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The one question that we must ask is: “Is there a place in West Town for working families?” The answer to that question is central to the struggle occurring between the Eckhart Park Community Council, Alderman Jesse Granato, and the working families trying to create a sustainable home in the community in which they were raised. The Erie cooperative is a cooperative in its most basic sense–it is a corporation owned and managed by residents (not tenants). These members have access to a wide range of benefits of home ownership, including sharing profits from operating income, controlling all day-to-day management decisions, improving the property and grounds, and gaining access to equity. By the 15th year, the members of the cooperative will be full-fledged home owners. Their monthly payments will not go for “nothing,” they will pay down principal on their mortgage that will directly benefit every family. The cooperative has developed an excellent and fair selection process that will guarantee that its members are upstanding citizens of good moral character. After all, the members must live with each other, make decisions together, and share an investment.
Our community deserves better than to see the work of these families thrown away–and the public and private dollars this project has already raised–because a handful of people place their self-interest ahead of the good of the larger community. They do this to maximize investment without regard to their working neighbors who struggle to make ends meet and make a home for their children. Should moderate-income families be denied the same opportunity to make an investment in the neighborhood? No! The fabric of this community is much more important than the wealth of a few. We will not allow this project to be “put on hold.” It must stand as a model for home ownership and community investment for all of Chicago.
