Category: Building Success Stories

Meet the Millers: despite battling homelessness, they still found a way to be together.

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Debra and Jimi Miller are tenant leaders with MTO. The Millers have been active at MTO over the past year and got involved when they received a housing choice voucher. Prior to receiving the voucher, the Millers had been homeless. Both were able to obtain shelter in transitional programs; however they were staying across the City from one another. Chicago boasts many shelters and transitional programs; but the majority of these programs serve either men or women – not families and not couples. The Miller’s struggled to be together during this period. Due to Debra’s health problems, the responsibility fell to Jimi to commute north everyday for visits. And in the evening, they would watch television programs together over the phone. Needless to say, the arrival of housing choice voucher was celebrated as the first step toward living together again.

That excitement was quickly diminished when the couple realized that their long fight to be reunited had just begun. Despite the fact that it is against the law in Chicago for landlords to refuse to rent to someone based upon their source of income, this practice still takes place. Jimi and Debra had three months to find a place to live before they lost their voucher. Two months into their search, they finally found a place. The discrimination and desperation of their search left them with a desire to work for change.

Debra had been an activist protesting the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. According to Jimi, a veteran, “She’s the resident militant.” When Debra found that she and Jimi were facing homelessness, she was again thrust into activism through 100K. The 100K program was an effort undertaken in cities across the country to get an accurate count of homeless families and individuals living on the streets. Here she met Leah Levinger and got involved with the Chicago Housing Initiative. When she and Jimi received their voucher and were no longer facing homelessness, she began looking for a new social justice focus to lend her support. Levinger pointed her toward the Source of Income Campaign at MTO. MTO was part of a coalition working to get the same type of protections for renters in suburban Cook County which exists in the City of Chicago for voucher holders. Having experienced some of this discrimination first hand, the Millers were eager to get on board. When asked about their motivation to become involved in the Source of Income Campaign, Debra states, “We had to be a part of it!” At the same time Jimi says, “We had to do it.” “It was still personal to us,” explained Debra. They hit the ground running by participating in a rally and demonstration in Oak Park targeting a landlord who advertised “No 8s,” meaning he would not rent to any Section 8 voucher holders.

MTO intentionally incorporates tenant leaders in planning and strategizing campaigns. The Millers enjoyed the experience of being at the table and helping to make decisions around how the work would move forward. After the successful passage of the Source of Income Ordinance in suburban Cook County, they continue to participate with MTO as active tenant leaders. Currently they serve on MTO’s Tenant Congress HUD Subcommittee. The Miller’s reside in Rogers Park and are happy to finally be able to come home… together.

View the original post by Chicago Equal Voice here:  http://on.fb.me/Ih4I83

Tenants Organize to Force Owner to Negotiate

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Single Room Occupancy hotels provide some of the poorest people in our communities with housing.  While this is hardly housing of choice, many residents of Chicago are very grateful the option exists.  At least this is the case with residents of the New Jackson Hotel, a downtown SRO that houses mostly low-income seniors and people with disabilities.  Recently, one of its residents contacted the MTO Hotline. He reported mice, mold, holes in walls and ceilings, and only sporadic access to heat.  Chief among his concerns was the fact that the owner has stopped accepting rent, which signaled to him that the building was about to be shut down.

MTO sent an organizer out to help the tenants form a tenants association.  MTO’s support empowered them to work together to take steps to save their housing.  First, they persuaded the owner to begin receiving rent again, which gave them some security around keeping a roof over their heads.  Hoping to build on that success, they sought to negotiate with him for better living conditions.  At first the landlord refused to negotiate.  Tenants contacted their Alderman and enlisted the support of Interfaith Housing Development Corporation, a non-profit developer of affordable housing.  Working with MTO, the Alderman’s office and Interfaith, the tenants succeeded in bringing their landlord to the table to negotiate around building repairs.

The tenants’ demands are simple: A clear plan for the future of the building, repair of all conditions issues or appropriate reduction of rent, and the cessation of illegal evictions and lockouts.

After several months of contacting 311, working with lawyers, and focusing on the Alderman, the owner was forced to negotiate. He was stopped lockouts and evictions, and offered all tenants a relocation deal equal to 2,000 per tenant.

 

Empowered Seniors at 353 E. 53rd Street

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In January of 2011, tenants from a senior building at 353 E. 53rd Street called MTO complaining of repair problems in their building.  The hotline counselor suggested building organizing to help address the building problems and shortly after, an MTO organizer contacted the residents to arrange a visit to the building. At the first meeting, MTO conducted a Residential Landlord and Tenants Ordinance (RLTO) workshop.

Problems in the building included poorly hung apartment doors that would sometimes trap residents in their apartments, large gaps around the doors and peepholes that were too high to use.  Together, tenants began organizing by electing acting tenant officers, writing joint letters to management and HUD that notified them of the building conditions, and joining the Metropolitan Tenants Organization as members.

On February 16, tenants met with management.  Tenant leaders expressed their concerns to management, who promptly provided a timeline for some of the needed repairs, including the poorly hung apartment doors.  Management committed to working with the newly formed resident organization to resolve repair issues.

As the month of February concludes, tenants are reporting that work is being completed as promised. The resident organization will continue to meet monthly to advocate for residents’ rights in the building.

Tenants Get Repairs and Fight Foreclosure

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In August of 2008 tenants from a building in Englewood called MTO’s Tenants Rights Hotline complaining about egregious conditions including broken security locks, pest infestations, and lack of essential services, like heat.  MTO immediately sent organizers out to assess the situation.  The Ada-Throop buildings are subsidized by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In addition to confirming the deplorable conditions tenants reported, MTO organizers learned that the building was in foreclosure and that the building’s subsidy was at risk.

The Ada-Throop buildings, in many ways, represent the predicament that the foreclosure crisis has caused in many tenants’ lives.  The tenants in Ada-Throop lived in quickly deteriorating conditions because the owner was either unwilling or unable to attend to the upkeep of the building, let alone pay the mortgage.  Often unresolved repairs are the first sign of a landlord in foreclosure.  Because of unacceptable building conditions, there was fear HUD would eliminate the subsidy of the property, and thus everyone would have to move.

Foreclosures also put into question the person ‘in charge’ during the court process.  The courts, the banks, or the old owner often do not want to invest the needed resources in foreclosure buildings.

Fortunately, the tenants worked together with MTO to take back control over their living conditions.  The tenants association secured the assistance of the City of Chicago’s Troubled Building Initiative and a court appointed receiver took over management of the buildings.  Working with the court appointed management company, tenants continued to organize, heat was restored in the building and conditions were improved.

Thanks to the efforts of the Metropolitan Tenants Organization working in conjunction with the Shriver Center, the Community Investment Corporations (CIC) and HUD, these buildings and their affordable housing subsidizes were all preserved.  Today, there remain problems and obstacles to overcome in the building. But since the tenants have organized, conditions have improved and new owners will soon be ready to take over the buildings. These new owners are currently looking into securing loans to do rehabilitation work on these affordable subsidized buildings.

Summary Prepared by Robert Clack

MTO Organizers Support Tenant in Fighting Lock-out and Restoring Utilities

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Counselors take calls on the MTO Hotline.
Counselors take calls on the MTO Hotline.

On December 17th 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 22nd 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 19th 2010.

Tenants Get Heat Restored

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photo credit: midnightcomm on flickr

Tenants from the building located at 3045 W 63rd 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 10th 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