Rev. Jackson, Bishop Grant to join U.S. HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, the Mayor and Rep. Kelly at the Concordia Place Apartments
Rev. Jackson, Bishop Grant to join U.S. HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, the Mayor and Rep. Kelly at the Concordia Place Apartments (Chicago, IL) – Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. and Bishop Tavis Grant, national field director for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition (RPC), will be meeting with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia L. Fudge 12:45 p.m., Tuesday, October 5th, at the Concordia Place Apartments, 13037 S. Daniel Drive, to appeal to her the importance of finishing the rehabilitation project.
Secretary Fudge is coming to Chicago to promote the Biden-Harris administration’s “Build Back Better” agenda and its investments in housing construction and rehabilitation, economic development, and community revitalization, according to HUD officials.
It was last March when residents of the Concordia Place Apartments reached out to Rev. Jackson complaining of complex-wide infestations and management-dictated resident rules they say were anti-family and discriminatory.
Within months, Rev. Jackson and Bishop Grant held hearings that included HUD officials James Cunningham and Daniel Burke both of whom promised their full support HUD agreed to Rev. Jackson’s demands that the 297-unit complex be completely rehabbed.
The complex is privately owned by the Capital Realty Group but funded by HUD. After Rev. Jackson’s negotiations with the owner, the Capital Realty Group agreed to unlock the playground that management had padlocked, allow residents to use the laundromat on weekends, stopped the towing of their cars, deep clean and exterminate all units, remove mice, mold, termites, roaches and to rehab all 297 units.
“We want to make the Concordia Place Apartments a HUD role model for the nation,” said Rev. Jackson. Since his involvement with the complex, he, Bishop Grant, Rev. Cameron Barnes, the national youth director for the RPC, and Omar Sharif, superintendent of the RPC, have held holiday and back-to-school events including offering vaccines and job opportunities.
“We think it is significant that the HUD Secretary is coming in person to see the progress and to participate in the partnership between the residents, the management and her agency,” said Bishop Grant.
“It’s a great time to come to see the progress that Rev. Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition have made, the inroads that we have made and the substantive change that has been made, and we are not done,” Bishop Grant said. “Coming at this time ensures the residents and the other stakeholders that we must finish this project.”
“I think that Secretary Fudge is showing a great level of leadership and personal investment in coming,” Bishop Grant said. “We have been working on this since March. It is the time, the right thing, and she is the right person.
“I think it is a tribute to Rev. Jackson’s tenacity in being unrelenting and wanting Concordia to be a template and an example for the new way we imagine public housing to be across the nation.”
Secretary Fudge has stressed her commitment to ensure HUD-assisted properties offer safe, stable homes and to push for the need for the “Build Back Better” agenda’s “significant investments to rehabilitate and expand America’s affordable housing stock.”
According to HUD officials, joining Secretary Fudge will be Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-2nd), and Kristin Faust, executive director of the Illinois Housing Development.
Earlier, Secretary Fudge, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Raul Raymundo, CEO of the Resurrection Project, will attend a “Build Back Better” and Latino Communities site at the Casa Queretaro, 2012 W. 17th St.
Rev. Jackson, Bishop Grant to join U.S. HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, the Mayor and Rep. Kelly at the Concordia Place Apartments
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