A fire broke out in a homeless encampment in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago on March 22. Fifteen tents and virtually all personal possessions inside the tents were lost in the fire. This tragedy should serve as a galvanizing reminder of the dangers of life for people experiencing homelessness; with adequate, safe housing, events like these would be avoided.
The encampment is located at the Lawrence underpass beneath DuSable Lake Shore Drive. This tent city and another one at the nearby Wilson underpass form Uptown Homeless Community. This is a united community that fights for the right to housing for all. It also struggles against attempts by the local politicians and police to encroach upon their own encampments.
A fire breaks out
According to Tom, the “Mayor” of Uptown Homeless Community, one of the residents of the community started the fire on the Lawrence underpass. During an altercation, he used hand sanitizer to set the fire.
Propane tanks that residents were using to stay warm subsequently burst into flames, setting the whole South end of the encampment on fire. No one was injured. The man who lit the fire is “unfortunately in jail,” according to Tom.
Luxury housing forces out the working class
Tom argues that the city government — especially James Cappleman, Uptown’s alderman in the City Council — is to blame for the rise of homelessness in the Uptown community. “All he cares about is luxury housing. He got rid of the majority of our SROs [single-room occupancies], shut them down and sold them for luxury housing,” Tom told Liberation News. “It’s like they want to push all the working class and poor people out of the city of Chicago and let the rich come in and take over. Where are we supposed to go? These are our neighborhoods; we’ve lived here for years. Why should we leave?”
Uptown is a neighborhood on the north side of Chicago that has long been known as an affordable lakefront community for the working class and poor. But as the years have passed, a halfway house and multiple mental health facilities have been closed down while affordable SROs have been increasingly replaced by luxury housing.
A past and present of struggle
Tom and his community recognize this gentrification as a deliberate attack on the working class by the elites and their state. He also knows that the solution is to fight back. Since moving to Uptown in the 1970s, Tom has helped Uptown Homeless Community fight the city’s attempts to displace them. This includes a legal battle against an attempt to renovate the underpasses and against placing a bike lane on the sidewalk of the underpass rather than the street.
Today, he is raising awareness of the Bring Chicago Home campaign. This movement seeks to put a proposal on the ballot that would increase a tax on the most valuable 4.2% of Chicago properties to create a new revenue stream dedicated to combatting homelessness.
But Tom’s ultimate goal remains the same: the universal right to housing for all. “Everyone who wants housing deserves it,” Tom told Liberation News. “Just give it to them!”
