Calling this “a defining moment to further the cause of all those who need shelter,” Cardinal George called on policymakers and civic leaders to make sure all people can find decent, affordable housing in Chicago and surrounding communities.

“We have to demand that affordable housing is protected by the law itself,” said Cardinal George.

The cardinal spoke June 28 at “Valuing Affordability,” a three-day conference sponsored by the Chicago Rehab Network. The network used the conference to kick-off a public education campaign to get area residents to understand the importance of affordable housing.

For the cardinal, valuing housing comes down to valuing people.

“First of all, we value people,” the cardinal said. “Every human being is created in the image and likeness of God, and so we are all related in the very essence of our being.”

The network, a coalition of 43 nonprofit housing organizations, including several faith-based groups, has proposed that 25 percent of new or rehabbed housing and condominium conversions be set aside for affordable housing. The network also advocates for property tax exemptions for affordable housing owned by nonprofit organizations, the extension of several other tax incentive programs, and fees for commercial developers to offset the cost of providing affordable housing.

The network and other housing advocates supported the passage of the Illinois Affordable Housing Tax Credit bill, which Gov. George Ryan is expected to sign. The archdiocese’s Office for Peace and Justice has lobbied for the bill.

Housing affects families’ wealth, education, employment, health and safety, Cardinal George said.

“When we advocate for affordable housing, we are really advocating for people and families, for community and opportunity,” he said.

The Valuing Affordability public awareness campaign will show people that while Chicago’s population grew by 112,290 people from 1990 to 2000, the number of rental units dropped by 2,852. The Chicago Housing Authority plans to decrease its total number of units from 38,000 to 25,000, and more than 16,000 Section 8 subsidized housing units are in danger of being dropped from the program, leaders said.

To afford a market rent of more than $750 for a two-bedroom apartment, at 30 percent of income, someone earning the minimum wage would have to work 106 hours a week. Nearly 200,000 households and families pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing. Of those, about 75,000 pay more than half their income for housing.

To increase awareness of housing’s importance, the network unveiled three advertising messages aimed at showing the effect the affordable housing crisis is having on senior citizens, families and children.

“Another rent increase. Another new neighborhood. Another year behind in school,” says the one that features a child slumped in a school hallway.

Another features a picture of a senior citizen and says, “Rent increase. Fixed income. Now where do I live?”

Most of the archdiocese’s parishes are seeing changes of one kind or another in their neighborhoods, whether they are being revitalized, diversified or gentrified, the cardinal said, pointing to an apartment building next to St. Sylvester Parish in Logan Square as an example.

“It was recently sold to a developer and will be converted into condominiums, inhabited by people who have to be from somewhere else, because the people there can’t afford them,” Cardinal George said.

Long-time residents of many Chicago neighborhoods are being forced out by rising rents or rising property taxes, and the number of public housing units has tumbled as the number of people in need of subsidized housing has grown.

Current construction activity reflects the building boom of the 1950s, the cardinal said.

“It would be a real social sin if we made the same mistakes 50 years later that we made then,” he said.

Then, the city missed an opportunity to build racially and economically diverse communities.

“Decisions were made at the city level, and supported by many at the community level, to concentrate and segregate African-American families from others,” Cardinal George said.

“Ultimately, low-income black families were concentrated in 16-story buildings and segregated by a 14-lane highway,” he said. “As a result of these personal and policy decisions, barriers were erected and were fortified between neighborhoods and families in Chicago, and many of these barriers, to our shame, are still in place today.”