Many of the neighborhoods hardest hit by the wave of foreclosures now sweeping Chicago

are NCP neighborhoods.That’s the bad news. But in another sense, it’s

also the good news.The downside is obvious. There’s nothing

positive about thousands of families losing their homes—be they first-time bungalow buyers tricked by predatory mortgages, or renters who never missed a payment only to discover their landlords failed to make theirs.

The upside is that LISC/Chicago and the New Communities Program are front-and-center in a rapidly evolving citywide coalition out to stem the tide of new foreclosures, resettle the dispossessed, and recycle vacant properties into the hands of capable owners before they drag down the rest of the block.

“It’s pretty frightening when you look at it,” said Joel Bookman, LISC/Chicago’s program director and a veteran of community development battles. He compares the scale of damage now being inflicted on neighborhoods to that caused by the blockbusting/re-segregation/redlining syn-drome of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and to the subsequent FHA mortgage foreclosure scandals of the ’80s.

A massive problemThe raw numbers of the foreclosure crisis are staggering: The number of Chicago properties undergoing

foreclosure jumped by 85 percent from 2005 through 2007, reaching 13,872 homes by the first of this year. The Woodstock Institute estimates as many as 20,000 additional fore-

A publication of LISC/Chicago’s New Communities Program ISSUE 2VOLUME 5

IN THIS ISSUE:How families cope 2 New farmers’ markets 3 B-ball rules 4

AUGUST 2008

A boarded-up house on the 6300 block of South Rockwell Avenue is a common site in a neighborhood suffering from a

high number of foreclosures.

Bianca Aviles instructs students at Bronzeville’s Reavis elemen-

tary school in the Brazilian art of capoeira.

FORECLOSURES HIT HARD; NEIGHBORHOODS RESPOND By John McCarron

YOUTH CAMPS, CLASSES HEAT UP FOR SUMMER By Maureen Kelleher and Richard Muhammad

closures will be filed here during 2008, with the peak not reached until late 2009.

Illinois, which allows some of the most exploi-tive lending practices, ranked 10th among states with 26,890 foreclosure filings during 2nd quarter ‘08, or one for every 193 house-holds, according to RealtyTrac.

Chicago’s largest neighborhood, Austin, suf-fered the most foreclosures during 2007 with 810. But when all 77 neighborhoods are compared by foreclosures per number of mortgage-able properties, NCP’s Washington Park, Quad Communities, Woodlawn and Englewood rank among the five hardest-hit.

All across the metro region, foreclosures are slamming Hispanic- and African-American neighborhoods the hardest. One regional study for 2006 showed Hispanics were twice as like-ly as white residents, and blacks three times as likely, to take out “high cost” mortgages. Similar lopsided racial and ethnic disparities now are echoed in foreclosure filings.

Renters have not been spared. A May 2008 report by the Woodstock Institute found that 35 percent of residential foreclosures in Chicago were on buildings of two to six units. Most NCP neighborhoods were hard hit, showing rental buildings at 50 percent to 80 percent of all foreclosures.

Maybe the most galling thing for NCP’s local leaders is that they have been warning—for sev-eral years and to anyone who’d listen—about this disaster-in-the-making. Their complaints went largely unheeded, however, until the problem

As you get closer to the gym at Reavis elemen-tary school in Bronzeville, the music, sing-

ing, clapping and chanting swells. Inside, Marisa Cordeiro, a capoeira instructor, leads children through exercises in the Brazilian martial art—using music, a foreign language, and some history.

The class, running through the summer, is part of the Integrated Services in Schools (ISS) program, an innovative approach funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies that seeks to improve educational achievement and opportunities for disadvantaged middle-school students. The effort involves extended learning, parent and community involvement inside school walls, weekend and sum-mer activities, in-school health centers, and special programs for students at Reavis and four other Chicago Public Schools that partnered with groups in LISC/Chicago’s New Communities Program.

It’s expected that graduates of Chicago-ISS pro-grams will enter high school better prepared for the emotional challenges of adolescence and the intellectual challenges of high school and college.

