City Council Hands Over Public Housing Land to Professional Sports Team with No Plan for Addressing Long Unmet Affordable Housing Needs

Two decades ago, when the Chicago Housing Authority tore down thousands of homes in the large, neglected ABLA public housing complex, City leaders promised displaced tenants that they would be able to return to new units CHA would develop as part of a revitalized community on the Near West Side. As of 2022, CHA has built or rehabilitated less than 10 percent of the public housing that was once there, while large swaths of CHA-owned land lie vacant, and former residents await the opportunity to return to their neighborhood. But yesterday, the City Council slammed the door in the face of displaced ABLA residents and thousands of others waiting to live in CHA housing, voting to lease 25 acres of vacant land to billionaire Joe Mansueto’s Chicago Fire Football Club. Under the deal, the Chicago Fire will get a state-of-the art practice facility, consisting of 6 soccer fields and a building for training and business offices, on land that has long been committed to affordable housing. In contrast, community residents received no information or formal commitment on how the CHA will rebuild the promised public housing units, even as the City allowed CHA to lease half of the remaining, public land available for redevelopment to a private sports facility.

Emily Coffey, Senior Counsel and Director of Equitable Community Development and Housing at Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, speaking on behalf of the Chicago Housing Initiative and Lugenia Burns Hope Center, on Tuesday urged members of the City’s Zoning Committee to block the deal with the Chicago Fire. In her testimony, Coffey said that, in addition to the promises made, CHA has a legal duty to comply with civil rights laws and to affirmatively further fair housing. “This proposal would allow CHA land, located in a rapidly gentrifying community and long intended to be used for public housing—which primarily serves families of color and people with disabilities—to be leased for development by a private sports team.” The Zoning Committee seemingly agreed, voting down the Fire proposal on Tuesday afternoon, but by Wednesday morning the Committee had reconvened, revoted, and reversed itself. By late Wednesday, the full City Council sealed the deal for the sports team, and once again ignored the unmet housing needs of Chicago’s Black and Brown community members. This action represents yet another example of the City’s pattern of thwarting affordable housing development in gentrifying neighborhoods and opportunity areas through a lack of comprehensive, city-wide affordable fair housing planning.

Rod Wilson, Executive Director of Lugenia Burns Hope Center, was infuriated by Wednesday’s vote. “With tens of thousands of people on the CHA waiting list, it is appalling that the City Council and the mayor choose to subsidize a billionaire’s usage of land that was set aside for affordable housing to build soccer fields. This is another Anti-Black vote of this City Council that continues to push Black people out of Chicago. Hope Center conducted outreach and over 70 current and former ABLA residents signed a petition in opposition to the proposed sports facility." Wilson added that “Every alderman who voted yes for this should be held accountable.”

Emily Coffey said that the Council’s vote will only add to the City’s ongoing affordable housing crisis, by failing to address the ongoing needs for housing in the ABLA community while offloading more than half of the remaining land available for redevelopment. As a result, she said, impacted community groups will be looking at possible legal remedies to address CHA’s continued dereliction of its duty and the City’s repeated failure to comply with civil rights laws.

Read Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights’ full comments sent in partnership with Legal Action Chicago and the National Housing Law Project on behalf of the Chicago Housing Initiative and Lugenia Burns Hope Center.