Coalition for Equitable Community Development- Promoting and economically and racially diverse community of Hyde Park-Kenwood
1525 East 53rd Street, Suite 907, Chicago, IL 60615. www.hpkcoalition.org

September 28, 2008

Dear Hyde Park orgnanization leader:

This letter is to introduce you to the Coalition for Equitable Community Development (CECD) and to urge your becoming a Founding Member. The founding of the CECD is the latest step in the evolving effort of Hyde Park-Kenwood citizens to influence the direction of the housing developments in our community.

For the past several years, the Hyde Park-Kenwood community, in which your organization plays a vital role, has been under significant economic pressures from real estate interests and developers to convert the varied mix of housing options in our neighborhood to predominately upscale homes or condominiums. These pressures, despite the recent downturn in the housing market, are likely to continue to threaten the affordability of our housing stock thereby limiting the ethnic and racial diversity of the community along with its income mix.

This development activity shows that our community is a desirable place to live. However, development that is not balanced, but only focused on the high end of the retail market, will negatively impact the economic and social diversity of our neighborhood. In order to promote diversity, Hyde Park-Kenwood must preserve its affordable housing stock and promote new mixed-income developments.

Several years ago, concerns about the loss of affordable housing for lower income residents led to the establishment of the Interfaith Open Communities-Hyde Park Cluster (IOC-HP), a faith-based effort to explore possible ways of addressing this issue. That organization began a series of initiatives, including the Hyde Park-Kenwood Transitional Housing Project, an affordable advocacy committee, an a home-sharing project in association with the Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing. These efforts led to informal alliances and coordination with the Hyde Park and Illinois Older Women's League (OWL), the Hyde Park-Kenwood Interfaith Council, First Unitarian Racial and Social Justice Committees, and the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference.

These many organizations sponsored a series of forums, beginning in the Spring of 2006, designed to elicit input from community leaders and residents as to the next steps. The consensus of the participants that emerged at these meeting was that a single community development organization that could focus on the affordable housing issue was desperately needed. Such an entity could monitor proposed housing and commercial developments, educated current residents about the likely consequences of these projects, and mobilize residents to help preserve the mixed income character of our neighborhood. The need for this organization has only been heightened in recent days by Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympic Games in neighboring Washington Park, the planned redevelopments of Harper Court nd the Village Center, and the possible construction o new hotel.

As our brochure indicates, several significant civic and faith-based organizations, as well as a number of individuals have united to launch this project. The CECD is incorporated as a not-for-profit under the laws of the State of Illinois and is in the process of obtaining federal tax exempt status.

It is our sincere belief that to preserve the kind of diverse community for which Hyde Park-Kenwood is known and which constitutes one of its major attractions, organizational and citizen involvement is required. We urge you as the leader of an important community-based organization to seriously consider joining our Coalition as a founding member organization for the nominal dues of $100 per year. More importantly we seek your organization's representation and participation in our efforts to maintain an economically and racially diverse community.

Members of our Board are available to meet with you at your convenience and will contact you in the near future to assess your interest.

Sincerely,

Pat Wilcoxen
President, CECD

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