As the Obama Presidential Center inches toward opening day, Airbnb says South Side residents are already seeing a surge in visitor dollars, with local hosts pulling in roughly $15 million last year. Now, the company and the Obama Foundation are teaming up on training sessions to help neighbors turn that rising demand into steady neighborhood income.
Airbnb's New Numbers
According to Airbnb's latest analysis, residents across Chicago's South Side earned more than $15.1 million from hosting in 2025. Citywide, hosting brought in about $199 million for Chicago hosts, with the 4th, 5th, and 20th wards, which sit closest to the Obama Presidential Center site, taking the biggest slice of those South Side earnings.
The platform also reports that about 60% of Chicago hosts said the extra income helped them stay in their homes, and nearly 20% said it helped them avoid eviction or foreclosure, according to HospitalityNet. For many, that side hustle is not just vacation money. It is a lifeline.
Workshops And Prep Sessions
To get more South Side residents ready for the visitor wave, the Obama Foundation has rolled out a series of free "Community Tourism Prep Sessions." The lineup includes an online "Airbnb Academy" workshop on Feb. 18 that is designed to walk neighbors through hosting basics and best practices, as detailed by The Obama Foundation.
The partnership has already hit local airwaves. FOX 32 Chicago aired a segment highlighting the collaboration between Airbnb and the foundation and how it aims to keep tourism dollars circulating on the South Side.
What Opening Day Could Bring
The Obama Presidential Center is scheduled to open in June 2026, a timeline reported by CBS Chicago. Project leaders have long talked about the campus drawing on the order of three-quarters of a million visitors every year, a projection that has surfaced in recent coverage and in President Barack Obama's own comments.
In one of his reflections on the project, Barack Obama cited an estimate of about 750,000 annual visitors. That kind of traffic could significantly shift where tourists stay, eat and spend money throughout Chicago.
Neighborhood Trade-Offs
Community advocates say the influx of cash is welcome, but they are quick to point out that tourism dollars alone will not fix long-standing housing and investment pressures that are already reshaping parts of the South Side. Hoodline has chronicled some of those tensions in its coverage of local small businesses, including its recent piece "Mama Africa Races Eviction Clock," which follows a South Shore restaurant's fight to stay put as the Obama Center looms, according to Mama Africa Races Eviction Clock.
Airbnb, for its part, says the Obama Center moment is part of a broader push to bring visitors into neighborhoods that have few or no hotels and to put more of the tourism revenue directly into residents' pockets. The company told reporters it invested $500,000 in Chicago organizations last year to support housing and small-business efforts, according to HospitalityNet.
Neighbors who want in on the next wave of visitors can sign up for the Feb. 18 "Airbnb Academy" session and other prep events through The Obama Foundation, which is handling registration.
