MICAH 2:1-2

All of us live on land that did not belong to us or to our ancestors but was taken by force or fraud from its original inhabitants. The American experience is built upon the foundation of the displacement and resettlement of indigenous peoples because “we had the power to do it.” We still see people using power to displace others through “speculative real estate deals”, “urban pioneering” and “gentrification.”

Questions for Reflection:

1. What does it mean for a person to “have power” especially as it relates to housing?
2. Are you a person with power? What power do you have?
3. How can people of faith “plot good on their beds” rather than evil in relationship to real estate and housing?

FOR FURTHER REFLECTION

A trend over the last 40 years is for young (predominantly white) artists, students and professionals to move into poor urban communities of color in what has become known as “gentrification.” Property values increase, new capitol comes into the community, and crime rates often fall. Cities often encourage this shift because it represents development and increased revenue. However, as good as all this sounds, “gentrification” has a dark side. According to Teresa Cordova in her article “Community Intervention Efforts to Oppose Gentrification” (In Philip W. Nyden, Wim Wiewel, eds., Challenging Uneven Development: An Urban Agenda for the 1990s, (1991) New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 25-48.), suggests that

“gentrification is a creation of real estate agents, property developers, and banks who control the “who” and “where” of urban property shifts.”

In other words, those with power see a way to profit through a shift in the way urban property is reused. In addition, as property values increase, property taxes and rents rise, often making the community unaffordable for existing homeowners and tenants. Families are forced to find a more affordable community. It also promotes speculative land purchases as people look for the next “hot” neighborhood. Buy a cheap property, hold on to it and then flip it for a large profit. We are watching this this phenomena happening in Logan Square—especially along the Bloomingdale Trail. What was once an affordable community for immigrants and low-income families has now become the most recent “hot neighborhood” in Chicago. What could your church do to ensure that families can still call Logan Square ‘home’?

We are fasting to provide homes for others.  Fasting leads us to ACTION!  This week, take your fast to 2 important actions to ensure that struggling families and individuals will have safe, affordable housing.

1.  Attend the “Keeping the Promise” ordinance hearing on Wednesday, February 17, at City Hall starting with a 9:00 am Press Conference.  Add your voice to the call to hold the Chicago Housing Authority accountable to its mission–providing housing for the poor.
   

   Over the past 15 years, thousands of public housing units have been torn down to make room for “mixed-income” communities.  The CHA promised to replace all the units that had been destroyed, but they have not kept their promise.

   In addition, thousands of public housing units have been left empty throughout the city–including over 750 units at Lathrop Homes.  But the CHA continues to receive $10,000 annually for each of those empty units from the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.  (The CHA receives no oversight from HUD thanks to an agreement between former Mayor Richard M. Daley and the Clinton administration.) Meanwhile, 1000’s of families languish on CHA waiting lists.

   Passage of the “Keeping the Promise” ordinance will give the City Council oversight of the Chicago Housing Authority and force the CHA to keep its promises to the people of Chicago.

2. Attend the city Plan Commission meeting on Thursday, February 18, at City Hall starting at 10:00 am.  Help to make sure that the Lathrop Homes Planned Development (rezoning) application is not considered at this meeting.

The planned redevelopment of Lathrop Homes cannot proceed without changes in the zoning of the property.  1st Ward Alderman, Joe Moreno, has publicly promised to hold up the development until the Chicago Housing Authority demonstrates ‘How’, ‘When’ and ‘Where’ it would replace the 525 units of public housing that would be eliminated at Lathrop Homes.

However, the application is currently on the agenda of the Plan Commission, the first step toward passage.

If you cannot attend these important meetings, PRAY that God will speak powerfully through those who give testimony and will turn the hearts of our elected officials toward justice and mercy.

 

REFLECTION ON ‘STABILITY’

Growing up I lived on the same street, in the same house, in the same room from birth until I took off for college at 18.   Not only that: it was the same neighborhood that my Mother, and her Father (my Grandfather) grew up in. This formed my understanding of home. For many years home, for me, was synonymous with consistency, sameness, and uniformity. Growing up I also had the chance to travel. When I was 4 years old, we drove from Iowa to Vancouver Island, Canada and I still remember that trip, especially Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.   When I was 6 years old, my grandparents begin volunteering in their retirement as missionaries on the border of Texas and Mexico, and we would go for a few weeks every year.   Many weekends we visit family in various parts of the Midwest. And parts of each summer were spent at the family cabin in Fairbault, Minnesota. It was during these trips, explorations and adventures that I felt full of life, excited and ready to learn new ways of living and being.   Home became the place where I was, the people I was with, the ways God guided me to grow and flourish.

