Park Ridge Fair Housing Advocates

(2003) Nan Parson of Park Ridge updates other north suburban fair and affordable housing advocates at Open Communities’ Fair Housing Month event in 2009

Gail was the chief curriculum developer on behalf of Open Communities of a three-part training series geared toward groups of 10-15 residents of individual suburbs under a grant from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Fair Housing Initiatives Program. This Fair Housing Advocate Training served the twin goals of fair housing education and community building, as the same group of people met over three consecutive weeks and ultimately selected a common goal. 

As a result of the training in Park Ridge, the participants reconstituted their Fair Housing Commission and strengthened their local laws, including protecting renters with housing vouchers.

Winnetka is Neighborly

(2011 - 2012) Winnetka Is Neighborly wins the 2012 Rayna & Marvin Miller Housing Justice Award from Open Communities. In addition to the Property Maintenance Code victory for renters, WIN also helped gain passage of a coach house ordinance, allowing 30 homeowners to turn their coach houses into rentals if they so choose. Left to right: Nancy Pred, Surrosh Shakir, Mark Miller (presenting the award), Ann Airey, Katie Seigenthaler, and Jen McQuet.

Before March 2011, four Winnetka women were strangers to one another. Thanks to Gail and Open Communities, they found that they were not alone in their support for an inclusive Winnetka. They united as Winnetka Is Neighborly and under the banner "Facts, Not Fear," WIN spent the rest of the year educating residents through literature, e-mails, community mobilization and public testimony about why affordable housing is needed and about the diversity of current residents and workers who would benefit from a proposed Village plan. These four homeowners ultimately helped to bring about unanimous support from the Village Council to adopt a Property Maintenance Code, a central recommendation of the Plan Commission.  The Village lost over 300 rental units in 30 years, a 40% drop in the rental stock. This new code gives the Village a tool in its quiver to preserve its remaining rentals.

Wilmette Cares

(2013 - Present) Members of Wilmette Cares in front of Gates Manor. From left to right: Ann Jonaitis, Betty Phillips, Lorelei McClure, Gail Schechter, Lisa Braganca, Puran Stevens

Responding to individual residents interested in advocating for affordable housing at a newly available downtown Wilmette site, Gail catalyzed what became Wilmette Cares, a group residents who advocate for affordable, accessible, and inclusive housing in the village. “We love Wilmette and want to inspire our neighbors to embrace a spirit of fairness, empathy, and inclusion,” proclaims the group. The group organized none too soon, as it turns out. When the Village of Wilmette announced that it would be ending its Village’s Housing Assistance Program (HAP), founded in 1979 to provide a subsidy to the lowest-income seniors and people with permanent disabilities, the group was by then in a strong position to push back and ensure HAP's survival. Wilmette Cares has produced a video that raises awareness among residents that mixed-income housing is part of the community’s heritage (Embracing Our Diversity, Preserving Our Heritage, Keeping Our Promises) and continues to promote the preservation and expansion of affordable housing in the Village. The group meets regularly at Gates Manor, one of the oldest affordable senior buildings in the northern suburbs whose development in 1978 was supported by Open Communities, then the North Shore Interfaith Housing Council.

The Justice Project: The March Continues

(2014 - Present) Nearly 1,000 gathered at the Winnetka Village Green for Justice Day, a celebration of past achievement for social justice and ending discrimination in housing, and a call to action for a concerted effort to continue the fight against racism and work toward the dream of a Welcoming Community in Chicago’s northern suburbs

Inspired by 50th anniversary of the North Shore Summer Project, the grassroots fair housing campaign of thousands that brought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Winnetka in 1965, Gail led Open Communities to pull together people from all of its previous campaigns, people it has served through its other programs, and partner organizations to create a new social justice movement for the 21st Century. The Justice Project: The March Continues shaped 19 Principles of the Welcoming Community as a framework for advocacy and is now moving to create grassroots “Justice Teams” in all suburbs.