Other ISS-related summer activities include camps and jobs for youth, training for teach-ers and parents, and health center construc-tion. Students at three of the schools are work-ing summer jobs and enjoying sports, theater, arts and field trips through summer camps. At Logan Square’s Ames Middle School about 70 youngsters are earning their first paychecks by fixing bikes, painting murals and interning for local organizations. Middle-schoolers at Orozco Academy in Pilsen are enjoying similar activities in July and August.

At Marquette Elementary in Chicago Lawn, teachers are refining their strategies to help middle-school students grow socially, emotionally and academically. And the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation and Perspectives Calumet Middle School are leading the way on building a health center (all ISS schools will eventually have one), with completion expected in early fall.

PLEASE SEE FORECLOSURES ON PAGE 2

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burst over Wall Street last autumn as thousands of defaulted loans, having been aggregated and repackaged as collateralized securities, began poisoning the books of financial institutions worldwide.

“Everybody knows it when a Bear Stearns goes down,” said Jim Capraro, longtime executive director of Greater Southwest Development Corp (GSDC). “But what about the people at 59th and Artesian? They’ve been up against this for a long time.”

Three years ago Capraro’s group led and won a fight for a state law requiring counseling for nov-ice homebuyers in zip codes with high foreclosure rates. Under pressure from loan brokers, Gov. Rod Blagojevich early last year froze the program … only to sign a stronger version into law last fall, after the storm hit Wall Street.

But providing quality loan counseling is no small chore now that providers such as Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago (NHS) are swamped by homeowners desperate to get out from under tricky adjustable rate mortgages.

“We are inundated,” said Deborah Moore, who directs the NHS office in Auburn Gresham. Her office is adding two to three cases a day to its load, which is remarkable because it’s estimated 70 percent of foreclosed families never seek assistance. Often embarrassed, many just move to cheaper rental housing—if they can find it—and struggle on with damaged credit ratings.

With the right counseling, however, distressed owners with reliable incomes often can shed their bad loan and refinance with an affordable, fixed-rate mortgage from a responsible lender.

NCP’s response Here’s where the LISC/NCP network comes into play, with its NCP lead agencies, local Centers for Working Families, its relationships with spe-cialized non-profits such as NHS and the Legal Assistance Foundation, its channels to City Hall decision-makers and, importantly, its contacts with reputable lenders such as Shore Bank.

“Our lead agencies are well positioned to be an outreach army,” said Susana Vasquez, LISC/Chicago’s NCP director. So she and Bookman convened local NCP directors in March to mobilize around the issue and the group drafted an action plan tailored to each neighborhood.

Hugely important has been the early and emphatic commitment of the MacArthur Foundation. A MacArthur grant will help three organizations on the Southwest Side – Capraro’s GSDC, NHS and the Southwest Organizing Project – to identify and provide counseling for hundreds of additional families facing foreclosure. Another grant, to LISC/Chicago, will create an NCP Foreclosure Response Fund to support agencies working on the battle’s front lines. Meanwhile, LISC and others in the private and public sectors are discussing how to fi nd buyers for a swelling inventory of vacant properties.

The NCP Foreclosure Response Fund will underwrite tactics and coalitions every bit as diverse as the neighborhoods receiving first-round grants. For example, Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corp. will stage a series of “revival tent” rallies and informational sessions at weekend block club parties throughout the summer.

Two years ago a friend sold Virginia “Virgy” Chavez on a great way to take some spending money from the equity in the family’s tidy cot-tage at 59th and Pulaski on the Southwest Side.

Some friend.Before long the Chavez’ monthly

mortgage payment more than doubled to $1,900. And because the new adjustable rate loan also had a “payment option” feature, allowing her to make lower payments at first, the principal kept getting larger with each pay-ment, not smaller.

“With three kids and a mother to take care of, that was too much,” said Virgy, a no-nonsense lady with a good job managing a McDonald’s restaurant. After a couple of missed payments collection agents began calling. One even threatened to garnish her pay. A notice of impending foreclosure came in the mail.

Fortunately Virgy had another friend, one who gave her some good advice: Get help from the local offices of Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago.

