Christiana Powell’s family has lived in their Woodlawn home since 1950, spanning three generations.
The three-story property, which is a block away from multiple University of Chicago student dormitories, currently houses not only Powell but also her great-nephew, her sister, and one tenant who, although not a blood relative, is “like family,” Powell said.
But after the 2016 death of Powell’s mother, who took on the initial mortgage, monthly payments on Powell’s home skyrocketed from $800 to $3,500 a month, she said. Powell alleges this was due to the conversion of her mortgage from an FHA loan to a conventional loan by her bank without her permission.
Powell said she contested the bill and refused to make payments. By late January of 2020, the bank foreclosed upon the home. After Powell was served a final eviction notice on June 27, her community has sprung into action.
On Thursday, more than 30 neighbors, activists and community members gathered in Powell’s backyard in front of a large banner that read “Stop displacement of Black families” and chanted, “Housing is a human right!” and “Stop the evictions!”
“This neighborhood has been labeled gentrified, and when you look up that word, basically what does it mean?” said Powell in her speech to the crowd. “‘If you ain’t got enough money, we’re gonna take what you got by any means necessary.’ The system is in place and it’s running very smooth, the way those who put it in place intended for it to run.”
Activists who rallied around Powell say that her loss of ownership of her house is part of an overall pattern of displacement of Black families who have made their homes in the Woodlawn community for generations.
In addition to the presence of the University of Chicago just a block away, attendees said that plans to build the Obama Presidential Center in nearby Jackson Park are also contributing to rent increases that threaten to price long-time residents out of the area. They emphasized that they are seeing countless attempts by predatory developers to buy up homes in Woodlawn and construct expensive new properties in their place.
“They came in here with a vengeance to take over and push out the middle class people and the poorer people… when they were sitting here holding it down all these years,” said Sharon Payne, Woodlawn resident and founding member of Southside Together Organizing for Power. “They figure they can just march in here and just walk over people.”
By Feb. 1 of 2022, ownership of the property on the 6100 block of Greenwood Avenue had been officially transferred to a developer listed as GA Roslyn LLC, according to the sale deed. The LLC has received construction permits for new multi-unit homes in a number of other Woodlawn locations since 2020.
Powell has dedicated years to challenging her foreclosure in court as a pro se self-representing litigant, alleging multiple violations of required legal procedures by U.S. Bank and the purchasing developer.
Aneta Jakubczyk, a member of GA Roslyn LLC, wrote in an email to the Tribune that she has been prevented from accessing the property by Powell and others since her company’s acquisition of the home, criticizing the “abysmal state” of Chicago eviction laws. She claimed that Powell has spread “false rumors” regarding her company’s conduct.
“For 27 months, my company has legally owned this property,” Jakubczyk wrote. “Since purchase of this property I have been forced to pay mortgage, prior owners utility bills & property taxes while Mrs. Powell is enjoying living there rent free & renting my property for years.”
Powell’s appeal of her foreclosure judgment in Cook County’s circuit court was dismissed by the First District Appellate Court of Illinois in April of 2022.
She then sued U.S. Bank in federal court later that year, but her complaint was dismissed without prejudice in the summer of 2023. The judge gave Powell 30 days to refile an amended complaint, but she did not do so.
Instead, Powell submitted another appeal to a federal appellate court. That case remains pending.
In response to a request for comment, a U.S. Bank spokesperson clarified Thursday that although their company was listed by name on court documents, it was in fact only the trustee for the mortgage-backed security trust that included Powell’s loan.
The servicer of the loan was the only party with the authority to initiate actions such as foreclosure and eviction with regards to Powell’s property, the bank’s spokesperson said.
The mortgage servicer identified could not be reached for comment as of Friday afternoon.
Powell also alleges that people have attempted to break into her home and forcibly evict her multiple times.
She claims that in April 2023 multiple people jumped the fence to enter her home and tried to break her locks with a hammer. One man allegedly flung racial slurs at Powell and her family.
Powell was sent a final eviction notice from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office on June 27, and said she now expects them to stop by any day.
A representative of the Cook County Circuit Court said they were unable to comment on the case.
Powell told the Tribune she chose to defend herself as a pro se litigant in her court cases because she had realized, “No one’s gonna fight for me like I’m gonna to fight for me.”
“I have found so much in the law that has been broken,” she said.
As the community gathered in Powell’s backyard on Thursday with couches and tarps, organizers said that they would remain at the house in shifts to show support and await the initiation of eviction proceedings by the sheriff’s office. A spokesman for the sheriff’s office declined to comment.
Makayla Acevedo, a high school student at Hyde Park Academy and a member of Southside Together Organizing for Power, said she came to the event with about fifteen other youth activists.
“If we’re not together, we won’t have a voice,” Acevedo said. “So we brought our team, our youth, and everybody, to come together to fight for this lady’s home.”
Donna Roberts, an Englewood resident and member of the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression, said that Powell’s situation reminded her of similar pressure in her own neighborhood from wealthy developers trying to displace existing residents.
“If you’re not a millionaire in these neighborhoods anymore, then you’re not even counted,” added Raymoan Neal, a Woodlawn resident who has known Powell for 12 years.
Many attendees said that their neighborhood’s struggles will only be intensified by the construction of the Obama Presidential Center nearby, which residents fear will push rents up in Woodlawn and South Shore. Protests by Woodlawn residents in 2020 led to a city ordinance intended to protect affordable housing options around the new center.
Linda Tinsley, an organizer with the Obama Community Benefits Agreement Coalition – which is dedicated to preventing displacement due to the Obama Presidential Center – said that she is now seeing condominiums worth over $800,000 being built in the Woodlawn neighborhood.
“We just have so many people that cannot afford that, and it’s just not right,” Tinsley said on Thursday. “We are fighting for our homeowners and our renters, okay. This cannot be tolerated.”
University of Chicago students representing the student group UChicago Against Displacement also attended the Thursday event. Sanya Bhartiya, an organizer with the group, said that UChicago is playing a role in gentrifying Woodlawn, adding that “folks who have been here in this community deserve to be able to stay here.”
Powell concluded her remarks by reciting the popular quote, “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”
“We are resistant, because it is our duty to stand up against Goliath and let him know, your death is imminent,” Powell said. “And the death of Goliath is the death of his system, that is running like a well-oiled machine.”
