advocate spotlight
-
Strengthening Civil Rights and Empowering Resident Leaders: Illinois Coalition for Fair Housing Receives Statewide Organizing Award
The Illinois Coalition for Fair Housing is a group of directly impacted community members and advocates committed to making housing access in Illinois equitable and just. Coalition members include tenant leaders, housing and homelessness organizations, disability rights advocates, civil rights and antipoverty groups, and faith communities. For nearly two decades, advocates in Illinois have pushed Continue reading
-
“Information is key”: Advice for Advocates from CJ O’Hara
CJ O’Hara is a homeless and housing advocate based in Chicago. In 2014, CJ became homeless. While trying to find a place to stay, he learned about the programs designed to help people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, as well as the barriers that exist in some of these programs. In 2015, he began his Continue reading
-
NLIHC’s Tenant Leader Cohort Visits the White House
By David Foster, NLIHC, based on interviews with tenants and tenant leaders Members of NLIHC’s Tenant Leader Cohort – alongside other people with lived expertise, legal aid providers, advocates, and researchers – attended a meeting focused on tenant protections at the White House on November 14, 2022. The Cohort and NLIHC President and CEO Diane Continue reading
-
Tenant Organizing and Advocacy Efforts
In our last blog post, tenant organizer Linda Soderstrom explained how she and 36 other tenants at her Minnesota housing complex fought back against an attempt by a new owner to evict tenants who were recipients of Section 8 vouchers. Soderstrom writes that her tenant group “stood up for the 2,500 of us and alleged Continue reading
-
Crossroads at Penn: We Can Do Better Than This
By Linda Soderstrom, NLIHC Tenant Leaders Cohort Memberllsod.lindalee@gmail.com507.932.9908 In 2015, on a beautiful fall day, written notices were given under the kitchen doors of 698 units in a single afternoon. The notices said that no more county rehab programming or Section 8 housing choice vouchers would be accepted at Crossroads at Penn, located in a Continue reading
On the Home Front 