Grantee Partner Spotlight with the Pilsen Alliance
Woods Fund sat down with Moises Moreno, the director of the Pilsen Alliance, to discuss the Alliance's work in housing, education, and creating a base of community leaders.
First off, I found it interesting that Pilsen Alliance embraces the saying from various social justice movements: “Nothing about us without us.” What does that mean to the Alliance, and how do you keep that core to the Alliance’s work?
Oh, wow. You just brought back some deep memories there. I remember that from back in 2016 — five years ago, wow! That phrase became a battle cry. One of the things I remember is that I walked into the office and there’s this frame there that says “Nothing about us, without us, is for us.” It’s an African proverb. What really stuck out was the messaging that all this development, all these things that are coming to the neighborhood, if they don’t involve community then… who is it really for? If it’s not for communities and being led by community, then it’s not right.
It’s a self-determination thing for Pilsen Alliance. We know what we want and we know what we need. That really helped us stay true to our values during that time. Even now — we’re in a different position now, but it’s still the same. We’re still rooted in that value.
Throughout the pandemic, the work of Pilsen Alliance has been at the center of many of the fights for fair housing and education. Can you walk us through some of the campaigns that the Alliance is either leading or a part of?
Let’s start with housing: We’re organizing to build tenant associations. Tenants have been expressing their frustrations and anxieties because of the pandemic or their housing situation, and they’ve taken it upon themselves to organize themselves and their neighbors. The associations have produced some positive results in terms of getting commitment to no evictions and they’re going to work with people to get their leases updated. We have at least three tenant associations, and one that’s about to start.
We’re working in the Barbara Jean Wright community through their tenant council. The tenant council is the only form of community power right now that exists for that community. It’s the only mechanism there where community folks can come in and address their concerns and actually be heard and feel like they’re part of something after years and years of being divided and conquered. We’ve made some progress in this particular campaign to help build the tenant council leadership, and this is something we’ve copied from our own blueprints. It’s not all the same because it’s different communities, but it’s about decision-making and structure.
When taking on Chicago Housing Authority [CHA] and these big developers, the tenant councils are definitely the underdogs. The tenant council has been around for a decade, but they’re at this critical point right now where they’re fighting to make sure they can secure all their housing needs. We’re trying to keep hopes up and say, no, we need to keep fighting. The way we’re doing that is to continue building the leadership of the tenant council.
The other big thing right now is the property tax. A lot of folks got sticker shock. The timing is terrible. Some people haven’t even gotten their mail yet. We’re concerned it’s going to drive more displacement, because taxes are going to increase — and it’s going to raise the price of rent as well. We’re working with the county commissioner and the assessor’s office. We’re on the ground engaging with community members, as well pushing for some reform. Communities are on the line here. That’s where Pilsen Alliance comes in, you know? Call us when all else fails. We’ve always been there.
That’s not even getting to the pandemic-related eviction defenses. That works more like a housing clinic, a lot of walk-ins. Families come in and say, you know, “I’m still behind on my rent, the landlord’s telling me to get out” — even if they’re not legitimate evictions. We’re doing what we can. We’re working with our allies that are on the ground to help intervene between landlords and tenants to hopefully avoid the eviction process. That’s had some limited success. We have been able to talk to a couple landlords and say, “Hey, work out some kind of arrangement with your tenants,” and we have allies like the Metropolitan Tenants Organization Committee for Better Housing that help with that. But it’s a drop in the bucket. There’s so many families out there. That’s the crisis that we’re in right now.
With education, we worked with so many coalitions and unions that we felt like it was taking us a little bit away from our core base. The school board bill that was recently passed didn’t really feel like a victory. Our communities have been fighting for over ten years for a fully elected school board. Not a half. It’s going to be fully elected in six years, but a lot can happen in six years. We’re realigning some of our coalition to focus on base-building that centers parents and youth. We hear teachers, the union, and the community too, of course, but we are really focusing on using parents to build leadership from the ground up. We’re listening to our constituents and our base to build that leadership. We’re definitely gonna come back relatively soon as a new organizing space coalition-wide, and then we can hash out a collective agenda on education justice that is more autonomous and centered on our communities.
So that’s housing and education. We have other smaller campaigns, like the vaccination. We’ve been pushing for more vaccinations and for them to be more equitable for all communities. We’re doing policy advocacy work as well.
I know Pilsen Alliance was very much involved with deliberations around in-person learning. What advice would you give CPS and other decision-makers for the best way that families and students can be supported during this incoming school year?
The first thing I would tell CPS is it’s an investment of resources. Money has been coming in from federal funds, so it’s utilizing those funds for vaccinations and remote learning. I think those are the top two things that came up from our leaders, and parents in particular. We’ve got the Delta variant. You want to make sure that everyone is vaccinated, and we know that the young ones — 12 and under — unfortunately, that’s not the case yet. We need to ensure that vaccinations are an important piece. And then I’d say funding remote learning.
Put the money where it’s needed. It’s prioritization. Return to school doesn’t mean putting more cops in our schools, it’s making sure there’s funding and resources to support youth. Mental health is another big, big issue that’s come up in our community’s discussions. CPS needs to be considering that each school has sufficient staffing and support to address mental health concerns for young people and staff. Everybody, you know?
Those are the top things. This is all coming from parents and youth. We want to make sure these voices are heard as well.
As the Alliance is working on these campaigns, what are some lessons that have come up for you?
I like to take a lighter note on this. For me, it’s learning how to enjoy each other’s company. This is a very small, tight crew, and that’s what keeps us together. We’re bonding and rebonding again, and I think it’s amazing, it’s beautiful. Folks are coming together and the passion is there. Our elders are out there, like, “Oh, we know we gotta be passing out flyers and talking to neighbors and pushing our politicians.” I love seeing that energy. We learn to enjoy our time together.
You know, it’s not necessarily a job — I mean, it is for me. [laughs] But even for me, it’s more than a job. I love doing this. I love working with Pilsen Alliance and our people. It’s my second home and my second family. Learning to appreciate each other, the sacrifice, the work, acknowledgement of each other…. We didn’t always do that before. Folks would put in a lot of work, a lot of hours, we didn’t always take the time to acknowledge them. That’s some amends we need to make in this work, because we don’t want people to feel unacknowledged and unrecognized. How do we learn that?
So we’re checking in with each other, seeing what people’s needs are, and thanking them. Thanking folks who do this work day in and day out. That’s the lesson to learn: Appreciate each other more and acknowledge each other. We’ve been through a lot. I can’t even begin to tell you; personal, interpersonal, political... and we’re still here. That’s a testament to our collective strength.
What are you looking forward to in the coming year?
New members, new people, a new board. We’re going to have democratic elections soon. I’m looking forward to you know, passing the torch to new leadership, that kind of thing.
The organization continues to grow staffing-wise. We’re actually hiring a full-time organizer as we speak. I’m looking forward to raising money and increasing grassroots fundraising, because that all goes back to community.
I’m kind of envisioning a new office space. I think our tiny little office — we still love it! But it’s time for us to continue growing. We do want to own, that’s one of the conversations that came up. Folks are also kind of like, “Let’s build a co-op, let’s build a community center!” These are wonderful dreams. So we’re breaking that down into strategic work plans.
How do we get there? Nothing is impossible for us. We don’t say “no,” we say, “Okay, what do we got to do? Let’s get it done.” So that’s our dream for the next year.
As foundations and grant-makers are looking to fund more grassroots organizations, what should they keep in mind?
That’s a great question. I would say support emerging nonprofits. You know, there are nonprofits for everything, but looking particularly at the underground ones. The Barbara Jean tenant council is an example. They just literally formed a nonprofit. They have to go through their own process, obviously, but they’re like “Where’s the support?” They’re working with us and we’re helping to work on the bylaws. We say, let’s work on reaching out to potential funders. I would love some of these foundations that support Black leadership to support the tenant council. Another example is Femme Defensa. They did all the mutual aid at Pilsen Alliance. They did the food boxes and The Love Fridge. A lot of that beautiful work that was done, that was Femme Defensa. They’re not even a nonprofit, they’re just an autonomous group. They’ve said, “We don’t want to be a part of the Nonprofit Industrial Complex.” But at the same time, they want to learn, so, we brought them in a little bit. It was wonderful to work with them and draft a proposal for the Movement Building grant through Woods Fund [Chicago]. After that process, there were critiques that came out, and we were fortunate enough to meet with the head of Woods [Michelle Morales] and she heard us out. It came down to emerging groups needing more attention or support. That’s what I’d recommend for foundations.
Last question: How can Chicagoans in Pilsen and other neighborhoods champion that saying; “Nothing about us without us.”
Hmm. The thing that pops in my head is seeking political education. Know for yourself, find out for yourself, get informed, and get educated. Educated meaning informed. I envision more Chicagoans taking the time to get themselves informed and empowered. That’s where self-realization comes in. Thinking – “This isn’t right.” That sparks something, you know? When you’re confronted by something that’s not what you’re used to. I think raising more political consciousness in the community would be a way for more people to understand what that means: “Nothing about us without us.” We get a lot of people on that, and I think that’d be a more more powerful.
That would be my message. Seek political consciousness on an individual level, community level, and the collective level.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.