SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY The South Side Weekly is an independent non-profit newspaper by and for the South Side of Chicago. We provide high-quality, critical arts and public interest coverage, and equip and develop journalists, photographers, artists, and mediamakers of all backgrounds. Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor
Volume 8, Issue 4 Jacqueline Serrato Martha Bayne
Senior Editors
Politics Editor Education Editors Literature Editor
Christian Belanger Christopher Good Rachel Kim Emeline Posner Adam Przybyl Olivia Stovicek Sam Stecklow Jim Daley Ashvini Kartik-Narayan Michelle Anderson Davon Clark
Contributing Editors
Mira Chauhan Joshua Falk Lucia Geng Matt Moore Francisco Ramírez Pinedo Robin Vaughan Jocelyn Vega Tammy Xu
Staff Writers
AV Benford Kiran Misra Jade Yan
Data Editor
Jasmine Mithani
Director of Fact Checking: Tammy Xu Fact Checkers: Abigail Bazin, Susan Chun, Maria Maynez, Elizabeth Winkler, Lucy Ritzmann, Kate Gallagher, Matt Moore, Malvika Jolly, Charmaine Runes, Ebony Ellis, Katie Bart
THE HOUSING ISSUE Last year we couldn’t publish our annual Housing Issue due to the uncertainty of COVID-19, but this year we found it appropriate to bring back the special issue and look at housing through the pandemic lens. On January 25, the City of Chicago entered phase 1b of its vaccination plan. The same day, South Side Weekly launched its opensource Twitter bot, created by Bea Malsky and Charmaine Runes, which visualizes relative concentrations of COVID-19 deaths next to fully vaccinated residents to date. Note that this data represents where fully vaccinated Chicagoans live, not where they work or where they received the vaccine—so far suggesting a glaring disparity in both deaths and immunization along race and income. Predominantly Black and Latinx ZIP codes continue to bear the brunt of COVID-19 fatalities, yet these communities have the lowest rates of complete vaccination in Chicago. Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady acknowledged that the majority of Chicagoans who were vaccinated are white. City officials said they plan to address this by focusing on fifteen predominantly Black and Latinx neighborhoods where many essential workers reside and by improving upon its demographic data collection. Our daily tracker pulls data directly from the Chicago Data Portal. The first map illustrates the number of COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 residents in each ZIP code, while the second map shows the percent of residents in each ZIP code who have received a complete dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, which currently means that they have received two doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. These maps do not tell the whole story of the city’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, but we hope they encourage people to ask questions about who has access to vaccines and who ultimately receives them— and whether lack of access is a reflection of the phased rollout, community access to medical care, vaccine hesitancy, or Chicago’s systemic inequality and racism.
Visuals Editor Mell Montezuma Deputy Visuals Editors Shane Tolentino HaleyTweedell Photo Editor Keeley Parenteau Staff Photographers: milo bosh, Jason Schumer Staff Illustrators: Mell Montezuma, Shane Tolentino Layout Editors
Haley Tweedell Davon Clark
Webmaster Managing Director
Pat Sier Jason Schumer
South Side Weekly 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. Chicago, IL 60637
resisting eviction
Photo essay gerri fernández..........................................6 no safety net
Barred from federal stimulus and living paycheck to paycheck, undocumented tenants rely on community groups—but both are running out of options woojae julia song and alexandra arriaga, city bureau...................................8 inside chicago's silent housing crisis
Experts say an eviction avalanche is coming. But thousands of Chicago renters have already been pushed to the brink of the housing cliff justin agrelo, natalie frazier, malik jackson and woojae julia song, city bureau.........................................................12 4
ways to stem the housing crisis
Renters are still struggling almost a year after the pandemic began, but there are actions residents and lawmakers can take to minimize the pain justin agrelo, city bureau.......................18 resources for renters
Where to find housing support during the COVID-19 pandemic justin agrelo, city bureau......................20 How more than 73,000 Illinois homes lost electric service during COVID-19 alex ruppenthal........................................21 who counts?
A federally mandated count of people sleeping outdoors and in shelters could cause trauma—and misses many charmaine runes.......................................26 the displacement of chinatown’s low-income residents is aggravated by covid-19
The bot will post updated maps every evening at https://twitter.com/ChiVaxBot.
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Cover Illustration by Lily Cozzens
“We give them advice and we give them guidance, but ultimately, it's their decision, it's their housing, and we try to build up their own feelings of power.” noah tesfaye................................................3
lights out
The Weekly is produced by a mostly all-volunteer editorial staff and seeks contributions from across the city. We distribute each Wednesday in the fall, winter, and spring. Over the summer we publish every other week. Send submissions, story ideas, comments, or questions to editor@southsideweekly.com or mail to:
tenants form unions to cope with the crisis
Data from the Chinese American Service League shows an exodus to the South and West yilun cheng................................................28 cha lags on section
CORRECTION: A STORY ON PAGE NINE OF THE JANUARY 20 ISSUE (“LEARNING IN LOCKDOWN”) INCORRECTLY STATED TWENTY INCARCERATED STUDENTS WERE ENROLLED IN NORTH PARK UNIVERSITY’S “BLACK FAITH MATTERS” CORRESPONDENCE CLASS. IN FACT, SEVENTY STUDENTS ENROLLED. THE WEEKLY REGRETS THIS ERROR.
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tenancy approvals
How the Chicago Housing Authority stacks up against other housing authorities morley musick............................................30
