“You all should also invest in an artist wanting to heal some of the harms that you want us to create work around,” Johnson said about the powers that be, a.k.a. any art institution that exhibits artwork capturing the Black struggle. 

Switching from a creative hat to fundraising for UnBlocked Englewood wasn’t easy, though. “The biggest barrier was learning how to ask for money,” Johnson said. “I had to stretch myself to become a fundraiser — to look people in the eye and say, ‘Can you fund $250,000? Can you do $500,000 over two years? Can you do a million?’”

According to Johnson, 15 homes on the block — that she knows of — were affected by predatory Land Sale Contracts. Those homes were included in her Inequity for Sale project. However, there are 24 homes on the 6500 block of South Aberdeen Street in total. Through UnBlocked Englewood, Johnson — with the Chicago Bungalow Foundation making all the repairs — has restored 18 of them so far. 

Through UnBlocked Englewood, residents have received new roofs, back porches, furnaces, plumbing, and updated electrical. And the block itself has been transformed through murals, sculptures, and other public art installations. Johnson said she had to work to earn the trust of each resident she helped. “What it took was us immediately doing the work. And so after you repair three homes, they’re like, ‘OK, alright, OK, we’ll give you a chance to do some more,’” she said.

Additionally, there were about 20 vacant lots on the block when Johnson’s project began. Through UnBlocked Englewood, Johnson has acquired six of them; “five we have deeded over to the residents so that they can own it, because they’ve been taking care of it,” she said. Right now, Johnson’s in the process of closing on a couple more vacant lots. Out of the vacant lots in her possession, the residents have agreed to build two new homes to sell to young Black families — for no profit.