Woodlawn Tenants Fight Displacement as Building Near Obama Center Faces Sale

Residents of a Woodlawn apartment building located just blocks from the Obama Presidential Center are organizing to resist displacement after learning their foreclosed property could be sold to an out-of-town investor.

Tenants at the Chaney Braggs Apartments, 1554-56 E. 65th St., have formed a union to fight plans by a prospective California buyer who wants to gut-rehab the building, according to organizers. The Obama Presidential Center is scheduled to open in June. Similar concerns about preservation and community displacement have emerged elsewhere in Chicago, as Loyola University recently demolished a century-old Rogers Park Flatiron Building despite community opposition.

“Now that the Obama Center is coming, all of these new buyers want to come in and they want to take over the land that has already been here and kick out the people that have been here,” resident Kyana Butler, 31, said at a news conference outside the building Thursday. “I want to stay right where I’m at. I don’t want to be forced out.”

The prospective owner has offered $2,000 to residents who agree to move out, according to organizers negotiating through the tenant union’s lawyer. Twenty households currently live in the building.

“He started with a cash offer, only $2,000 for keys for people who have been here for over 40 years. I think that that is absurd,” Butler said.

Cook County records show the building was previously owned by the Woodlawn East Community and Neighbors (WECAN), an organization founded by late housing activist Mattie Butler, who was Kyana Butler’s great-aunt. The property went into foreclosure in 2023, less than a year after Mattie Butler’s death.

Since the foreclosure, residents say a relative of Butler’s took over management but “disappeared,” leaving tenants to handle cleaning and repairs themselves.

A Cook County judge appointed a receiver over the building last September to address deteriorating conditions, according to county records. The Chicago Department of Buildings placed the property on the city’s “Scofflaw list” and conducts ongoing inspections while working to “hold the [WECAN] accountable for the deterioration of their building,” according to a department spokesperson.

The receiver, Chicago nonprofit Community Investment Corp, said in a statement it is working to address “deferred maintenance and code violations.”

Residents learned through court proceedings that the building could be sold to the California buyer, whose gut-rehab plans would likely result in higher rents that could force out long-term tenants.

“This [building] is the foundation of what used to be a strong not-for-profit community organization meant for affordable housing,” resident Reyna Collins said. “It’s kind of insane and ironic that this … community should be so quickly swept out from something that’s really our own.”

The fight reflects broader concerns about gentrification and displacement that residents have expressed since the Obama Foundation announced plans for the $800 million center a decade ago. The City of Chicago adopted the Woodlawn Housing Preservation Ordinance in 2020, but investors continue buying properties near the center, according to residents.

Infiniti Gant, an organizer with community nonprofit Southside Together, said some tenant union members have lived in the building for nearly 40 years.

“People who have been here for 20, 30, 40 years are now being told that they have to leave because the neighborhood is improving,” Gant said. “We need more to make sure everyone who wants to stay here is able to stay and benefit from the Obama Center coming to the neighborhood.”

Gant added that the Obama Foundation has promoted Airbnb rentals and hosted informational sessions for homeowners to rent properties to tourists visiting the presidential center.

An Obama Foundation spokesperson did not address the potential impact of short-term rentals on affordable housing availability but said in a statement the organization is “working hard to ensure the opportunities created by the private investment” benefit the community.