– Submitted by Rev. Paula Cripps-Vallejo, Pastor of Humboldt Park United Methodist Church, Chicago

Questions for Reflection:

1. How many times did you move before you turned 18?
2. If you moved more than 3 times, how has frequent moves impacted you? 
3. If you moved less than 3 times, how has ‘housing stability’ impacted you?
4. If you were going to “move home,” where would that be?

REFLECTING ON The Similitudes 1:1-10

The Shepherd of Hermas, writing in the 2^nd Century, reminded his readers that the servants of God live in a “strange country” far from their true home of heaven. Given our alien status, it makes little sense for believers to collect possessions, fields and houses. Hermas suggested that whatever believers had beyond what was sufficient for their needs was for the needs of widows, orphans and the poor. God gave his people more than enough for the purpose of generous giving—not for adding to their “comforts of home.”

Questions for Reflection:

1. What is the last purchase you made for your home? Was it “necessary?”
2. How do you decide when you have “what is sufficient”?
3. What—if any—objections do you sense when you read The Similitudes? Why?

There is no devotional for Sunday, February 14.

REFLECTING ON ‘HOMELESSNESS’

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines homeless people in 4 categories: 1) individuals or families not having a fixed, regular or adequate night time residence or who sleep in shelters or public places not designed for overnight accommodations, 2) individuals or families who will lose their housing within 14 days if they have no subsequent residence identified, 3) unaccompanied youth or families with children who have moved more than 2 times during the last 60 days, 4) individuals or families that are fleeing domestic violence, dating violence or stalking if they have no other residence.   Individuals and families that share living quarters temporarily are actually considered homeless.

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless estimates that almost 128,000 people were homeless in Chicago at some point in 2015. Over 50% of those experiencing homelessness were families with children. Analysis by the National Coalition For the Homeless shows that poverty and homelessness are inextricably linked. A growing number of people simply cannot afford to live in a house or apartment.   Low-wage jobs, part time employment and chronic unemployment are major contributors to the problem.

Questions for Reflection:

1. Do you know anyone who would fit into any of the categories of homelessness?
2. If so, what have you done to help them?
3. What would happen to your housing if you suddenly lost your job, experienced a catastrophic illness or experienced divorce or death of a wage earning spouse?
4. What would you do?
5. What would you want those around you to do to help?

In just a few days, we will shower our significant others with flowers, candy, gifts and food and wine as part of our annual observance of Valentine’s Day.  In the process, we are expected to spend close to $20 billion (with a ‘B’).  That’s a lot of LOVE!  But what if we took just 1% of that to “love our neighbors as ourselves” this year?  We could free up $200 million and give hundreds of people the gift of home.

How are you celebrating Valentine’s Day? Consider spending just a little less and giving the money you save toward our Lenten Compact project to ‘make a home’ for a refugee family.

REFLECTING ON ‘PROPERTY AND OWNERSHIP’

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Thus says the US Declaration of Independence.

There has been much discussion about the origin and meaning of the phrase, “pursuit of happiness.” Most historians believe the founders were strongly influenced by the Virginia Declaration of Rights also written in 1776, which states, “… all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights…namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”

From the beginning of our nation, acquiring property has been considered essential to one’s well-being (happiness), and home ownership is considered the access point to the “American Dream.”

Questions for Reflection:

1. How has “the American Dream” influenced your decisions and life goals?
2. Has property ownership been a part of your definition of “the good life?” Why?
3. What do you think happens socially and economically when acquiring property is held up as an “unalienable right” “endowed by our Creator”?
4. Do you think God has an opinion about the “right” to pursue happiness in this context? What might it be?

Each morning throughout Lent, we are taking our Compact for housing justice to the streets through public prophetic prayer and protest.  A full list of locations will be posted at 40 Days of Prayer and Protest.  Here is a list of locations for February 11-13.