At the little NHS storefront at 2609 W. 63rd St. she met with Kathleen “Katie” Van Tiem. And over a period of weeks counselor Katie helped extricate the Chavez family from their lousy mortgage with a California-based banker/broker, and to refinance at a lower, fixed rate for 30 years via NHS. Her payments will drop to $888 a month, low enough so she and her hus-band, Hugo, can pay for some long-deferred car repairs and back-to-school clothes for the kids.

“This was a perfect example of hard-working people doing the right thing, falling into a trap, but getting help in time,” said Van Tiem, “But just this one case has taken close to 20 hours of our time. We’d all like a larger scale solution.”

NHS counseling saves the day By John McCarron

Counseling from Neighborhood Housing Services

enabled Virginia and Hugo Chavez to remain in their

Southwest Side home.

GETTING HELP WITH FORECLOSURES:

City’s Home Ownership Preservation Initiative Dial 3-1-1

Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago 1-773-329-4010

Illinois Attorney General’sHomeowner Helpline 1-866-544-7151

Legal Assistance Foundation 1-312-341-1070

National Home Ownership Preservation Assn. 1-888-995-HOPE

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In just the first four months of 2008, nearly 600 foreclosures were initiated in the 60629 ZIP code area on Chicago’s

Southwest Side. The white dots represent institutions affiliated with the Southwest Organizing Project.

“We’re going to rev up our residents with a revival-style approach,” said Carlos Nelson, executive director of GADC, which is work-ing with NHS, St. Sabina parish and the local Center for Working Families. He expects thousands will hear the gospel of good credit at a big windup planned for Sept. 6 at the 3rd annual 79th Street Renaissance Festival.

In East Garfield Park, the Metropolitan Tenants Organization will work with the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance to develop a foreclosure assistance program. In Quad Communities, Genesis Housing Development Corp. will expand its counseling capacity. Teamwork Englewood will develop materials for distribution at church meetings, where NHS will provide technical expertise. Washington Park will work with the South Side Community Federal Credit Union. Claretian Associates, an NCP affiliate with considerable housing expe-rience, will beef up its preservation efforts in South Chicago.

As usual, NCP isn’t out to reinvent any wheels ... just improve traction. Where existing providers already are in a neighborhood and on the case, the idea is to widen coalitions and amplify resources.

Still, the massive scale of the foreclosure crisis and the complexity of each case (just identifying who holds a mortgage can be a chore) will require many more partners, innovations and resources.

“We have a platform,” said LISC’s Bookman of NCP’s involvement. “We have people who are mobilized. We’ve met with Senator (Richard) Durbin, with the mayor’s office, with our part-ners. We’re finding that we need a lot of different procedures for a lot of different circumstances. It’s not easy. A lot of work has to be done.”

But get done it must … and get done it will. “Maybe we can’t stop what’s going on,” said

Bookman, “But we’re definitely in a position to lessen the hardship.”

99152_July Newletter 299152_July Newletter 2 8/1/08 2:44:36 PM8/1/08 2:44:36 PM

group, revealed that 70 percent of Bronzeville residents have attended farmers’ markets in the past and would shop at one in their own neighborhood if available. A major-ity of respondents spend more than $30 per week on produce, but do most of their shopping outside of the neighborhood.

In addition to being a source of fresh and healthy food, QCDC Executive Director Bernita Johnson-Gabriel anticipates that the market will play in even greater role in a com-munity that has seen significant new housing development in recent years.

“One of the things we have to do is create spaces and places,” she said. “Housing alone won’t neces-sarily result in interaction among community residents. We need des-tinations like this market, like good retail establishments, like arts and recreation centers to create a social environment that’s inviting and comfortable for everyone.”

Meanwhile, the Greater Englewood Farmers’ Market, in the parking lot at Greater Deliverance Temple Church of Christ near Ashland Avenue and 64th Street, offers produce, including col-lard greens, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, spinach, mustard greens, lettuce, celery, cucumber, carrots, broccoli, beets, Brussels sprouts and cabbage from Englewood’s own Wood Street Urban Farm, which is operated in a partnership with Growing Home and Teamwork Englewood.

