Injustice Watch

Last week, we published an investigation with the Investigative Project on Race and Equity that exposed the way Illinois’ tax foreclosure process is stripping homeownership and wealth from Cook County residents — disproportionately Black senior homeowners. We found people losing their homes over an original tax debt as low as $110. Senior reporter Carlos Ballesteros and the Investigative Project’s Emeline Posner found more than 800 Cook County seniors whose property tax liens were sold to investors last year. If they do not pay what they owe in taxes — plus interest and fees — they will lose their homes. Many people we spoke with said they wish they’d better understood the tax foreclosure process and the resources available to them before it was too late. We want to share our findings and a resource guide with homeowners at risk, and we need your help. We estimate it will cost about $2.50 in printing and postage for each person we write to. Will you help us reach all 818 people on our list? Your support will help us get this information to the people who most need it. As Velma Lewis, a Maywood resident who lost her home to property tax foreclosure, told us, “Knowledge is power.” (Photo by Brian Ernst / Chicago Sun-Times) https://lnkd.in/gqiYWG9s

NEW: Illinois’ property tax foreclosure process strips generational wealth from Cook County residents — disproportionately impacting Black senior homeowners. Read our latest investigation with the Investigative Project on Race and Equity. https://lnkd.in/gg-RhPgQ

📣 We’re hiring a senior reporter to investigate topics at the intersection of immigration and the court system in Cook County and Illinois. Salary range is $85-100k. Deadline to apply is Jan. 5. Learn more and apply here:

We’re excited to announce we have election results for the judicial retention races in Cook County for the first time — making us the only news source in the county where you can find live election results for local judicial races. https://lnkd.in/gN7dZJt4

We're thrilled to announce Maggie Sivit is joining Injustice Watch as engagement editor! Maggie is a talented multimedia journalist who specializes in community-centered journalism. She joins us from WBEZ's Curious City, where she was the digital and engagement producer, reporting community-driven stories about Chicago. She'll be working on expanding our digital engagement efforts (including on here) and strategizing about new ways to build our audience. Please help us welcome Maggie to our team! https://lnkd.in/gHWfht5J

In a recently published series, “The Tenant Trap,” Injustice Watch details a yearlong investigation into the unfair treatment of thousands of #Chicago renters living in unsafe and decaying apartments while facing skyrocketing rents and a court system designed to protect the rights of landlords first. #Homeownership Take a look: https://bit.ly/3Av1Tzy

NEW: Check out our latest project, "The Tenant Trap," a yearlong investigation into the unfair treatment of thousands of Chicago renters living in unsafe and decaying apartments while facing skyrocketing rents and a court system designed to protect the rights of landlords first. The five-part series follows groups of tenants as they try to fight for better housing conditions, only to find the courts requiring them to live up to their end of the lease contract while allowing landlords to use loopholes, delays, and excuses to avoid laws designed to make living conditions safe and habitable. https://lnkd.in/gJ3WYutV

There's still time to apply to be our engagement editor! The engagement editor will work closely with our editors and reporters to enhance our investigative reporting and package our work for different platforms. We're looking for someone with good writing and communication skills who can break down complex topics clearly and concisely and who understands how to build community trust and engage with audiences on different platforms and through different media. Salary: $75,000 to $90,000, commensurate with experience Application deadline is this Sunday, July 14 at 11:59 p.m. CT. Click to learn more and apply: https://lnkd.in/gsjyTYNU

✨ In this week's LION newsletter ✨ 💚 Borderless Magazine, Injustice Watch, and The Lansing Journal are inaugural Press Forward Chicago grantees ⭐ The Medill Local News Initiative seeks another batch of "Bright Spots" 🤝 The Texas Tribune is stepping out from behind the screen with in-person engagement strategies https://lnkd.in/gGJ8yhpG

We had a great first day to kick off our Local Data Journalism Initiative with partners UChicago Data Science Institute, including energizing meetings with Chicago journalists, and a pinball break at the end 😀 Looking forward to our work with Maya Dukmasova of Injustice Watch, Sarah Freishtat, Dan Petrella, & A.D. Quig of Chicago Tribune and Matt Kiefer & Alden Loury of WBEZ Chicago. A warm welcome to our senior data scientist Eric Langowski; research associate Divij S.; student fellows Abigail Beckler, Kevin Bryson, Joseph De Leon, Fatima Irfan, Caitlin P., Regina Isabel Medina Rosales, Akshay Ramdev, Anita Restrepo Lachman, Austin Steinhart; and faculty advisers Philip Garboden and Justin Marlowe. Looking forward to a great summer ahead! Learn more about the Local Data Journalism Initiative: https://lnkd.in/eFxY3M-y