WHEN HOME ISN'T SWEET
Affordable housing a ‘basic human right’

Catholic social teaching affirms affordable, safe, decent housing as a basic human right, intrinsic to the human dignity that belongs to individuals made in the image and likeness of God, said Jonathan Njus, director of the housing project for the archdiocese’s Office for Peace and Justice.

Njus applauded the work done by pastors such as Father Michael Herman, who speaks out frequently about the rapid gentrification going on in the Logan Square neighborhood. St. Sylvester, Herman’s parish, is a member of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, which in turn belongs to the Balanced Development Coalition.

Gentrification—and the attendant rise in housing costs and property taxes—pushes poor and working class people out of their communities, said Njus, who also is a parishioner at St. Sylvester.

“We as a Catholic Church are called to live in community,” Njus said. “That means with people of different races, ethnicities, income levels and everything else. When it comes to gentrification, people are losing their shelter and neighborhoods are losing their diversity.”

Cardinal George has raised similar issues. He addressed the problem of gentrification directly in a 2001 presentation to the “Valuing Affordability” conference sponsored by the Chicago Rehab Network.

“We value affordability, first of all, because we value housing,” the cardinal said. “For if the dignity of every human being makes a claim on us, then we need to respect also the primary demand that enables any one, any group, any family, to live with dignity. …

Housing is a right that must be protected; we must value housing.

“Housing harbors families who need to be supported and housing exists in communities that need to be fostered in order to protect those families. The protection of the human family is the key to Catholic social teaching, while the protection of individual rights is the basis for our understanding of who we are as Americans. … Housing, family, and other basic needs are in peril, and we have to move to protect them.”