At the Downers Grove Village Meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 17 Mayor Robert Barnett named September 21 through 27 United Against Hate Week. The proclamation was presented to members of EQuality Downers Grove, Not In Our Town and the You Belong Here Campaign.

The chair of the Civic Affairs and Public Policy Committee for EQuality Downers Grove, Jodi Harap spoke to the council and explained how they’re working to help better the Downers Grove community throughout United Against Hate Week.

“What we’re doing is focusing on some of the most marginalized and vulnerable members of our community, the unhoused and food insecure,” Harap said.

Harap elaborates on the positive feedback and endorsement from the Downers Grove community.

“We are actually demonstrating the love and the unity and the compassion that we are espousing here, we are taking action…we’re so thrilled and excited that we have the support of the community at large and the governmental organizations who are now backing these ideals and demonstrating that Downers Grove is a place of inclusivity, acceptance and hope,” Harap said.

Not In Our Town member Robin Tryloff shared how the organization, Not In Our Town has signs around Downers Grove to promote love not hate, and are now teaming up with EQuality Downers Grove and the You Belong Here Campaign to plan events to feed the hungry for United Against Hate Week.

Tryloff explained that the goal of the week is to stop hate by feeding those in need. The organizations are collaborating with Community Kitchen, various food and fish pantries and the public library to provide food to the hungry.

United Against Hate Week is one week a year according to the proclamation presented at the meeting, however, the goal of the week is to carry the idea of how hate shouldn’t be tolerated in our community all year long.

“Hate doesn’t eliminate hate, they say you light a candle…to carry this beyond United Against Hate Week, this should be our overarching principle that we operate [on],” Tryloff said.

While the goal of United Against Hate Week is to feed the food insecure, they also want to help other marginalized groups such as the unhoused.

“The people that we are working with, the unhoused [and] the food insecure are also struggling with affordable housing,” Harap said.

Affordable housing was discussed heavily during the meeting. Downers Grove residents spoke to the council about the need for more affordable housing within Downers Grove.

“Affordable housing doesn’t mean we are dealing with housing that persons are getting state grants to live in rather we are looking at people who may have disabilities, who as a result have limited income which may not be the level of income of Downers Grove,” said a Downers Grove resident during the public comments portion of the meeting.

Affordable housing has been a debated issue prior in meetings and residents continue to push for action.

“When we are taking a look at housing opportunities, I ask that affordable housing be in that consideration and in that discussion,” a resident shared.

With hopes of making headway with the council, Tryloff hoped to speak on the issue.

“The solution is to face it head on. There’s been a little bit of reluctance in the past to recognize what is affordable housing, and wait a minute, all our houses are getting sold and why is this an issue,” said Tryloff.

Tryloff explained that a solution to making housing affordable in Downers Grove is about maintaining the houses Downers Grove already has.

“First retain what we have, where we have affordable housing, maintain it, upgrade it, but keep it affordable,” Tryloff said.

On a large scale, affordable housing has been a struggle in the United States for a while with there being a 7 million homes for 10.8 million extremely low-income families according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

According to residents, it is an issue in Downers Grove with 51% of surveyed residents from a community survey seeing affordable housing as a problem as stated in Marisa Schulz’s Guiding DG presentation to the council. Additionally, Guiding DG’s various pop-ups confirmed this information, with their various community members’ responses.

“Stop tearing down smaller, more affordable housing. Keep Downers affordable. We want our kids to be able to afford to live here,” a resident said.

This does not remove the excitement from residents of the upcoming United Against Hate Week. Rather, affordable housing is connected to it.

“Our focus next week is to take action to feed the hungry. It’s obviously related [the unhoused, food insecure and affordable housing] and it’s something we’re absolutely dedicated [to] focusing our efforts towards,” Harap said.