Retiring 46th Alderman Helen Shiller will be honored with the 14th Annual Jon-Henri Damski Award, 6pm-8pm, Wednesday, April 6 at Sidetrack, 3349 N. Halsted St. Program, speakers, catering complimentary of Leonas.
"Helen has always seen herself as an elected official, not as a politician." — Sam Toia, long-time Shiller associate and owner of Leonas
In the 25 years Helen Shiller served as alderman of Uptown's 46th ward, she has been called many things. Don't get some of the Uptown community started, the ones who railed against her about gangs, drugs low income housing, what they deemed as her refusal to gentrify and clean up.
But everyone from Mayor Harold Washington to Chicago columnist legend Mike Royko, to the residents of Uptown, colleagues of 25 plus years, know a much different story. It's one of a fearless, tireless leader always ahead of her time championing the rights of the downtrodden. Someone who believed, as activist Charlotte Neufeld said, "you could change the neighborhood but keep the neighborhood."
The creator of the annual award, Lori Cannon, herself a long-time community friend, caretaker and activist, as well as a founding member of Open Hand Chicago, knows Shiller's work well; Open Hand's office was in the heart of Uptown for many years, and Cannon's best friend activist/political cartoonist Danny Sotomayor was on the front lines of AIDS activism.
Toia explains Shiller's deep commitment. "She championed Uptown, and believed it was the best place for the poor and disadvantaged because it is surrounded by middle class communities. Her theory was if were taking care of the poor, the sick, the homeless, the disadvantaged, everything else would work out. Work from the bottom up, not the top down."
Royko called her a "grimfaced career revolutionary. Her politics are like a footnote to Marx — too true to be good." But more than the brilliant soundbites he was renowned for, he said this about Shiller: "She does not think that political leadership begins and ends with elective office. Having an office is nice, but community involvement is better. She wants everyone's voice in the process." For years, the voice she did not want was Mayor Richard Daley, and her battle with him is long and legend, until they later made peace, worked together to establish the Wilson Yard, a multi-tiered project for housing, retail and opportunity in Uptown.
With the onset of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, it surprised no one that Shiller immediately stepped up to the plate. Kit Duffy, the first-ever mayoral liaison to the gay community appointed by Harold Washington, was also on the ground floor. "One of the main things we were trying to do under Harold was to let communities know they could just appeal directly to administrative departments or to the council, to get them used to the idea they didn't need clout or the blessing of an insider to get their needs heard."
Duffy continues, "Helen was very much the point person for the AIDS community once she took office, particularly for care givers. What I heard from most was that she more so than any other alderman saw AIDS
as a health matter, not as a political or "moral" issue. They knew her response would be based on objective need, and that she didn't see helping them as a political favor that would require payback at election time."
Shiller was singularly integral to securing the first city AIDS funding, remembers activist Bruce Barnes. "Helen accomplished more for Chicago's AIDS and HIV Community by her staunch independence than all of the other aldermen collectively. She was insistent on human treatment for all people, in all wards, not just those who elected her, and fought fiercely against anyone who stood in her way."
Barnes remembers in great detail the herculean effort to change the ways of the City Council in 1991, when Shiller first approached for $2.5 million to fund AIDS and HIV service organizations. "She was met with a brick wall. She was laughed at and told there was no money in the budget. But Helen knew depth of the AIDS crisis, the need for education, prevention and caregiving. And Helen fought back, doing the only thing she knew and what she did best: she turned to the community," said Barnes.
The community was ACT-UP, and within it the PISD caucus ( people with AIDS ) , a then-young and others who were living with AIDS, working within the service community. The fight was on, starting with two hearings in 1992. The pivotal moment, Barnes said, after much yelling and a near-riotous crowd, was when someone from the Budget Committee yelled above the racket "if you can find $2.5 million in unspent monies in the budget you can have the money." A young man by the name of Mel Ward was in that group and yelled back, "then give us a copy of the God damned budget and we will find it!"
Barnes said five minutes later a very large stack of paper was rolled into the room and we had a copy of the budget. In the next two weeks, Barnes and the activists got to work, finding a volunteer CPA who had worked in for the city. The used the press to keep up and accelerate the pressure on Shiller's funding request. As a result of the audit, $18.5 million in unallocated funds was discovered. This was presented at the next hearing, and was met with skepticism from the council and refusal from Daley, despite the concrete proof.
The solution came from the least expected place — initially one Daley used as an example of proof of no available funds: the great deep tunnel puncture at the Kinzie Avenue Bridge. Daley insisted this would cost over $10 million. Barnes said, "we reminded him that we had audited the city's budget and discovered $18.5 million, a slush fund, if you will. He could do both with those funds — fix the bridge AND allocate $2.5 million in AIDS funding."
The battle and pressure continued and on April 29, 1992, the city council unanimously passed the Shiller Resolution calling for an additional $2.5 millions in AIDS and HIV funding.
Confirms Cannon, "Long before it was fashionable, or politically correct….Helen was there! She made it a priority to serve with dignity and respect, the needs of the gay and AIDS community — because it was the right thing to do. As a long time co-conspirator of Jon-Henri, they made a formidable team ….. I know he'd be tickled with her receiving this honor."