Not all of the market goods are universally affordable, although some customers at Woodlawn gladly shelled out $6.50 for a modest hunk of cheddar. Organizers say they are working hard to provide affordable options, encouraging vendors to lower prices and allowing them to sell conventional produce in addition to pricier organic goods. “It doesn’t serve our mission to have things too expensive,” said Connie Spreen, executive director of the Experimental Station, a non-profit that supports arts, education and other innova-tive projects in Woodlawn, includ-ing the 61st Street Market.

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NEW FARMERS’ MARKETS DRAW CROWDS By Elizabeth Duffrin and Gordon Walek

3

Woodlawn’s new farmers’ market drew an unexpected

crowd to its opening earlier this year, with some vendors lining the block near East 61st Street and Dorchester Avenue selling out of produce before noon.

The independent weekly mar-ket was one of several to launch this spring – it was followed by markets in Bronzeville and Englewood – as an outgrowth of New Communities’ quality-of-life planning. The goal is to increase the availability of fresh produce and other nutritious food in areas underserved by large grocery stores.

“We suffer disproportionately from diabetes and obesity, which is the direct result of not getting enough fruits and vegetables,” said Arvin Strange, Woodlawn’s New Communities Program director. A 2006 report for LaSalle Bank found that nearly half a million Chicagoans live in “food deserts” isolated from groceries with an adequate selection of produce.

The June debut of the Bronzeville Community Market, at Cottage Grove Avenue and 44th Street, capped a year-long period of research by the Quad Communities Development Corporation (QCDC) to gauge neighborhood interest in a weekly emporium that would not only offer fresh produce but other items such as clothing, accessories and antiques.

A survey of more than 200 community members conducted by QCDC, Sustain and O-H Community Partners, an eco-nomic development consulting

NOTES FROM THE FIELD

Little Village’s annual Healing the Hood celebration – established three years ago in an effort to stem gang violence – drew its biggest crowd ever earlier this summer as more than 2,000 people enjoyed the music, children’s games, basketball and (bingo) at 28th Street and Ridgeway Avenue. Activists under age 30 helped plan the June 14 event, which organizers said resulted in more neighborhood musical talent and drew a younger crowd than in the past.

Ruben Negrete, a teenager in a CeaseFire t-shirt that read: “Pass the Peace from Street to Street,” said Healing the Hood was bring-ing down the walls of fear that separate parts of the neighborhood. “It helps to bring people into other neighborhoods where they can’t go,” he said. Ridgeway Avenue, a dividing line between neighborhood gangs,

Healing the Hood helps unite Little Village By Maureen Kelleher

had been an uncomfortably predictable site for gun violence when local organizations first started Healing the Hood. The groups hoped that attracting large numbers of people to the street for a festival that empha-sized Little Village’s strengths would help allay the senseless shootings.

Local police beat officers Miguel Romero and David Lopez strolled to the free Powerade stand near the basketball games and joked around with some of the young boys. As partners, Romero and Lopez also bring together the two halves of Little Village. Romero grew up west of Ridgeway, and Lopez was raised on the neighborhood’s east side. They well remember the gang bound-ary Ridgeway represented in their youth, and saw signs of hope that that wall was begin-ning to crumble.

The history of police/community relations in crime-plagued urban areas doesn’t often make for happy reading, as community policing programs and other outreach efforts have been undermined by deep-seated suspicions and antagonisms among cops, residents and neighborhood groups.

Which makes a recent project among three Chicago neighborhoods and the Chicago Police Department to establish a community-friendly website – allowing instant and anonymous communications between residents and police – remarkable for a couple of reasons. One, it took two full years for all parties to agree on what the system should look like and how it would work. And, two, that it evolved through excellent police/community teamwork.

The new tool, called CLEARpath (www.chicagopolice.org), debuted in July in a happy conclusion to a long story about the challenges and benefits of rolling out an essentially new web-based communica-tions system. Three years ago, police began

In response to the violence that disrupted Chicago earlier in the summer, the city implemented the “Safe Summer” program to create summer internships for youth. The Mayor’s office turned to LISC/Chicago to bring the program to five NCP neighborhoods.

