CHICAGO – Salsa tunes, splashes of paint on the floor, and an abundance of plants greet guests of Puerto Rican artist Cristian Roldan at his apartment on Paseo Boricua. The building where Roldan rents his unit was conceived as affordable housing for artists and envisioned as a place of collaboration and artistic synergy.
The Nancy Franco Maldonado Arts building is one of the affordable housing buildings in the 26th ward explicitly designed for groups of people with a shared occupation. In the last decade, community leaders in Humboldt Park have been on a mission to identify people who do essential, defining work for the community but can’t afford to live there, and provide them with affordable housing options. It’s a novel strategy to address the gentrification and displacement that have long been an issue in the iconic Puerto Rican neighborhood.
“The double-edged sword of community building and preservation is that you build a community that’s safe enough for the people here, but it also becomes a threat,” said Alderperson Jessie Fuentes (26th), who grew up in Humboldt Park.
For Puerto Ricans in Chicago, the question of gentrification dates back to the 1960s, when Lincoln Park was a thriving Puerto Rican neighborhood, but families were rapidly displaced as the neighborhood became wealthier and whiter. Having resettled in Humboldt Park, Puerto Ricans put down roots, symbolized by 59-foot tall steel Puerto Rican flags on Paseo Boricua. But beyond the symbolism, today, it’s affordable housing efforts that fight against forced displacement for Puerto Ricans and others in Humboldt Park.
Cristian Roldan is about to make tea in his apartment in the Nancy Franco Maldonado Arts building. He is one of the 10 artists who resides here. Photo: Victoria Malis
Working in the community, living in the community and seeing the community changing
Cristian Roldan applied for a secluded apartment in the arts building, looking away from the busy stretch of Division Street known as Paseo Boricua. He didn’t want to be seen from the outside when he was relaxing on his balcony. Roldan knows his neighbors — a photographer, a poet, a singer — but leads a solo lifestyle.
“Unless they have loud music playing, I don’t think about them,” Roldan said.
Roldan’s latest work is a mural at the recently opened Humboldt Park Health Wellness Center. His other public works in the neighborhood include two painted Paseo Boricua sidewalks and a mural at the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture.
Roldan doesn’t identify as an artist even though creating art sustains him financially. He recalled that 10 years ago, he was washing dishes at Chipotle, and that didn’t define him either. Nonetheless, the idea of the arts building is to provide people like Roldan – who create art for the community – with an affordable opportunity to live in the community they work for and be active members.
The design of the arts building was based on the idea of a blank canvas. Each artist and each resident brought in colors by moving into the space. Cohabitation was envisioned to foster collaboration.
When Roldan finds himself in the building, he tends to spend time at his apartment. There is a communal space downstairs, but the doors are only open during the working hours of a building manager. Real-life constraints sometimes collide with a dream-like vision.
Cristian Roldan is sitting in the recently opened $30 million Humboldt Park Health Wellness Center with a mural that he painted behind him. Recent investments in the neighborhood make it more attractive for potential new residents which drives up rents and property taxes and make it harder for many Puerto Ricans to stay. Photo: Victoria Malis
Poet, gallerist, and Humboldt Park tour guide Eduardo Arocho is another artist who lives in the Arts building on Paseo Boricua. He said that 10 out of 24 units are occupied by artists, with an actress of Puerto Rican descent moving into the only vacant apartment in the near future. Low-income families with various jobs reside in the rest of the units. Six of those units are owned by the Chicago Housing Authority, the city’s public housing agency, which has a long waiting list for prospective tenants.
Arocho recalled how his mother paid $69 for a two-bedroom apartment in Humboldt Park when he first moved into the neighborhood as a child in 1979.
Arocho also remembered street organizations that were omnipresent in the neighborhood at the time, with some gangs operating a block away from each other. Fast-forward to today, he said, most gangs have moved away.
“Took a long time, but we didn’t all have to disappear. Didn’t all have to be erased in order for that to happen”, Arocho said. He emphasized that as street violence has greatly decreased and investment has increased in Humboldt Park, long-time Puerto Rican residents should be able to stay and enjoy the changes.
According to the apartment rental agency Domu, the monthly rent for a one-bedroom unit in the area ranges between $1,500 and $1,700—exponentially more than what Arocho’s mother used to pay.
In a community data snapshot report from July 2024, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning lists the median per capita income of a Humboldt Park resident as $25,358, which is 55.3% of the city average. Financial advice popularized by banks urges people to spend no more than 30% of their income on rent, which would be $634 for an individual living in Humboldt Park on the median wage today.
An unusual solution to a common problem
Last year, the Nancy Franco Maldonado Paseo Boricua Arts building welcomed artists to their new living and working space. This year, the ward is finalizing financing of the Teacher’s Village, an affordable housing development for educators that will be constructed on the site of the closed Von Humboldt Elementary School. Humboldt Park Health is actively raising funds to develop affordable housing for medical professionals in parking lots around the eponymous hospital.
While Puerto Ricans in Chicago aren’t a monolith, Fuentes said there is a clear trend of them moving west and north as parts of the city become unaffordable. They argued that, ironically, it’s the very efforts of Puerto Ricans to preserve their community and make their living conditions better that push them out of the neighborhood.
Recent investments in the neighborhood – such as a $30 million Humboldt Park Health Wellness Center that opened its doors in January – make it more attractive for potential renters or buyers who currently reside in Wicker Park, West Town and other more expensive neighborhoods. More people wanting to move in drive up rents and property taxes and make it harder for many to stay.
