To The Daily Northwestern:

I appreciate your Oct. 5 article on Presbyterian Homes’ intention to sell its Neighborhood Homes — three affordable buildings for senior citizens in Chicago — to a commercial real estate developers. The 80- and 90-year-olds who are going to become homeless need their story told.

I am a leader at ONE Northside, an organization helping the residents to fight for their housing. I’m an ordained United Church of Christ minister. I was raised in the Presbyterian Church, and my mother lived at the Presbyterian Homes in Evanston for nine years until her death. It appears that the new management has abandoned the organization’s faith-based nonprofit roots to a market mentality.

I want to correct a serious error in a comment from Robert Werdan, VP of Marketing and Public Relations. He stated that Presbyterian Homes has not been able to arrange a sale to an affordable housing developer due to a lack of public funding sources available to partner with affordable housing developers. Mr. Werdan misunderstands what we are asking Presbyterian Homes to do. We are not asking them to partner with an affordable housing developer or public funding source. We are asking them to sell the buildings to an affordable housing developer at a market price. The Presbyterian Homes can then wash its hands of providing affordable housing for seniors (their founding mission) and concentrate on their new core mission — serving suburbanites of means. We have introduced them to at least three nonprofit affordable housing developers who are interested in seriously discussing a deal to buy the buildings. We do not see why they are completely unwilling to talk seriously to these developers.

Sincerely,
Barbara Bolsen
Chicago
Medill ’71