Sweet Home Uptown 2023

Honoring & Highlighting:

Chicago's Dynamic Couple of Affordable Housing, Peter Holsten and Jackie Taylor Holsten and former alderman and author of soon-to-be released Daring to Struggle; Daring to Win - Helen Shiller. We will also honor Maurice Hamp, Voice President and leader of the last decade, a person who turned life changing disability into a career of service to others.

This year, Voice is celebrating and making history, with a special focus on the contributions and lessons learned from our senior residents, organizational alumni, and allies.  We'll highlight the importance and positive impact of Voice of the People's Senior Services Initiative, funded by the RRF Foundation for Aging, on the lives of tenants and multi-generational families that have been part of our history since the 1970s and 80s.

Sponsors & Hosts 

Your corporation or organization can join our event sponsors: Old National Bank, Preservation of Affordable Housing, Valley National Bank, Holsten Chicago, Enterprise Community Partners, Brinshore Development, Chicago Community Trust, Chicago Community Loan Fund, Community Investment Corporation, Cogent Strategic Wealth, Alpha Adjusting, Conniff Law Offices, Near North Development Corporation, Northside Action for Justice, Uptown People's Law Center, University of Chicago Housing Initiatives Transactional Clinic and ONE Northside.

Our growing Host Committee: Marlene Barton, Barb Beck, Thom Clark, Doug Dobmeyer, Alan Goldberg, Maurice Hamp, Jack Hart, Calvin Holmes, Ed Jacob, Jack Kaplan, Tom Lenz, Peter Levavi, Katy Osborn, Larry Pusateri, Helen Shiller, Paul Siegel, Kelvin Strong, Sean Tenner, Dovie Thurman III, and Yittayih Zelalem.

About Uptown & Voice of the People:

By many accounts, the Uptown Community on Chicago’s north lakefront is a thriving, dense, racially and economically diverse place to live -- a reinvesting community with a range of housing types, improving retail options, great parks, and strong presence of non-profit organizations.
 But as the world opens up and the pandemic winds down, Uptown’s housing costs and rents are escalating. Service agencies and economic opportunity organizations are seeing their client base dwindle with gentrification and displacement. Uptown people and organizations are at a crossroads, where literally 22% of the population live in poverty, 40% of owners and renters are housing cost burdened, and most people of color are at risk of displacement over time.
 Voice of the People upholds a core part of Uptown’s identity by making affordable housing and collaborative services available, both to affordable housing residents and now to owners.  800+ very low-income people live in 14 Voice-sponsored properties who benefit by the Resident Opportunity Services programming, and thousands more live in affordable housing in Uptown, that the organization seeks to assist through the Voice Owners Network.

Check Us Out:

• YouTube Page (bit.ly/VoiceVideos) with Sweet Home Highlights, Honorees, clips and long form event videos
• Blues Music Video Playlist (bit.ly/SweetHomeBluesPlaylist) -- Sweet Home-themed blues songs with tales and travails of housing, homelessness, threatened eviction and lock outs by the 'Frogman', John Lee Hooker, Jerry Butler, BB King, and with one amazing collab of "Sweet Home Chicago".
• Juneteenth House & Soul Music (bit.ly/JuneteenthHouseMusic) -- Selections from deejay Papo Fizz Mc featured at the 2nd Annual Juneteenth Jubilee & Resource Fair sponsored by Voice of the People

GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY!