Hope Center Updates

ABLA Homes - Action Needs To Be Taken!

The inaction of the Chicago Housing Authority is leaving more than 30,000 Chicago residents without a place to rest their heads and instead possibly giving that land to a Billionaire. Click the image above to learn more.

Mercy Hospital

​The Lugenia Burns Hope Center, along with other members of the Chicago Health Equity Coalition, was able to stop Trinity Health Services (the owners of Mercy Hospital) from closing Mercy Hospital and moved them to sell the Hospital.

The Illinois Health Facilities Commission approved this historical work on Tuesday, March 25th.

This will allow Mercy to stay open and continue to be a safety-net hospital for the entire community, especially the most vulnerable within our community.

LSC Empowerment Bill

The product of years of advocacy by the LSCs 4 All coalition, makes several historical changes to how LSCs operate which include:

  • Empowering most of the Appointment Local School Councils from being advisory to decisions-making bodies, which has never happened!
  • Any school that has been on probation for more than five years will have nearly all the powers of a fully empowered LSC, which is unprecedented. For the first time ever, 7th and 8th graders can now be members of their Local School Council. 
  • This bill was sponsored by Sen. Cristina Paciones-Zayas and Rep. Jaime Andrade and created by the LSCs.4.ALL Coalition.

School Closing Moratorium Bill

This bill allows for a moratorium on school closures in Chicago. This protects our communities from the irreparable harm of school closures that have been impacting our community for the past 20 years.

Rent Control

The Rent Control Bill (HB116) officially passed out of the Housing Committee!  The Lift The Ban Coalition has worked diligently with Chief Sponsor Will Guzzardi and other allies to accomplish this.

The bill has until April 23rd to pass out of the Illinois House of Representatives.

Our Executive Director, Roderick Wilson, quoted in The Chicago Suntimes.

"In these trying times, our state legislator should give municipalities every tool that's possible to stabilize and protect Illinois residents," Roderick Wilson.

School Board Bill

 

The Elected Representative School Board Bill was passed out of the House Education Committee this past week.  This move is a step closer to having a school board that reflects the will of its constituents.

Click Here to Read More!

Another victory that we are so proud to see come to fruition.

The Hope Project

In 2020, The Hope Center launched the Hope Project, which provides mutual aid relief to area public housing developments and senior buildings monthly.

The Hope Project provides rides for seniors to the grocery store, pharmacy, food for families and PPE, health and hygiene necessities for Bronzeville community residents.

COVID-19 Exposes Health Care Inequities in Chicago Black Communities

Hope Center leaders at Mercy Hospital calling on the city to combat the health care inequities in the Black community.  Mercy ws on of 4 hospitals scheduled to close before the COVID-19 Pandemic.  We are asking the city to not only put resources such as expanded COVID-19 testing in Black communities but to also begin to ensure that the inequities that exist in the Black community that makes us the largest population that is dying from COVID-19 will not exist after this pandemic.  How do we utilize this time to ensure health car equity in the Black communities of Chicago.