Chicago residents are complaining that the new Obama Presidential Center is gentrifying the city’s South Side and causing rent for locals to rise.
As a result of higher rent, neighborhoods like South Shore and Woodlawn near the Jackson Park site of the project have seen a rising amount of people losing their homes.
But those working with the president’s $500 million library believe the center will bring billions of dollars into the local community, affording the same people that helped Barack Obama get elected access to the economic development of the area, according to the Washington Post.
A proposal to quash concerns was offered to officials in February. A referendum from almost 90 percent of Southside voters stated politicians should develop more affordable housing in the area. It also demanded aid to renters and homeowners in proximity to the center to neutralize the rising costs of living since the center started being built.
However, months later, that proposal is still in limbo waiting for the mayoral race to be determined.
Still, individuals are nervously asking, “Will our rents be raised?” or “Will we have to move?”
Newly elected Mayor Brandon Johnson said in March while campaigning he is concerned about people getting “pushed out.”
“What happens in communities where there is economic development is families get pushed out because of property value raises,” Johnson said. “We have to make sure, for families that live in the very communities where economic development is taking place, that landlords don’t see it as an opportunity to push the families out who have been a part of these communities for decades.”
Since 2015, housing costs for the three ZIP codes in proximity to the center have increased. Renters pay 43 percent more than they did before the center’s location was announced and the value of properties in the area spiked by 130 percent — 50 percent higher than the average U.S….
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