Then State Sen. Obama speaking at CCH's 2003 Annual Meeting.

We’d like to share a story.

When Mr. Obama was a state senator running for the U.S. Senate,
he was one of six candidates who accepted an invitation to speak at the
CCH Annual Meeting, held on Oct. 29, 2003. About 150 people were in
attendance, including families from several of the homeless shelters we
work with.

At one point, the candidates were asked if affordable housing
was an issue that mattered to them. Sen. Obama told the audience of
coming home from work late one winter night and walking past a parked
car, its windows fogged up. He decided to check if everything was OK.

A woman opened the car window. She told Sen. Obama that her
family was homeless and had to sleep in their car that night. Two young
children were asleep in the back seat. Sen. Obama said he would never
forget it because he had two young daughters at home in their beds, and
he could not imagine how difficult it must be for homeless families. He
pledged to do what he could so that families would not be left to
struggle this way.

We note that Sen. Obama worked with CCH on one of our key
housing initiatives while still serving in the Illinois Senate. He
co-sponsored the original version of the bill that created the Illinois
Rental Housing Support Program, a program proposed by CCH. Enacted in
2005, after Mr. Obama left the state Senate, the rent subsidy program
so far helps 1,500 low-wage households in Chicago and 430 in the
suburbs and downstate. A $10 fee for real estate documents filed with
county recorders' offices funds the program.