LISC/Chicago and the city designated local partners to lead the effort in the five neighbor-hoods: Teamwork Englewood in Englewood, Greater Southwest Development Corporation in Chicago Lawn, Association House in Humboldt Park, St. Sabina Employment Resource Center in Auburn Gresham, and Claretian Associates in South Chicago.

The program, which is managed by Teresa Prim of the Prim Lawrence Group, offers youth between the ages of 14-21 an internship with a $600 stipend and life skills and job readiness classes held one day a

Communities work with police to retool website By Maureen Kelleher

LISC, city create summer internshipsBy Amadi Jordan-Walker

developing a website that would link the department’s Citizen and Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting System (CLEAR) – a library of crime reports, maps, mug shots and other information that residents could access to help make their neighborhoods safer – with anyone who has a personal computer. At the same time, neighbor-hoods involved in LISC/Chicago’s New Communities Program were searching for ways to strengthen police/community rela-tionships, create local security plans, and test whether improved technology could be useful in promoting neighborhood revital-ization. When the police came looking for CLEARpath partners, residents from the Little Village, Pilsen and West Haven responded.

Information on the site is in English and Spanish. (More languages will be added later.) A “community concerns” form allows residents to send tips anonymously. The site also links to police maps of crime data, district information, and community policing (CAPS), among many other resources.

Farmers’ markets also debuted in Bronzeville and Englewood, bringing fresh produce and

other items to previously underserved areas.

The farmers’ market in Woodlawn was

one of three to open in NCP neighbor-

hoods this summer.

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“We are strong,” proclaim these Little Village women during the neighborhood’s Healing the

Hood festivities earlier this summer.

week. Prim stressed that for participants to earn their stipend, they must not only fulfill their work obligations, but fully engage in their classes as well.

With guidance from Prim, the local part-ners selected 75 youth in each neighbor-hood, set up locations and instructors for the classes, and identified 150 employers to pro-vide internships. The groups also set up bank accounts for each participant. Marquette Bank even provided $10 to each Chicago Lawn intern when they opened an account.

Orientations to share the program’s expectations were held in each of the neigh-borhoods to prepare participants for their new jobs. “Every single one of you is a suc-cess,” Allan Gomez of Association House in Humboldt Park told his group. “But it’s impor-tant to make sure we continue to grow.”

99152_July Newletter 399152_July Newletter 3 7/31/08 9:31:43 PM7/31/08 9:31:43 PM

The New Communities ProgramSM (NCP) is supported by a major grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding has been provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, Charter One Bank Foundation, The Chase Foundation, The Chicago Bulls, The Chicago Community Trust, Dr. Scholl Foundation, Home Depot Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, Living Cities, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Louis R. Lurie Foundation, Jim and Kay Mabie, Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development, Partnership for New Communities, Polk Bros. Foundation, State Farm, Steans Family Foundation, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and University of Chicago.

SUMMER BASKETBALL LEAGUES TIP OFF By Gordon Walek

NCP neighborhoodsand lead agencies

The New Communities Program supports comprehensive community development in 16 Chicago neighborhoods. A lead agency in each neighborhood coordinates efforts and leads a quality-of-life planning process to determine improvement strategies. LISC/Chicago provides technical assistance, seed money for projects and support for two staff members at each lead agency.

Auburn GreshamGreater Auburn-Gresham Development Corp.

Chicago LawnGreater Southwest Development Corp.

Douglas, Grand Boulevard andNorth Kenwood-Oakland Quad Communities Development Corp.

East Garfield ParkGarfield Park Conservatory Alliance

EnglewoodTeamwork Englewood

Humboldt ParkBickerdike Redevelopment Corp.

Little Village (South Lawndale)Little Village Community Development Corp.

Logan SquareLogan Square Neighborhood Assn.

North LawndaleLawndale Christian Development Corp.

