Pastor Jonathan Brooks says that, when you drive down Ogden Avenue in North Lawndale, you’ll see signs for Lawndale Christian Health Center, Lawndale Christian Development Corporation and Lawndale Christian Fitness. He says you might wonder: Where’s Lawndale Christian Community Church?
Unlike churches with a large steeple or stained-glass windows, Lawndale Christian Community Church, where Brooks is the lead pastor, occupies an unassuming building that was once a boat factory. Brooks says this is intentional because those other buildings — the health center, development corporation and fitness center — make up the church.
In 1975, the church was created by a high school coach at the behest of his students. They wanted a center of faith where the community’s needs were reflected in the church’s mission.
“We strive to be extremely relevant, to be a true community church where we live in the neighborhood, where we serve in the neighborhood, where we’re part of the neighborhood,” Brooks said.
In 1987, the church created the Lawndale Community Development Corporation. LCDC‘s goal was to address housing insecurity which were then — and still are now — big issues, according to Richard Townsell, LCDC executive director.
“The church wanted our folks to be able to own their own homes and live in decent apartments,” Townsell said.
Over the past 40 years, LCDC has provided about 600 units of housing, across managed rental units and single-family homes, catering to the needs of local residents who want to rent or own their home.
Townsell says LCDC picked up the mantle from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who moved to a dilapidated North Lawndale apartment in 1966 to protest segregation and poor housing conditions.
Dr. King comes North
Since the Great Migration, many Black Americans who settled in Chicago were challenged to find safe, affordable, and quality housing. Systemic barriers limited where Black folks could live and prevented them from owning property. Through the practice of redlining, banks refused to issue mortgages in Black communities. Covenant deeds restricted homeowners from selling their properties to Black buyers. And contract buying made it difficult for Black people to get favorable terms and actually own their homes outright.
Most places where Black folks could live were considered “the slums,” due to their concentration of poverty and plethora of dilapidated structures. This is what motivated King to bring the Civil Rights Movement to Chicago in January 1966.
During his time in Chicago, King teamed up with Al Raby to launch the Chicago Freedom Movement. Throughout the year, they held marches and protests to demand improved housing conditions for Black people, and held a race relations meeting with city business leaders, elected officials, and other faith leaders to address housing discrimination.
By August 1966, King’s time in Chicago resulted in a non-binding agreement with then-Mayor Richard J. Daley, which left much to be desired for some of the Black leaders with whom King worked.
Points of the agreement included: a panel of lawyers, instead of commissioners, would hear claims of housing discrimination; real estate brokers would ensure they knew their obligations under the city’s fair housing ordinance; and, as it enacted urban renewal plans, the city wouldn’t relocate residents in a way that sustained segregation.
Some Black faith leaders said the agreement didn’t have any teeth, and King agreed. In a 1967 interview, the Chicago-Sun-Times reported that King said the agreement was “a marvelous thing on paper,” from which little progress had resulted.
Within the two years after King left Chicago, the city recommended economic development plans for North Lawndale that included 21 new shopping centers, new housing, parks, schools, and services.
However, Brooks says the community has just as much need now as it did in the past, noting that little has changed along 16th Street. “And we come to the ‘80s and ‘90s and there’s still no investment on that street. It looks just like it did after Dr. King passed away.”
Brooks says North Lawndale is owed so much more.
“There are reparations owed to this neighborhood … there’s nothing on 16th Street,” he said.
While not connected to King in any way, LCDC acknowledges the foundation his work laid.
In 2011, LCDC built a 45-unit affordable housing project at 1550 South Hamlin, the same address where King and his family once lived. Currently, that development — known as the Dr. King Legacy Apartments — is managed by the Chicago Housing Authority.
Providing housing with time, patience
It’s been two years since Kayla Lemon and her three children moved into a two-bedroom apartment managed by LCDC. Previously, they were doubling up with her sister, but nearby shootings and an unsecure building motivated her to move.
“They were shooting real bad out in the front,” Lemon said. “It was guys all in the building. It was smelling like weed in the hallway. The building had a mice problem, so I just had to move.”
Lemon said she jumped through many hoops in her search for a safe and affordable apartment. She came across rental companies that charged exorbitant application fees. She also had a change in jobs which impacted her housing benefits. One company required more documentation to verify her eligibility, and gave her a tight deadline to submit. When Lemon missed the deadline, she lost her chance to get the apartment, even after paying the hefty fees.
