Chicagoans with disabilities inflamed over Chicago Fire’s West Side deal

Laura Donaldson sat in her wheelchair in the Loop on Wednesday with a message for someone in the shimmering office towering behind her: “My people need their health and independence, my people need their housing.”

The West Side resident was among several dozen people — some also in wheelchairs — gathered outside Morningstar Inc.’s office, 22 W. Washington St., to protest founder Joe Mansueto’s plan to build an $80 million training facility for his Chicago Fire soccer team on a former public housing site. 

“Just because it was offered to you, doesn’t mean you have to take it,” Donaldson said.

Mansueto, owner of the Chicago Fire, received approval from the City Council in September to build a training facility on the nearly 26-acre site. The group’s protest was spurred by a $25,000 contribution by Mansueto to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s campaign fund.

In response to the protest, a spokesperson for Mansueto said, “Mr. Mansueto has been a socially responsible leader in Chicago’s business community, investing in our neighborhoods and supporting a range of philanthropic initiatives.”

The Chicago Sun-Times receives funding from the Mansueto Foundation.

Donaldson, an organizer for disability advocacy nonprofit Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago, and others argued that building a soccer facility on the site instead of public housing ignores how difficult it remains for people to find public housing.

“It took me years to get housing. It should not take anyone that long,” Donaldson said. “It is disproportionately hard for people with disabilities to get housing.”

The 54-year-old said she has cerebral palsy, has used a wheelchair her entire life and after her mother died was homeless for years before the Chicago Housing Authority could find her appropriate housing.

CHA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Donaldson spoke briefly at a news conference held on the street outside the firm’s office, where the group hoped to reach Mansueto to deliver a letter asking him to reconsider the training center plan.

“We’re here to make sure to let them know we’re not going to accept this,” said Roderick Wilson, executive director of the community organization Lugenia Burns Hope Center. “We should have some say in what happens to this land.” 

Wilson concluded the news conference by saying, “Put the fire out, bring the housing in.”

The group then moved off the sidewalk and into the street to obstruct traffic.

“This is our land, these are our streets,” they chanted.

Nabi Yisrael, 48, rode in his wheelchair, keeping abreast with several others headed toward State Street.

“I had to fight in order to find housing for myself,” said the Hyde Park resident, who experiences multiple sclerosis and, like Donaldson, said the Chicago Housing Authority took years to find him appropriate housing.

“Being a human being is hard enough, but being Black with disabilities, that’s almost impossible.”

Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South Side and West Side.