On a recent afternoon, University of Chicago field coordinator Priscilla Agbeo and her team of four students stood in the parking lot of a big warehouse in Chicago’s West Lawn neighborhood.

The neighborhoods of Clearing, West Lawn and Chicago Lawn are spread across about 9 square miles of Chicago’s Southwest Side. They have separate histories and are made up of different ethnic groups.

In the neighborhood of Chicago Lawn, the Southwest Organizing Project, or SWOP, is converting vacant properties into affordable houses. SWOP's work began in 2013, ...