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The Daily Northwestern Thursday, April 27, 2023
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7 CITY/Redistricting Committee
AUDIO/The Weekly
4 OPINION/Merger
Redistricting Committee uses public feedback in ward map
City, campus editors discuss Clark Street Beach shooting
WWE and UFC merger bad for wrestling industry
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Job training program connects generations and enjoy snacks. Mather’s eMerge conversation A recent grant of $58,100 from introduces students Evanston’s American Rescue Plan Act funds, matched by an equivato healthcare careers lent investment from Mather, will By CASEY HE
the daily northwestern @caseeey_he
Illustration by Lily Ogburn
Some maintenance workers who aren’t fluent in English have faced communication lapses that have caused high stress and anxiety.
Workers report overwork, abuse NU maintenance technicians face retaliation from supervisors By JOANNA HOU
daily senior staffer @joannah_11
Content warning: This story includes mentions of workplace abuse and racism.
Two names have been changed in this story to protect the safety of workers who are currently employed. Both workers requested anonymity because they wanted to protect themselves against further retaliation from their supervisors. These sources will be indicated with an asterisk next to
their name on first mention. Quotes from Rojas and Daisy* were translated from Spanish. Some quotes from Christina* were also translated. When now-retired Northwestern Maintenance Technician Maria Rojas worked for
Residential Services, she struggled to take cleaning supplies up multiple flights of stairs and lift heavy boxes. But when she raised concerns to her supervisors, they told her
» See MAINTENANCE, page 6
Evanston resident Barbara Hiller moved into The Mather, an Evanston senior living residency, four years ago. A retired math teacher and former Evanston/Skokie School District 65 administrator, Hiller began tutoring middle school and high school students online when the COVID-19 pandemic began. “I found (online tutoring) very helpful to me as well as to the student,” Hiller said. “I think that not feeling isolated and that you still contribute (to the community) is, for us the elderly, important.” When Mather, the nonprofit that manages her residency, reached out to Hiller about participating in a fellowship to partner with mentoring organization Boys Hope Girls Hope, Hiller said she signed up “without hesitation.” Two days a week, BHGH students come to The Mather to spend time with the residents, Hiller said. Over an hour and a half, the students work on their homework with the residents’ help or simply strike up a
continue and expand fellowship programs like the one Hiller is in. It will also create internships for high school students and award scholarships for students at Oakton College. Together, the three initiatives create Mather’s new eMerge workforce development programs. Hiller said she appreciates the opportunity to connect with students and continue pursuing her passion in education, remembering one who practiced his science class presentation with the residents. However, Hiller stressed the fellowship extends beyond tutoring. The program creates a space for students to engage with Mather residents and each other in a supportive environment, she said. “I’ve never seen kids sit down and work so fast in my life. It is just a delight,” she said. “So we really hope that they feel empowered.” Yvonne Jung, Mather’s senior vice president of human resources, said the organization hopes to show jobs in the healthcare and hospitality industries to young people in Evanston through the program. “You may have never thought about working with an older adult or being a nurse or a nursing
» See MATHER, page 6
Nonprofits discuss causes of city’s housing segregation
Open Communities, Shorefront Legacy Center present on history of Evanston housing discrimination By COLE REYNOLDS
the daily northwestern @charcole27
Open Communities Housing Associate Dominic Voz and Shorefront Legacy Center Founder Dino Robinson presented causes for Evanston’s housing segregation at the Unitarian Church of Evanston for Fair Housing Month on Tuesday night. In a 2-hour presentation on American and Evanston’s housing history, Voz and Robinson explained how racist housing covenants, redlining and exclusionary zoning policies dating as far back to the early 1900s forced many of Evanston’s Black residents to reside in the 5th Ward. Past racist housing practices have never truly left, they’ve only changed form, Robinson said. “These things are repeated over and over again,” he said during the event. Robinson talked about an early-1900s Evanston that was initially racially integrated. In the city, the three oldest historically Black churches — Second Baptist Church, Ebenezer A.M.E Church and Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church — are all
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located in downtown Evanston, which he said shows that Black people once lived throughout Evanston in its entirety. He said modern-day segregation by ward in Evanston isn’t natural but was caused by racist practices. Voz said public policy is the primary catalyst for the city’s current housing landscape. He guided the group of about 30 attendees through a history of racist covenants, or policies preventing sales of houses to Black people, that prevented them from buying houses in certain areas of the city. When the Supreme Court banned explicitly racialized zoning in 1917, the federal government systematically denied Black families loans to purchase homes in “best” and “desirable” neighborhoods. If Black families wanted to apply for loans, they would have to engage in predatory lending schemes, Voz said. Citing data from a joint Duke University and University of Illinois Chicago study, Voz said the lending schemes cost Black families in Chicago between $3 and $4 billion during the 1950s and 1960s. Voz said his account of the city’s housing history was an attempt to
reframe how Evanston residents tell the story of racism and understand present racial disparities. “We grow up hearing about white supremacist groups, and they’re these scary individuals that harass Black people,” Voz said. “The segregated environment that we have on a racial basis, is due not to private action, but to public policy. Those things work together. I think that story hasn’t been told as much.” While Voz spoke on national trends in housing discrimination, Robinson told a local story. He showed attendees a series of legal documents that facilitated segregation in Evanston, from 20th century housing deeds with racial covenants to redlining maps used to disburse loans in the 1930s and 1940s. Robinson also compared the redlining maps to an annotated map of Evanston that circulated online during the 2010s in which the historically Black 5th Ward was marked with “NO” in bold lettering. He also said many Northwestern students are told not to go to the 5th Ward because they think it’s “dangerous.” Racist apportioning of Evanston lives on in many residents’ understanding of the city,
Cole Reynolds/The Daily Northwestern
Open Communities housing associate Dominic Vozand the Shorefront Legacy Center founder Dino Robinson answer questions from residents during their Tuesday presentation on housing discrimination.
Robinson said. The problem is perception, he said, not policy. “You can write all the laws, but it’s very hard to eradicate these perceptions,” Robinson said. These perceptions, he said, condition how people approach Evanston, whether it’s NU students navigating the city or where realtors will tour their clients. He told stories of Evanston realty agencies, as late as the 1990s, showing different homes to clients of different races, even if they had similar jobs
or socioeconomic positions. At the end of the presentation, Voz and Robinson answered questions from attendees about solutions to address the segregated housing landscape. Voz talked through a litany of policy changes, and proposed the city construct public housing and establish a “just cause” eviction ordinance that mandates some units of new developments must be affordable. To address housing segregation, residents also discussed reforming
the credit system, opposing City Council members’ reluctance to discuss housing developments at meetings and funding the creation of a separatist Black community in Africa. Additionally, Voz suggested using public shaming to spur action from people who aren’t attentive to housing inequities. However, Evanston resident Jasamine Young-Paulhill disagreed
» See FAIR HOUSING, page 6
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