{"id":363168,"date":"2026-06-16T19:39:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/363168\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T19:39:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T19:39:33","slug":"how-well-has-chicago-protected-residents-near-the-obama-center-from-getting-pushed-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/363168\/","title":{"rendered":"How well has Chicago protected residents near the Obama Center from getting pushed out?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When the Obama Presidential Center was announced in 2015, organizers raised the alarm that the project could raise rents, potentially forcing residents out of surrounding neighborhoods. Organizers spent years advocating for protections and the Lightfoot Administration eventually passed the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chicago.gov\/city\/en\/depts\/doh\/supp_info\/woodlawn-housing-ordinance.html\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But an <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/illinoisanswers.org\/2026\/05\/07\/affordability-woodlawn-obama-center-housing-costs\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">investigation<\/a> from the Illinois Answers Project finds that $2 million in two programs for affordable housing went unspent. It also found that developers didn\u2019t follow a pilot program to offer tenants an opportunity to buy their apartment, nor did the city enforce it.<\/p>\n<p>In the Loop learns more about the backstory in pushing for this ordinance, why it hasn\u2019t been enforced, and the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DZpdGACNy_8\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ongoing community organizing<\/a> to <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/secure.everyaction.com\/3XYCiI1TUUql9NKsvrrvSQ2\" target=\"_blank\" data-cms-ai=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">prevent displacement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>GUESTS: Sidnee King Pineda, journalist, Illinois Answers Project<\/p>\n<p>Infiniti Gant, housing organizer, Southside Together<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Obama Presidential Center was announced in 2015, organizers raised the alarm that the project could raise&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-363168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}