Obama center fuels displacement fears among Woodlawn, Chicago residents

Chicago residents living in rent-controlled housing near a development built in memory of former President Barack Obama have reportedly unionized in response to the controversial project.

Residents of a longtime Woodlawn apartment building have organized to resist possible displacement and rent increases and say they are affected by development pressure around the Obama Presidential Center.

Tenants at the Chaney Braggs Apartments marched outside their building near 65th Street and Stony Island Boulevard earlier this month, saying the potential sale of the property could disrupt the lives of families who have lived there for decades. FOX 32 Chicago reported.

A California-based investor wants to buy the building and may either renovate it or demolish it, according to local residents. Tenants say they were offered $2,000 per household to move; They say the offer falls well short of what families would need to move into a rapidly changing neighborhood.

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Many residents currently pay between $700 and $800 a month in rent. Some say they have lived in the building for 30 or 40 years and fear they won’t be able to find similar housing in Woodlawn if rents increase or the property is redeveloped.

In response, residents formed a tenant union to counter the threat of displacement and preserve the building’s affordability. They say the union came together after the previous landlord abandoned the property nearly two years ago, forcing tenants to organize over maintenance issues and basic services.

Now residents say the same network is being used to confront a bigger problem: staying in their homes as investments tied to the Obama Presidential Center reshape the surrounding neighborhood.

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The before and after aerial graphic shows the footprint of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, including the removal of Cornell Drive and construction along Stony Island Boulevard. (Fox News)

Tenants said the apartment building was once owned by a nonprofit organization dedicated to affordable housing and community stability. But with those protections no longer available, residents say they are increasingly vulnerable to market pressures that have intensified as construction of the presidential center continues nearby.

No sale was finalized and the identity of the potential buyer was not publicly disclosed as of Thursday. Residents say they have contacted city and state officials for help but have yet to receive a response.

The split underscores broader concerns at Woodlawn, where the Obama Presidential Center brings promises of jobs and investment alongside fears of gentrification and displacement. For tenants at Chaney Braggs Apartments, these concerns have become immediate and personal.

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Residents say they plan to continue organizing while they wait for more information about the future of the building, possible rent increases and whether city officials will step in.

Obama Presidential Center opens in Chicago South Side on June 18It is a 19.3-acre campus in Jackson Park that includes a 225-foot museum tower, library and community forum.

On the eve of Juneteenth, Obama, the first Black American president, is celebrating the grand opening of the over-budget building that critics have called an eyesore.

Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed enslaved Black Americans there that they were free — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

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The holiday has been celebrated as a celebration of Black freedom, resistance, and community, and has taken on broader national significance in recent years as both a commemoration of freedom and a reminder of the long struggle for racial justice in the United States.

Obama once described the center as a “gift” to Chicago. It is a gift whose cost keeps increasing.

An investigation by Fox News Digital in February found that taxpayers spent hundreds of millions of dollars in public infrastructure costs tied to the project. These expenses include road redesign, stormwater systems and utility relocations needed to support the 19.3-acre campus in Jackson Park. Despite months of investigations and Freedom of Information Act requests, no government agency has provided a full accounting of the total public cost.

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Initial estimates call for about $350 million in public infrastructure spending to be shared by the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois. Critics now argue that these obligations have become a major public burden as the project faces delays and rising costs.

Fox News’ Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.