Pilsen (Lower West Side)The Resurrection Project

South ChicagoClaretian Associates

Washington ParkWashington Park NCP

West Haven (Near West Side)Near West Side Community Development Corp.

WoodlawnNCP/Woodlawn

Local Initiatives Support Corporation/Chicago

1 N. LaSalle Street, 12th Floor Chicago, Illinois 60602

p 312.360.0800 f 312.360.0183

www.newcommunities.org communitybeat.blogspot.com

Executive Director,LISC/Chicago: Andrew Mooney

Executive Editor: Joel Bookman

NCP Director: Susana Vasquez

Managing Editor: Gordon Walek,

312-697-6183, gwalek@lisc.org

Contributing Editors: John McCarron and Patrick Barry

Reporters: Elizabeth Duffrin, Ed Finkel,

Maureen Kelleher, Richard Muhammad and

Amadi Jordan-Walker

Design: Kym Abrams Design

© 2008 LISC/Chicago

A publication of LISC/Chicago’s New Communities Program

4

The first of seven Hoops in the Hood basketball leagues got

underway this summer as a new gen-eration of youngsters entered what has become a Friday night tradition. The Resurrection Basketball League set up shop on Carpenter Street between Cullerton and 19th Street for a variety of contests, including an all-girls team against an all-boys team. The girls got trounced, but in the fin-est Hoops in the Hood tradition, win-ning wasn’t everything. It was how one played the game.

The Resurrection Project developed the traveling league in Pilsen in 1999 to engage young people in sports as an alternative to the lure of gangs and violence. Since then the program has expanded to six other NCP communi-ties, with four of them – Englewood, Logan Square, Humboldt Park and West Haven – having their debut sea-sons this summer.

The West Haven effort, a product of the Near West Side Community Development Corporation, began with a ceremonial “draft” on the floor of the United Center, where about 160 kids, from grammar school to high school age, were formally assigned to teams.

“This is our first year, and we’re excited about that,” said Oji Eggleston, who organized the league for Near West CDC. “But it’s more than just a basketball tournament.”

Having a league grand opening event at the United Center, the hal-lowed basketball ground in the shadow of which the West Haven neighbor-hood rests, represents a fitting begin-ning – and a combination of celebra-tion and calm introspection. Because the “more than just a basketball tour-nament” that Eggleston mentions deals with an issue – gun violence – that has nothing to do with games.

Unlike some other Hoops in the Hood leagues across the city, the West Haven Safe Summer BBall league will play inside – in the gym at Crane High School, around which some dev-astating gun violence occurred earlier this year. And the ceremony did noth-ing to hide that reality. In front of the three trophies that at the end of the summer will be awarded to the win-ning teams in the open, high school and grammar school divisions were more than 30 pairs of gym shoes, representing the Chicago kids who’ve been killed by guns this year.

And although the ceremony was shaped as though the participants were just informed of which teams they’d belong to, the details had been worked out far earlier.

“For the last five weeks we’ve had all players go to Crane to participate in an open, structured gym,” said Eggleston. “We did a lot of outreach and marketing. A lot of kids were afraid to come to Crane.”

But once there, he said, they saw it was a fun environment. “They went back (to their blocks) and brought their friends and now we’re in the United Center,” said Eggleston. “It’s a huge endeavor.”

Before each game (on Mondays and Thursdays) each team has a 45-minute mentoring session that will address financial literacy, col-lege prep, discipline and other such subjects. Attendance is mandatory. Profanity, cursing or arguing will result in suspension.

“What we’re doing is allowing students from different schools to meet each other before they enter high school,” said Eggleston. “That will establish relationships at a young age. If they can say, ‘Hey, this is a guy I played b-ball with for the last three years,’ it will help elimi-nate gang activities and violence.”

Hoops in the Hood action was also underway in Englewood, Little Village, Logan Square, Humboldt Park and North Lawndale.

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West Haven youth in the United Center prepared for the neighborhood’s Hoops in the Hood

summer basketball season debut.

The gym shoes, representing young

victims of gun violence, speak to the

basketball program’s emphasis on

public safety.

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