A warm welcome is extended to Raquel Rolnik, the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing
(http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/B3DBF99EE68709D4C125743D00280657?opendocument)
who arrives in Chicago this evening. Ms. Rolnik will be examining
the state of housing and homelessness here as part of a multi-city
United States tour. CCH staff, Julie Dworkin, Drea Hall, Beth
Cunningham and Rene Heybach, along with our many allies and our
homeless leaders will be meeting with the Rapporteur in her 3-day
Chicago visit. We will share our stories, research, policy
recommendations and concerns about Chicago's lack of affordable
housing, the root cause of extensive homelessness.
Leaders of our Sweet Home Chicago campaign ( Stephanie Hooker and
Antoin Smith ) will do a special presentation to the Rapporteur at the
REST shelter site on Tuesday to inform her about the resources
available in the City's coffers through its TIFs to support and
greatly expand access to housing for Chicago's homeless.
Ms. Rolnik will also meet homeless youth in the H.E.L.L.O. group which is served
by the CCH Youth Futures mobile legal clinic in conjunction with Night
Ministries.
Among other important activities will be the Rapporteur's tour of
Cabrini Green and other public housing sites. Though she requested to
meet directly with the Mayor, Ms. Rolnik will be meeting with Ellen
Sahli, Deputy Commissioner of the City's Department of Community Development. CCH has long been committed to the full realization of the human right to housing (seehttp://www.chicagohomeless.org/files/Archive/factsfigures/humanright.pdf)
and has worked significantly to educate and mobilize our City, County
and State to recognize and fulfill that right. All persons are welcome
to a Town Hall meeting with the Rapporteur on Tuesday evening 7:00- 9:00 pm at Fernwood United Methodist Church on 10057 South Wallace, Chicago, IL.
For details of the Rapporteur's other activities in her first official
visit to the United States, check out http://restorehousingrights.org/
