Shenita Muse: Building Homes and Power to Combat Chicago’s Housing Crisis

Overlooking Roseland (Photo Credit: Nitram242/Flickr).

When I drive through the Roseland neighborhood—the community I serve in —I don’t just see blight. I see possibility.

I see land that’s been neglected, families who’ve been denied, and generations waiting for someone to care. But as we’ve come to realize, no one is coming to save us. We have to save ourselves.

The current housing crisis in cities like Chicago reflects decades of systemic issues and underinvestment. It’s the result of decades of policy decisions that cut off Black and Brown communities from access to capital, homeownership and wealth-building opportunities others take for granted. It’s a modern manifestation of what Isabel Wilkerson calls America’s caste system.

In her book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, she