Upper Right: St. Adrian pastor Father Ted Ostrowski reads a prayer at an Oct. 16 SWOP rally.

Left: neighborhood residents join in the march to end violence.

Catholic New World
photos by David V. Kamba

By Michelle Martin
and Michael D. Wamble
Staff Writers

More than $540,000 will go to 21 Chicago-area groups this year to fight poverty and encourage community and economic development, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development announced Oct. 18.

The grants, ranging from $10,000 to $50,000, help non-profit groups work on economic development, affordable housing and community organizing.

Father Robert Vitello, executive director of the campaign, said the grants help people in impoverished communities provide for themselves while raising awareness of poverty among Catholics across the country.

Father Theodore Ostrowski of St. Adrian Parish talks with Shaunice, 6, and Dashaune Johnson, 7, after a Southwest Organizing Project march Oct. 16. Catholic New World/David V. Kamba

“That is very important in our basis in Catholic social teaching,” Vitello said. “That affirms the very unique dignity of every human person. We don’t believe that poor people are poor because they haven’t worked hard enough or because they or someone else has done something bad. We believe it’s because they haven’t had access to the economic development opportunities they need.

The grants are among more than $10 million to be distributed to 366 projects around the United States by the campaign. All of the money was collected last November in parishes throughout the country; this year’s collection is scheduled for Nov. 19.

Parishioners in the Archdiocese of Chicago last year were the most generous in the country, donating about $720,000. Of that, 75 percent went to the national campaign and 25 percent stayed in Chicago for locally funded projects. For several years, the Archdiocese of Chicago has made the largest contribution of any diocese to the campaign, Vitello said.

The following are a few of the Chicago-are projects that will benefit from the campaign this year:

Southwest Organizing Project/ Southwest Cease Fire Task Force: In April 1999, Cardinal George gave his support to a new mission for the Catholic community of Chicago.

“Our goal is to bring about more of a connected effort to eliminate violent killings in Chicago,” the cardinal said in a press conference with the head of the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention.

That goal continues to speak to what Pope John Paul II has called the “culture of death” through the archdiocese’s support of the Southwest Organizing Project [SWOP] and the project’s Cease Fire Task Force.

The task force has been awarded a $45,000 grant from the campaign to help the communities of Gage Park, Marquette Park and others surrounding St. Adrian and St. Clare of Montefalco parishes decrease the violence around them.

Without grants, grassroots projects like the task force could not remain vital, said SWOP executive director Matthew McDermott.

“This award allows us to further develop relationships with community and law enforcement agencies and to seek larger grants,” said McDermott. “It is already paying off in our ability to hire young people who may be at-risk for gang involvement, who are looking for positive opinions as outreach workers.”

His goal is to hire 12 outreach workers through a collaborative effort with an area YMCA.

The task force, through its relationship with local leaders, including Father Ted Ostrowski and Augustinian Father Anthony Pizzo, has been vocal and visible in decrying gun violence.

This summer, Ostrowski and Pizzo have led and/or participated in over 20 marches protesting such shootings in their communities.

National Training & Information Center/Chicago Loan Shark Task Force: Re-finance now! Put your home to work for you!

If fliers and/or phone calls have found their way into your neighborhood from companies offering deals too good to be true, Amalia Nieto Gomez has this advice: Just say no.

“What they neglect to mention in those ads are companies’ intentions of stripping away the equity homeowners have built up or the likelihood of foreclosure due to subprime interest rates,” said Gomez, director of the statewide campaign for the Chicago Loan Shark Task Force.

The task force, a project of the National Training and Information Center, has been awarded a $20,000 grant from CCHD.

In 1993, there were 131 foreclosures in the greater Chicago area (Lake, Cook and surrounding counties). By 1999, the number jumped to 4,958.

Gomez has watched in dismay as neighborhoods—most often minority, low-income or populated by the elderly—have been “overwhelmed by bad loans” and targeted with subprime mortgage lending practices she called “predatory.”

Steering lenders toward subprime rate (9-20 percent) when they could qualify for prime rates (8-9 percent) and arranging home improvement scams are some of the practices companies employ.

The creation of the Illinois Coalition Against Predatory Home Loans resulted from the task force’s work.

The coalition pushed state representatives to author a bill to outlaw such practices.

“It all boils down to this: If we want to revitalize neighborhoods, we must stop predatory lending practices,” Gomez said.

Chicago Coalition for the Homeless/Coalition to Protect Public Housing: Most Chicago-area residents are aware of the Chicago Housing Authority’s plans to demolish many of its decrepit public housing buildings.

The question that the Coalition for the Protection of Public Housing wants answered before any more buildings are knocked down is what will happen to people who live there.

The group, working with the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, received a $15,000 grant from CCHD this year to help mobilize public housing residents to work with business, community and religious leaders.

“We’re a watchdog group,” said Ed Shurna of the Coalition for the Homeless. “We use research, testimony, asking questions to try to hold them to their promises.”

Shurna said the CHA has plans to knock down 18,000 of the 38,000 public housing units it now owns. Of those, the authority says, 13,000 are not leased, according to Shurna. To accommodate the leaseholding tenants, the CHA has promised that at the end of the process, there will be 25,000 new or rehabbed apartments available, he said.

“The Coalition to Protect Public Housing thinks they ought to commit to that in writing,” Shurna said. “The project wants to make sure everyone has a place to stay.”

Coalition leaders would feel better if they saw any evidence of units being built or remodeled to accommodate the tenants of units scheduled to be demolished.

“We want to believe in them,” Shurna said. “But they have to start building, because all we’re seeing is demolitions.”

Latin United Community Housing Association/Mothers United in Action: The Latin United Community Housing Association takes a different approach to affordable housing. It creates its own.

The not-for-profit owns five buildings in the Humboldt Park neighborhood; its latest initiative is aimed at helping single mothers and their families.

“Madres Unidas En Accion” (Mothers United in Action) has brought about 350 mothers together to advocate for housing and social services.

The group plans to build a $6 million, 30-unit building using government and commercial financing. The units will be assigned by lottery to members of the group, and rents will be below market rate.

While the project is aimed at single mothers, the organization will not discriminate against others who want to participate, said Ruth Dominguez, LUCHA’s single mother organizer.

Half of the tenants’ rental payments will be put towards ownership of the units, and each tenant will own her own unit after 15 years, Dominguez said.

The $20,000 grant from the campaign will help pay for administrative and other program costs.

All the mothers who participate in the program, not just those who get apartments, benefit from educational programs, job preparation and other social services.