BSL

Everything has become about markets. Public education is now even being looked at as a market. Housing used to be seen as source of stability. But at some point, housing became seen as a great way to make a small number of people lot of money. That’s a different framework than housing as a human right.

In Pilsen the average income is $34-35,000 a year for a family. If somebody starts charging rents of $2,500 a month, that speculation creates uncertainty, because people don’t know what their rent or property taxes will be tomorrow. Plus, if the area become more “desirable,” city inspectors become more aggressive, and developers put on more pressure to build more expensive housing.

This is not an invisible hand — it’s very visible. Developers are now buying entire blocks in Pilsen because they see the trends. And the people that suffer are the people that have been here for a long time. They are forced to sell because they can’t pay their property taxes or pay for repairs, and there is someone standing by saying, “I can buy this in cash.” I’ve seen that firsthand. When you have an economy based on speculation, based on corruption, based on nickel and diming people, based on pay-to-play, who has a good lawyer, who doesn’t — there’s nothing free about that.

The bill for rent control is on the state level. It allows us to have a democratic process, to decide whether or not we want rent control. We want to create legislation at the local level where homeowners and working people in Chicago can receive tax exemptions when they keep rents affordable. Who says no to that? Developers are getting those exemptions now — we want average people to get them.

To me, being an immigrant, this is my home away from home. I’ve been displaced from one place to another. And that’s what’s happened to a lot of people. We’ve been pushed around, and people are like, “How, in economy with so many resources, do we not have access to basics?”

And that’s why I’m proud to run as a democratic socialist. I think democratic socialism is the only way to challenge the system we have with values that are based on equity and sustainability and stability and social justice.