Nov 13, 2009 4:10 pm US/Central
Obama's Former Agency Falls On Hard Times
People For Community Recovery On The South Side Can't Pay Its Heating Bill
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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People for Community Recovery, the South Side agency where President Obama once worked as an organizer, has fallen on hard times.
CBS
The South Side community group that gave President Barack Obama his political start is struggling to survive.
There are holes in the ceiling, they can't pay their bills, and they have no heat.
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports on how the group that helps so many people now needs help itself.
In a mostly boarded-up Altgeld Gardens strip mall, the People for Community Recovery has a tiny office. Inside, the leaky roof leaves brown marks on ceiling tiles, where tiles aren't missing altogether.
Space heaters provide the only warmth. The gas was shut off weeks ago.
"I have to raise $900 to get some heat," executive director Cheryl Johnson said.
Few would believe it was here that Barack Obama began his political resume, as a community organizer. But Johnson says, he'd understand their struggle.
"He would definitely understand because he walked the walk we walked, 25 years ago," Johnson said.
Fresh out of college, Obama worked with Johnson's mother, Helen, who founded the organization. They forced the CHA to remove asbestos from Altgeld Gardens homes. And he organized residents to force improvements at the local library.
"They got together and pressured the city of Chicago to allocate funds to expand the library," Johnson said.
It's a legacy Obama wrote about in his best-seller, "Dreams from my Father" --- a legacy his Republican opponents ridiculed. Johnson called that political rhetoric.
"That's why we don't engage in politics, cause we're dealing with quality-of-life issues."
The organization is dealing now with getting Carver Military Academy re-opened to Altgeld Gardens students, who now travel miles to Fenger High School. Conflict between the two groups sparked the beating death of Derrion Albert earlier this year.
"They want to come home -- they don't want to go to school in neighborhoods that they're not welcome in," Altgeld Gardens parent Cheryl White-Robinson said.
The group also is dealing with raising the money to keep fighting the fight in which Obama was once a foot-soldier. Johnson said the president could help.
"I think he should," she said. "He's always talking 'from the bottom up.' But the stimulus that he's creating has not impacted from the bottom up."
Some of Obama's successes have been reversed. That expanded library closed earlier this year. But Johnson hopes to win a federal grant training workers for green jobs -- building and installing solar panels and windmills.
That could put the little group on a firm financial footing.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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