In Chicago the Freedom Bus was welcomed Tuesday night for a two-night stay at Holy Family Catholic Church. After a quiet evening, we a!
woke Wednesday morning for breakfast at a local restaurant with Chicago organizers. We heard from poet Brenda Matthews of the National Welfare Rights Union, and Mary Nelson of the Chicago Human Rights Committee, two central organizers of the Chicago stop. Our focus in Chicago was the right to housing, included in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We talked and worked primarily with Chicaago's Coalition to Protect Public Housing.
At a rally in front of a building in Chicago's infamous Cabrini Green housing projects, coalition founder, Wardell, told us about Chicago's new public housing plans. The Chicago Housing Authority plans to demolish 18,000 units of public housing, the most of any city in the country. These 18,000 units house somewhere!
between 42,000 and 55,000 people. The displaced families will receive housing vouchers for one year, and then have four months to pay market rent -- nearly imposible for most of them. There are already 15,000 homeless people in Chicago, and the proposed $2.2 billion cuts in the federal Section 8 housing voucher program will add an estimated 22,000 people looking for affordable housing.
After the Cabrini Green rally, we ate our bag lunches and headed for other projects. With members of the Coalition to Protect Public Housing, we walked through various housing projects all afternoon, telling the residents about a citywide people's march and rally on Friday, June 19. We were received by many interested and concerned residents.
We ate dinner at a Chicago soup kitchen and returned to Holy Family church. Before going to bed, we had a discussion and a skit presented by residents of New Jerusalem Laura, a recovery community located in North Philadelphia. They had joined the Freedom Bus, said one nun who works with them, "because we believe that we can't personally recover unless we're part of a movement to make the society that makes us sick recover." Residents at New Jerusalem are also struggling with poverty, especially with the new welfare reform. Only a handful are able to get General Assistance, partly because of their history of addiction, even though they are currently clean and living in a recovery community. New!
Jerusalem residents have helped raise our spirits with their remarkable energy and spirit.
Thursday morning we awoke at 6:30 a.m., packed and ate breakfast, and boarded the bus for Milwaukee.
In Chicago the Freedom Bus was welcomed Tuesday night for a two-night stay at Holy Family Catholic Church. After a quiet evening, we a!
woke Wednesday morning for breakfast at a local restaurant with Chicago organizers. We heard from poet Brenda Matthews of the National Welfare Rights Union, and Mary Nelson of the Chicago Human Rights Committee, two central organizers of the Chicago stop. Our focus in Chicago was the right to housing, included in Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We talked and worked primarily with Chicaago's Coalition to Protect Public Housing. 
We ate dinner at a Chicago soup kitchen and returned to Holy Family church. Before going to bed, we had a discussion and a skit presented by residents of New Jerusalem Laura, a recovery community located in North Philadelphia. They had joined the Freedom Bus, said one nun who works with them, "because we believe that we can't personally recover unless we're part of a movement to make the society that makes us sick recover." Residents at New Jerusalem are also struggling with poverty, especially with the new welfare reform. Only a handful are able to get General Assistance, partly because of their history of addiction, even though they are currently clean and living in a recovery community. New!
Jerusalem residents have helped raise our spirits with their remarkable energy and spirit.