Stories of Philanthropic Leadership in Advancing Regional and ...

method alone was strong enough to make change in adeeply segregated region,” states Pam Daniels-Halisi,vice president with LaSalle Bank.A 2001 study entitled, Envisioning Racially Just,Opportunity-Based Housing for the Chicago Region,found that, “Whites and people of color are not onlymoving in different geographical directions, they areexperiencing different levels of access to and benefitsfrom important opportunities such as publiceducation, employment, and wealth accumulation.” 58Furthermore, the Leadership Council’s recentlycompleted “Community of Opportunity” Index 59highlights these disparities through itsmultidimensional measure of opportunity structures(quality municipal services, education, commerce,housing, employment) that determine the extent towhich any given community provides primeamenities to people across the socioeconomicspectrum. 60 Both the 2001 study and the Indexsupport the Leadership Council’s mobility programsto undo the myths created by decades of racism andhousing discrimination. All Leadership programs“operate on the principle that every person shouldhave theopportunity to buy“They found that no onemethod alone was strongenough to make change in adeeply segregated region.”— Pam Daniels-Halisior rent a home in acommunity thatprovides a full rangeof economic, social,cultural, andenvironmentalopportunities,without restrictiondue todiscrimination.” 61 For example, The LeadershipCouncil’s Gautreaux II Assisted Housing RelocationProgram is the latest version of a 25-year oldprogram that assists families relocating out ofsegregated public housing into areas of opportunity.Funder InterestAs an organization focused on race equity issues, theLeadership Council had difficulty attracting fundersfor support. Yet the MacArthur Foundation, FieldFoundation, and LaSalle Bank provided generaloperating funds because they understood the difficultyet important role Leadership Council was playing.Aurie Pennick, executive director of the FieldFoundation cites that, “No other regionalorganization was working on race equity and fairhousing in Chicago and, although the issue hasimproved over years, it was not going away.”The MacArthur Foundation started to providegeneral operating funds in the early 1990s. AsMacArthur was developing its strategy in providingaccess to housing, the Leadership Council wasmaking affordable housing a centerpiece in its efforts.In 1999, MacArthur supported the transformation ofpublic housing by funding Gautreaux I and II, aswell as community relations and public policyprograms, recalls Spruiell White, senior programofficer with the MacArthur Foundation. 62LaSalle Bank’s Daniels-Halisi explains that the Bankinvested in low- and medium-income neighborhoodsbecause whole areas of town were segregated andtotally disinvested, with some blighted plotsspanning four to five miles. The Bank continues togrant general operating funds because landlords andtenants operate in silos, unaware of issues thattrouble the real estate market.According to Dawn Stockmo, senior director for theMidwest Region, the Fannie Mae Foundation wasinterested in the “Community of Opportunity”Index as a way to put metrics around the quality oflife for communities. The Index made it easier to talkto constituencies about the value of the LeadershipCouncil’s mobility program, freedom of choice, andthe impact it would have on a family.For Ricardo Millett, president of the Woods Fund ofChicago, the Index is an innovative use ofinformation for public housing and policy advocatesbecause it is a quantitative measurement of the costto low-income people seeking affordable housing andeducation opportunities. Millett believes that theLeadership Council must keep race segregation anddiscrimination in the center of its housing activitiesand continue to make race equity a part of thenational dialogue. “They are the only organizationdealing with issues of race in a comprehensivemanner,” adds Pennick from the Field Foundation.58john a. powell, “Envisioning Racially Just, Opportunity-BasedHousing for the Chicago Region,” (Executive Summary), available atwww1.umn.edu/irp/publications/leadershippaper.pdf (June 13, 2001).59The Leadership Council’s Community of Opportunity Index, releasedin May 2005, is accessible at www.lcmoc.org.60The Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities. “FY2004 Draft Report.”61Ibid.62Gautreaux I & II are programs that work only with families comingout of public housing into communities of opportunity.REGIONAL OPPORTUNITYPart III: Section 3: Connecting to Regional Opportunity 116