Valerie F.

Leonard
4111 West 21st Place
Chicago, IL 60623
Phone: 773-521-3137
Fax: 773-522-1832
E-Mail: valeriefleonard@msn.com

July 8, 2009

Ms. Katie Ludwig

City of Chicago Department of Community Development
121 N. LaSalle, Room 1003
Chicago, IL 60602
katie.ludwig@cityofchicago.org

Dear Ms. Ludwig:

As you indicated in a recent public notice, the City of Chicago is planning to submit an application for
Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2) funds and invites comments from the public on its
proposed activities and target geography. The City of Chicago proposes to utilize NSP2 funds to build on
its NSP1 efforts, which are centered on the acquisition and rehabilitation of vacant, foreclosed residential
properties in targeted community areas. The City will achieve economies of scale by utilizing the same
management and monitoring infrastructure that is in place for NSP1 for its NSP2 activities.

I am writing this letter to provide public comments, and to share feedback regarding my experiences with
the City of Chicago and you in attempts to share information regarding NSP 1 in the North Lawndale
Community.

Proposed NSP Geography

The City applied the following HUD criteria in selecting the target communities for NSP 2:

 Need for Public Sector Intervention/Lack of Private Investment Activity

 Comprehensive Approach Based on an Established Plan.
 Capacity
 Protecting Capital Investments

In applying these criteria, the City selected the following communities:

 Albany Park
 Chicago Lawn
 Englewood
 Grand Boulevard
 Greater Grand Crossing
 Hermosa
 Humboldt Park
 Logan Square
 South Chicago
 South Lawndale
  Washington Park
 Woodlawn

These communities have New Communities Program Quality of Life Plans, as does North Lawndale.
North Lawndale is not among those selected, even though we have been more adversely impacted by the
mortgage foreclosure crisis than every community on the list, with the exception of Englewood. I
respectfully request that North Lawndale be added to the list of communities.

My Experience With NSP 1

I am a member of the Lawndale Alliance, a group of North Lawndale residents who have come together
to address issues of concern to local residents. To that end, we recently developed a series of 3
community awareness workshops. The topics included the Pros and Cons of the Olympics; an overview
of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and a TIF Town Hall meeting to provide a status report on the
7 TIFs that impact North Lawndale. We had a verbal agreement with the City Department of Planning
and Development to work with us on the TIF Town Hall meeting since August 2008, and the NSP
meeting since November, 2008.

On May 5, 2009, the City abruptly withdrew their support, reneged on their promise to assist with
coordinating the meetings, and canceled their appearances for all three meetings. Mercy Housing, the
City’s delegate agency for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, declined to participate in the meeting
series because the City canceled. NHS, who administers programs for mortgage foreclosure, had given a
verbal commitment to send a housing counselor to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program meeting.
They later sent word that the counselor was not available. The Chicago Rehab Network representative
did not respond to our invitation.

The City is aware that our group had spent over $1,000 promoting the meeting and arranging for security
and other supplies. While no reason was given initially for the cancellation, Acting Commissioner
Raguso told us to coordinate with our alderman. We didn’t understand this, because the alderman had
insisted on being on the agenda for all three meetings, and had confirmed her participation.

After filing a complaint for lack of service with Chicago 311, and writing letters to the Mayor, we got a
call from the Acting Commissioner. She explained she was new in her job, and wasn’t aware that her
predecessor had made a commitment to working with our group. She also indicated that the meeting was
not on the Department of Community Development’s master schedule. Acting Commissioner Raguso
admonished us to coordinate with the 24th Ward Alderman (Dixon). She also mentioned that the City
would be holding a meeting on the Neighborhood Stabilization Program at the Kipp-Ascend Charter
School on May 20, 2009, the day after our meeting, which was planned for May 19th, 2009. We indicated
to the Acting Commissioner that the meeting at Kipp-Ascend shouldn’t preclude the City from
participating in our meeting, as the agenda for our 2-hour meeting would be much broader, and would
include policy discussions in addition to the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The Acting
Commissioner followed up with a letter to us, and we responded. As we later learned, the 24th Ward
Alderman was the chief sponsor of the May 20th meeting.

It is worthy of noting that the representatives from the City attended the Alderman’s meeting and
provided a 3-minute presentation on the Neighborhood Stabilization program and referred the audience
to a public website for further information. For the record, the City of Chicago has been awarded $55
million in Neighborhood Stabilization Program Funds geared to address the mortgage foreclosure crisis
by purchasing abandoned foreclosed properties to rehab the units for affordable rental and for sale
housing. The City listed North Lawndale as an Area of High Need in your NSP application to HUD. The
Lawndale Alliance, a group of rank and file citizens from North Lawndale invited the City out to the
community to talk about the program, and you refused to come out, in essence, because we lack clout. It
should also be noted that the City made calls to the State of Illinois in an unsuccessful attempt to get
representatives from the State to cancel their appearances on the Lawndale Alliance NSP Town Hall
Meeting agenda. Calls were also made to DePaul University, questioning why they would sponsor the
event with us.

On May 28, 2009, we received an invitation to our meeting series, addressed to Mr. Chip Hastings, an
Assistant Commissioner with the Department of Community Development, stamped “Return to Sender”.
To the best of our knowledge, he still works with the City.

We want to be clear that the Lawndale Alliance respects elected officials, City department heads and the
City’s delegate agencies. We believe in going through appropriate approval channels, and we did. In
fact, we did everything that was asked of us. In return, the City refused to participate in our meeting,
discouraged delegate agencies from attending, and made attempts to discourage participation from the
State of Illinois and DePaul University. As a result, the community missed a great opportunity to learn
how to access wonderful programs that are funded through our own tax dollars. Unfortunately, this is
more of the rule in North Lawndale, rather than the exception.

While we do not believe any crime has been committed, we can say that citizens of North Lawndale
deserve better. Going through elected officials should not be the only means of gaining access to
education about City programs and services that are funded by federal and local taxes. We should be able
to call City departments or Chicago 311 and make arrangements for Department heads to come out to the
community. Moreover, the City should not be in a position to compel their delegate agencies not to make
public appearances in the communities they serve. Nonprofit organizations are independent agencies,
unless they are chartered affiliates of other nonprofits, the City, State or Federal government. In exchange
for their tax exempt status they must provide charitable services, education and outreach to the
community. Municipal governments, elected officials and nonprofit organizations are accountable to the
public and should not allow either partisan or petty politics to hinder their ability to provide information
or services to local citizens. After all, Chicago’s motto is “the City that works together”.

As of this writing, our complaint has not been resolved. Acting Commissioner Raguso made a verbal
promise to re-schedule town hall meetings on the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and the 7 TIFs
impacting North Lawndale (with the Lawndale Alliance), and this has not happened yet. Furthermore, we
have learned that the City participated in yet another meeting on the NSP sponsored by Alderman Dixon
on June 20, 2009, while ignoring its commitment to re-schedule our town hall meetings. Your actions
give credence to the widely held perception that access to innovative programs, basic services and
information to which Chicago citizens are entitled, are mired in the squalor of politics—to the detriment
of the people who most need the services.

The silver lining in this dark cloud is the fact that the Lawndale Alliance successfully hosted these
meetings utilizing the resources available to us. We developed our own Power Point presentations,
synthesized meeting outcomes and disseminated the information among a broad range of community
stakeholders.

In closing, I respectfully request once more that, you would put policies and procedures in place that
make City programs and services accessible to people regardless of political affiliation, or lack thereof.

Sincerely,

Valerie F. Leonard