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For 25 years, the Metropolitan Tenants Organization has been fighting for safe and affordable housing by empowering tenants to organize against slumlords and by operating a tenants rights hotline to help inform Chicago tenants on their rights.

Recognizing that renters are among those who have been undercounted in the past, MTO has engaged the 2010 Census as a Count-Me-In partner.  Count-Me-In is a campaign funded by ten of Illinois’ leading philanthropies, including The Boeing Company, the Chicago Bar Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Grand Victoria Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, Steans Family Foundation, and Woods Fund of Chicago. In addition, LISC/Chicago is supporting five New Community Program lead agencies in this effort. The Joyce Foundation has awarded separate grants to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, the Illinois League of Women Voters, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, and Citizens Advocacy Center for census related work in Illinois.

An accurate census count is imperative to establishing benchmarks in our communities to guide government funds.  When decisions are made regarding how many subsidized housing vouchers a community should receive, census numbers are consulted to determine levels of need.  When decisions are made around where to place subsidized and affordable housing, census numbers determine which communities benefit.  Everything from the amount of money allocated to fix potholes in the street to the funds allocated to benefit your local schools is determined, in part, by census numbers.  If a community is undercounted, that community will lose funding and representation for years to come.  Undercounts can mean the difference between your community flourishing and your community wasting away.

Beginning in March, households across the country will begin receiving their census forms.  Ten short questions to help determine the future.  This is your chance to say, “I matter!”  Step up and BE COUNTED.    MTO is hosting a raffle for all renters who attend an MTO meeting in March and do one of the following:  bring a sealed envelope with your census forms enclosed that you are preparing to mail, bring a photo-copy of a sealed envelope that you have already mailed or bring your forms to fill out at a meeting.  Any of these activities will earn you a raffle ticket – making you eligible to win one of three cash prizes – $300/first prize, $150/second prize, $50/third prize. Raffle winners will be announced at the April Community Congress meeting. Remember, your census responses are completely confidential.  If you have any questions regarding the census, consult the 2010 Census website at: www.2010.census.gov.

from flickr user alex_ford

At MTO’s 2007 Citywide Tenants Congress, tenants identified poor building conditions and slumlords as one of its three key issues. Tenants proposed several ways to increase landlord accountability. One way was to hit landlords where it counts in their pocket book.
The Chicago City Council at its January 2010 meeting took an important step in affirming tenants’ rights to safe and decent housing by passing the Building Code Scofflaw.  Alderman Leslie Hairston introduced the ordinance, in May 2007.  The bill targets landlords who have uncorrected code violations that are habitual, extensive or serious.  These landlords are the worst of the worst and fit the term slumlord.  This ordinance would prohibit slumlords from doing any business with the City of Chicago.

MTO tenant leaders visited and secured the support of majority of the City’s alderman. Now that the bill has passed tenants leaders are hoping to expand the bill to include bad management companies.  According to MTO board member and tenant leader, Herman Bonner, “This bill has many possibilities.  As a subsidized tenant I believe that the federal government should adopt a similar law.  There are too many owners receiving federal money who are slumlords.”

While it is unknown how many owners this bill will impact.  It does send a message to owners that if you own property and want the City’s business you will have to keep your buildings up to code.

Hyde Park tenant Melissa Michaels hopes a proposed ordinance will induce property owners to be better landlords.

The city of Chicago has a message for slumlords: You will not be rewarded with city loans or contracts.

CBS 2’s Jim Williams reports the city council is close to passing a law that would put pressure on bad landlords to fix their property.

Read the full story here: http://cbs2chicago.com/local/slum.ordinance.Alderman.2.1429795.html

Watch the video here: http://cbs2chicago.com/video/?id=66557@wbbm.dayport.com

Counselors take calls on the MTO Hotline.

On December 17^th a tenant residing at 634 N. Ridgeway called the Metropolitan Tenants Organizations (MTO) hotline in regards to no heat.  The tenant was referred to MTO organizers who immediately went to the building. The tenants believed that the landlord had purposely turned off the heat in response to late payments on rent.  The tenant had recently lost her job and was unable to pay her rent in full.

Organizers had the tenant call 311, get the 311 reference number and write out a 24 hour Heat and Essential Service letter to the landlord.  Organizers also contacted attorneys for the City of Chicago to complain about the lockout.

On the following day the tenant sent a letter to the landlord warning of the consequences of a lockout along with the 24 hour letter demanding the immediate restoration of heat and sent the certified mail.  The landlord refused to restore the heat.  On December 22^nd building inspectors came out to the building and found it to be not compliant and in a dangerous and hazardous condition.

Still the landlord refused to restore the heat.  MTO worked with the tenant and the Corporation Counsel to document that this was in fact an illegal lockout and that the gas was intentionally shutoff because he wanted the tenants out.

On December 29, the tenant with MTO organizers appeared in Housing Court in front of Judge Clay-Clark.   The landlord tried to deny responsibility for the shutoff but the evidence was on the tenant’s side and the judge ruledthe landlord was non compliant with city code, was found to have been interfering with utility services, and having committed a lockout on the tenants.  As a result a receiver was placed in the building to work with the tenant in restoring the heat immediately to the unit.  Hopefully this will send a message to landlords that lockouts are illegal.  A follow up court date was set for January 19^th 2010.

13-196-630  Residential buildings – Responsibilities of owner or operator.

Every owner or operator must:

(a)     Comply with the requirements imposed on him by this chapter;

(b)     Maintain in a clean, sanitary and safe condition the shared or public areas of the dwelling or premises, and maintain and repair any equipment of a type specified in this Code which he supplies or is required to supply;

(c)     Exterminate any insects, rodents or other pests in any family unit, if infestation is caused by the failure of the owner or operator to maintain the dwelling in a ratproof or reasonable insect-proof condition, and he must exterminate such pests in any family unit in the dwelling, regardless of the cause of infestation, if infestation exists in two or more of the family units in the dwelling or in the shared or public parts of any dwelling containing two or more family units; and

(d)     Supply and maintain the facilities for refuse disposal which are required of him by Section 7-28-220.

photo credit: midnightcomm on flickr

Tenants from the building located at 3045 W 63^rd St. call the MTO because their building was in horrible condition and they were not going to take it anymore.  When the MTO organizers arrived at the building the first thing that that they noticed was there was no heat in the building along with security problems such as, locks not working on entrance doors.  Tenants highlighted other problems such as pests (roaches, mice and rats), doors and door frame problems going into apartments, leaky pipes among other issues in the building.

The tenants organized a tenants association.  A group of them called 311 (the City’s complaint number) and asked for reference numbers.  Several tenants also wrote out 24 hour letters concerning the heat problem.  On December 10^th organizers sent letters via certified mail to the Management Company, contacted a City of Chicago Building Attorney and contacted a Community Investment Corporation Program Officer in charge of the Trouble Building Initiative.

Two days later City Inspectors toured the building and found the building to be in non compliance with City code.  That same day the Management Company sent repair people to the property and the heat was turned back on around midnight and an open window in a common area was boarded up.

After their victory the tenants are inspired to keep organizing.  MTO organizers are working with the tenants association to fix the rest of the problems.   Tenants learned about their renters’ rights and now they are writing 14 day letters concerning conditions and repairs.  Their next meeting is set for January 4 at the Southwest Youth Collaborative.

Summary Prepared by Robert Clack