Photos: Protesters Smash Landlord Effigies At Renters Day Of Action

By Stephen Gossett in News on Sep 23, 2016 10:58AM

In one of more than 40 similar planned actions nationwide, dozens of protesters took to Daley Plaza on Thursday afternoon to speak out against the local affordable-housing crisis.

"Today, Sept. 22, 2016, is the first national day of renters action for dignity and respect.," said Antonio Gutierrez, of the Autonomous Tenants Union.

"We are here to declare a renters state of emergency, to take the streets to demand an end to rising rents, evictions and gentrification,"Gutierrez told the crowd. "Now more than ever, housing is not affordable for millions of people. Rents nationwide are rising while wages are stagnant, evictions are at an epidemic level, and our communities cannot wait for affordable housing any longer."

The demonstration was put together in partnership with ten tenants-advocacy groups, including Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing, Metropolitan Tenants Organization, Somos Logan Square and others.

"Working and low income people, communities of color, immigrants and the formerly incarcerated are the targets of this crisis. As housing becomes even more unattainable and our cultures and communities are displaced," Gutierrez added.

At different points in the demonstration, protesters formed a human line in front of the Richard J. Daley Center and smashed a piñata meant to represent Joel Barnett and Mark Fishman, of controversial property-management companies Barnett Capital LTD and M. Fishman and Co., respectively. M. Fishman hiked rents in Logan Square as high as $600 a month earlier this year.

A study this summer by the MacArthur Foundation found that nearly half of Chicago resident could not afford their housing and that people of color were found to be more skeptical of a housing rebound than whites.

"We demand with the rest of the nation a solution to the national housing crisis," Gutierrez said.