“They want a lot of fees in order for you to apply for their apartments, just to get to the very end, just to not get approved for the apartment,” Lemon said.
Things turned around when she looked to LCDC for housing. Even though she ran into similar issues regarding her eligibility, Lemon said LCDC was much more patient with her.
“They don’t give you a hard time,” Lemon said. “They ask for what they need, [you] give them what they want. They really gave me time. Like, this was like a two-month process, but I got my apartment.”
Making homeownership accessible
Homeownership has long been the primary vehicle that Americans leverage to accumulate wealth. And it is also one of the key drivers to the country’s racial wealth gap. For decades, homeownership has been out of reach for many Black Americans due to systemic barriers like redlining, contract buying, and limited access to bank loans.
In its near 40-year history, LCDC has built 192 single-family homes. Another 31 are in the works, in various phases of development. But before prospective homebuyers can buy from LCDC, they must participate in an eight-hour HUD-certified homebuyer education course to understand what they need to do to be ready for a home, and the process they can anticipate. Townsell of LCDC said this is how people with North Lawndale roots can have a piece of the neighborhood.
“Almost all of our folks are people that historically have ties to the neighborhood,” Townsell said. “So they live in the neighborhood. They work in the neighborhood. They worship in the neighborhood.”
They include Rodniqua Mack, who grew up in North Lawndale and has family there. One of her fondest childhood memories is living in a home that her family owned. The home attracted neighborhood kids because everyone knew her family, and they felt safe in her home, Mack said. “I would always feel like, ‘Oh, I’m glad that I live here, and I’m glad I live with family, and I’m glad that this is our home.’’
As an adult, Mack lived with family or family friends, but she always carried the desire to have her own home. After experiencing some credit troubles, Mack was discouraged and wondered if she should quit pursuing homeownership. “Maybe it ain’t for me. Maybe I need to take some time to fix my credit, save some money,” she said.
It wouldn’t be until years later when she picked it back up. A friend of hers was enrolled in LCDC’s homebuying education course and encouraged Mack to sign up. The program also offered assistance with down payments and closing costs. But Mack wasn’t sure she believed it.
“’I’m a very skeptical person. I don’t trust people who say they’re gonna just give you money,” she said.
As part of the homebuyer course, participants meet with an advisor to improve their credit. Initially, Mack met with an advisor once a month, and then every two weeks. Eventually, she got her credit score to 720. Mack attributes her success to working with her advisor, and this is what makes LCDC unique.
“I honestly felt like it was just me talking to a family member,” Mack said.
When she was ready to start looking at homes, LCDC had only one remaining newly constructed home. When Mack went to see it, she couldn’t understand why the home hadn’t been snatched up. She also viewed other available homes on the market with a real estate broker. Mack would bring her two children along for those viewings, when she could. But none of those homes excited her children. She finally returned to the LCDC home, this time with her kids, and she had a much different experience.
“My son came in and started running around like he owned the place, and my daughter came right in and got comfortable,” Mack said. She didn’t need any more confirmation.
Even though Mack was determined to have a home, she’s not sure she would have made the best choice without LCDC. When she went on viewings with realtors, Mack said she was shown homes that were beyond a price point with which she was comfortable. She said buying a home from LCDC allowed her to get more for her money.
“All the appliances came with the house, washer and dryer, microwave, stove, dishwasher. So I had extra money to spend on things that I hadn’t even thought that I should buy,” Mack said.
Richard Townsell, executive director of the Lawndale Christian Development Corporation, speaks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for new single-family homes in the North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. The development is part of ongoing efforts to provide affordable housing for neighborhood residents.
Kenn Cook Jr./For the Sun-Times
Townsell said LCDC can sell the homes at an accessible price because of downpayment and appraisal gap assistance provided by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The LCDC team, representing the community, led the efforts to lobby the state for the support.
“We’re waiting on government to do something. We’ve kind of given up our responsibility in the public square to do something. And so we’re going to wait for the mayor, wait for Congress, or wait for someone to do it,” Townsell said. “We can organize ourselves to demand that the system is just and fair and persistently stay on top of that until it is.”