Thursday, February 11 – 7 am at California Blue Line El station just down the street from the construction site of the Logan Square Towers–two new luxury high-rises that will displace working families from Logan Square.

Friday, February 12 – 7 am at 2525 N. Milwaukee, the former Milshire Hotel, a single room occupancy (SRO) hotel that was closed in November, 2014, displacing dozens of low-income tenants.  The property remains boarded up.

Saturday, February 13 – 9:30 am at Wellington and Damen, near Lathrop Homes which is slated for a redevelopment that will replace of 525 units of public housing with 500 units of housing for the wealthy.

REFLECTING ON ‘HOME’

If I were not a pastor, I would be an architect. As a youth, I spent hours viewing (and drawing) house plans and blueprints. What I discovered was that I loved design, but not the drafting. I enjoyed thinking about space and how space can be configured in multiple ways. I came up with multiple iterations of my “dream home.” Each one was bigger than the one I lived in—and I grew up in a pretty large house (4 bedrooms, 2 baths, family room, full basement, walk-in storage). And the housing I saw in magazines inspired me to dream even bigger and better (ie more luxurious). When I moved into the Chicago, I became fascinated by how architects could design large homes on tiny lots (25’ X 125’ is the standard city lot), and I sometimes dreamed of tearing down walls in the church parsonage.

I am still enamored with architecture and design. Last year, I attended Chicago’s first Architectural Biennial and came away with a new appreciation for how design impacts social relationships, and I appreciated the growing emphasis on sustainability and affordability. But while good design can make a house flow, it cannot create the experience of home. A larger, more luxurious house does not ensure more positive socialization. In fact, the larger the home, the more likely we experience isolation.

I once went on a tour of new homes in Texas. These beautiful homes featured large bedrooms each with its own adjoining bathroom and “homes within homes” (master bedroom suites with sitting rooms and a wet bar). Initially, this was very appealing. Having raised a family in a home with one bathroom, I knew all about bathroom scheduling conflicts. Yet, in the end, I walked away somewhat saddened by the experience. These family houses literally disconnected families from one another. No one ever had to cooperate over sharing anything! Parents and children could remain in their individual suites and never interact, never bond, never be a family. I suddenly had a new appreciation for our single bathroom.

When we value space more than relationships; when we pursue luxury over community; when we turn our houses into investments, we become poorer, less human, less alive. God’s design for home is about building relationships and connecting people to one another. This Lent, I’m leaving the comfort of my house to better experience the home God is building. I hope to meet you along the way.

Questions for Reflection:

1. Have you envisioned your Dream Home? What does it look like and include?
2. Do you agree that God’s design for home is abut building relationships and connecting people? If so, how could your house become an even better tool to accomplish God’s plan?

– Submitted by Rev. Bruce Ray, Pastor of Kimball Avenue Church, Chicago

“Hot Neighborhoods on the Rise,” shouted the headline on the first page of the Chicago Tribune Business section on Sunday, February 7.  I don’t usually read the Business section, but the subtitle included the words, “Humboldt Park” and given all the concern about gentrification in the neighborhood, I had to read on.  Unfortunately, the article confirmed the concern.

Becky Yerak’s story (which you can read HERE) focused on three Chicago neighborhoods that have seen a significant increase in prices.  First on the list: Humboldt Park, where the median price of a single-family home increased 62% and condos increased 184%–in 1 year!

Why are houses selling like hot cakes on Fat Tuesday? According to Mario Greco, a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group quoted in the article, it’s “the 606”–the elevated train line that the city turned into a bike/running path/elevated park along Bloomingdale Ave.  “The 606 is making people not only open to [living south of Armitage  Avenue and west of Kedzie Avenue], but looking to live along the trail because properties are still a perceive value–and most people think they’ll go up faster because of the 606,” he said.

But families aren’t the only ones looking at houses along the 606.  Prices are increasing because investors have been “flipping”–buying low-priced homes, fixing them up (a little) and then selling them for a profit.  Humboldt Park is no longer a neighborhood or a place to settle down and raise a family.  It’s not about people.  Now the neighborhood has been reduced to a “perceived value” and a place to make profit.

Humboldt Park is becoming a hot neighborhood.  Unfortunately, I know a lot of people who are likely to get burned.