A legacy of self-determination, love, service, and promotion of human rights
The Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign (CAEC, the Campaign) is a member-led human rights organization whose mission is to enforce housing as a fundamental right. We work towards this goal through community organizing, direct action, popular education, leadership development, and public policy advocacy that empowers those directly impacted by displacement and homelessness to de-commodify housing and affirm it as a human right. The Campaign partners with a multitude of other community organizations, private sector organizations and businesses, institutional, and government organizations. Decisions are made collectively by the team, which is made up of people from the community, for the best interest of the community.
To give people an understanding of our work, we have a CAEC promotional video with footage from MSNBC, Fox News, Tavis Smiley, and PBS that illustrates the issue of housing, showcases the work of the CAEC as solutionaries and how people respond. Our work has inspired comments from former President Bill Clinton, who said in an interview with MSNBC, that our work of taking over vacant and abandoned buildings to house people without homes should be mainstreamed and legalized. President Clinton noted that it was a great idea and the least expensive way to fix up these houses and put people to work. You can see this video here
Through the issue of housing, the CAEC is addressing a multitude of problems in Chicago. Not only are we enacting solutions to the housing crisis but we are addressing unemployment and reducing blight in the community via on the job training with young men and women who could obtain trade skills. President Obama said, to take some of these young men and women and teach them how to fix up these vacant homes. By giving them skills and a trade and bringing the community together with what works, we’ll extend more ladders of opportunities and we’re reducing blight in our communities. President Clinton and Obama referenced the work of the CAEC and so we are trying to connect both their statements to create more opportunities for African American communities.
The Death and Life of Chicago
In the June 2013 edition of the NY Times Magazine our work provided a cover story that illustrated our radical solutions to the foreclosures, evictions, and homelessness in Chicago by taking over houses. The article also showed the gravity of our work in its ability to influence the media and mainstream the issues of housing and the redevelopment of Chicago’s African American communities.
Taking Over, Taking Back
The foreclosure crisis hit Chicago hard. It left in its wake 62,000 vacant properties in the city and more than 100,000 people living on the streets. Enter the Chicago-Anti-Eviction Campaign. The organization works to put displaced families into foreclosed homes and rebuild the communities broken down by vacant houses. Influenced by the civil disobedience of the civil rights movement, their tactics don’t always align with the law.
2013 documentary film by Jessica Murphy & Elissa Nadworny
High-Risers
High-Risers traces the life span of that 70-acre neighborhood on the near north side through the shifting tides of federal policy and local politics. The saga of the development is interspersed with the histories of four individuals who spent their lives there: Dolores Wilson, Kelvin Cannon, J.R. Fleming (Co-Founder of the CAEC), and Annie Ricks.