)
And I'm sure of course knowing that you had to leave because for your family it became too expensive. I'm sure you're thinking with this investment, this large investment, are we going to be able to afford to come back? Can I afford to come back as an adult?

**Infiniti Gant** (4:54)
Exactly.

**Sasha-Ann Simons** (4:55)
So Sidnee, let's talk more about this. Tell me how much rent and mortgages have gone up in Woodlawn since that announcement?

**Sidnee King Pineda** (5:03)
Yeah, we've seen mortgages double over the last 10 years in the Woodlawn area. And obviously that trickles down to renters too, right? We've spoken to several renters who over the last five years, you know, they've seen their rents increase, you know, from $100 to $200 a month, which is a lot of money when you add it up at the end of the year.