According to the apartment rental agency Domu, monthly rent for a one-bedroom unit in the area falls between $1,500 and $1,700. Photo: Domu website
Multiple stakeholders, including the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, the 26th ward authorities, and one of the largest employers in the neighborhood, Humboldt Park Health, have been working together to explore the concept of building homes for people united by a shared occupation.
“I would argue it’s unique for the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois, probably our country,” Fuentes said about the concept. “I don’t know how many communities across this particular continent are thinking about niche affordable housing for individuals, where housing and workforce can be married in the same place.”
The Chicago Fair Housing Ordinance prohibits discrimination of any kind, including by source of income. But designing an affordable housing development with a specific group in mind and involving that group in preliminary conversations naturally leads to more than just affordable housing – it leads to creating a community of like-minded people living under the same roof.
A thriving community
“If there’s an argument to be made about certain careers being more vulnerable than others, it’s all based on income,” said Lucy Gomez-Feliciano, director of community engagement at the Here to Stay Community Land Trust. “You’re pushed out because you can’t afford to live here. An assistant teacher is more likely to get pushed out than a lead teacher.”
Since every profession has a wage range, not all medical professionals or education workers qualify for low-income affordable rental housing. In those cases, a different model, such as affordable home ownership, might be a better fit.
When people qualify and purchase a house from the Here to Stay, the trust continues to own the land. The purchased house can stay within the family for generations to come, but it has to be actively lived in; it can’t assume the role of an investment and can’t be sold on the market for a profit. In other words, these affordable houses have to stay affordable. Currently the portfolio of the trust includes 20 houses, two of which are in Humboldt Park.
The land trust scores potential buyers based on other criteria that don’t fall under protected classes, such as race or source of income. Prospective affordable homeowners get points if they currently live in the neighborhood, if they once lived in the neighborhood and got pushed out, if their children go to school in the neighborhood, or if they work in the neighborhood.
“Working on your computer in your house doesn’t count,” Gomez-Feliciano added.
Window sill in Roldan’s apartment doubles down as a bookshelf. The CEO of Humboldt Park Health Jose Sanchez emphasizes the holistic approach when it comes to affordable housing: the neighborhood needs to attract certain kinds of people who can become role models for children. Photo: Victoria Malis
Doctors and nurses are usually not the first people who come to mind when discussing affordable housing. However, the CEO of Humboldt Park Health, Jose Sanchez, wants to develop the land surrounding the hospital into affordable housing for the medical community. The plan is to build 300 units in three to four years.
HPH already owns these vacant lots. Sanchez is currently searching for the funds to make the construction of this project a reality. He lists the Tax Increment Financing Tool, the Illinois Housing Development Authority, the Chicago Department of Planning and Development, and even the private sector as potential financing sources.
Whether anyone besides HPH employees can apply to become a tenant is still up in the air. But Sanchez sees this project as an opportunity to nudge all levels of staff to reside in Humboldt Park: from part-time nurses, housekeepers, and other low-income positions who cannot afford to live in the community today to doctors, who currently might not be choosing Humboldt Park. Sanchez approaches the question of housing in the neighborhood holistically.
“I think that our children need role models in their life. They need to be able to see professionals that are successful,” Sanchez said. “Yes, eventually in life, you could be one of them. You could be the nurse, you could be the doctor. But you’ve got to be exposed, so that you know that they not only exist in the most affluent communities. They do exist in underserved communities, too.”
Sanchez vocalized the idea that community leaders widely share in the neighborhood: they want the Puerto Rican community in Humboldt Park to thrive, not just survive.
Architectural choices shape living experiences
Maria Pellot, principal at the architectural bureau Urban Works and architect behind the building for artists, recalled how close-knit the community became mere weeks after the opening. When residents had moved in, she returned with a team to take pictures of the building for the architectural bureau’s portfolio. Pellot described the instant sense of community: residents knew each other’s names and phone numbers, and some even disclosed to the neighbors where they hid a spare key from the apartment.
“If you grew up in a neighborhood and you knew all of your neighbors on the street – it was like that,” Pellot said.
The floor of Roldan’s apartment is splashed with paint. Humboldt Park is trying to center the city around education, economic development, health and arts by offering affordable housing for people who work in these professions. Photo: Victoria Malis
Jose Lopez, president of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, was the mastermind behind the arts building and many other initiatives in Puerto Rico Town, a rectangular area between Division Street, Western Avenue, and Pulaski Road. According to Lopez, putting the concept of family front and center in urban design stems from patriarchy. He emphasizes that affordable housing must serve all households and individuals.
“We’re trying to move away from the idea of affordable housing as just addressing the traditional family concept,” Lopez said.
Lopez is currently considering an affordable senior housing project on Division Street and Western Avenue, above the Roberto Clemente Community Academy High School parking lot. This project is still in its early stages. Still, the hope is to divide the building into sections that would address specific senior communities that may feel marginalized: LGBTQ+ seniors and seniors with dementia.
Modern American cities were built for the elite. Lopez noted that in today’s world, the elite includes tech people from Silicon Valley. Humboldt Park, on the other hand, is trying to center the city around education, economic development, health and the arts. That means building more affordable housing options for people who work in these industries.
Cover Photo: Tenants can use the lobby of the Nancy Franco Maldonado Arts building to exhibit their art. This affordable housing building for artists was designed with the idea of a blank canvas. Photo: Victoria Malis