Recent Accomplishments


  • In 2012, SOUL worked with allies across the country to push the five biggest banks to agree to reduce debt for for “underwater” homeowners by $10 billion, which will help thousands of  homeowners avoid foreclosure.
  • In 2012, SOUL re-energized a campaign to get the Chicago Park District to build an Arts & Recreation Center in Bronzeville, the largest neighborhood in the city without a class A field  house, and has begun to secure commitments of funding from different agencies to build the  facility.            
  • Every time it rains, half of the basements flood in the Village of Riverdale, a very low-income African American suburb on the southern border of Chicago. As a result of an ongoing campaign by SOUL, village officials began working with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to address the problem through a $6 million repair project, which has been approved and will likely break ground in the fall of 2011.
  • In 2011, SOUL drafted legislation to require Chicago’s three transit agencies to use the same  farecard and allow low-cost transfers between buses and trains run by the different agencies.  SOUL gained commitments from South Side and South Suburban legislators, pushed the city’s transit agencies to cooperate with the effort, and successfully passed the legislation, which was signed by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn on July 7.  When fully implemented by January 2015, this will enable tens of thousands of people to get to jobs that would otherwise be inaccessible. 
  • In September 2011, Metra (Chicago’s commuter rail agency) announced fare increases of 58-67% for riders using city stations but only 30% or less for riders using suburban stations.  SOUL mobilized immediately and successfully pushed Metra to cut city riders’ fare increase to 35%.  
  • In 2010, SOUL put pressure on aldermen to fund a pilot project that enabled the use of food stamps at city-run farmer’s markets.
  • In 2010, SOUL played a central role in the Good Jobs Chicago campaign that successfully gained Walmart's commitment to increase wages for the lowest-paid workers at its Chicago stores. 
  • In 2009, SOUL leaders worked with South Side and South Suburban state legislators to write a piece of legislation called the Urban Weatherization Initiative, which provides $425 million for green jobs in home weatherization as part of the 5-year state capital bill.