Category: Building Success Stories

Invisible Hazards At Home: Lead Poisoning

Posted on by Yesenia

Story By LiMei Vera

When the Bolin family moved into their Lincoln Square apartment in the 47th Ward, they believed they had found the perfect place for their young family. The apartment was affordable and offered a place to grow their roots. They registered their lively two-year-old son for local art and swim classes and prepared to welcome their daughter.

Warning Signs

However, after a year in the apartment, their son began experiencing health problems: he abruptly lost his appetite, had trouble sleeping, and started displaying seemingly inexplicable behavioral changes.

Lead paint chipping.

A visit to the doctor gave the Bolin family an unexpected answer: their son had elevated blood lead levels. For children his age, lead attacks the brain and central nervous system. It can cause irreversible damage, contributing to long-term developmental delays and complex behavioral disorders.

For John Bolin, the news was terrifying:

“We’re his parents and are supposed to keep our children safe. Finding out that it’s in your house, and that the one place that should be the safest place for them to be is actually the worst place for them to be, is incredibly upsetting and scary.”

A city inspector confirmed that the Bolin family’s apartment contained dangerous lead levels in the windows, door casings, doors, stairwells, and walls. No amount of lead exposure is considered safe for children under the age of six, but the Bolins’ home contains 58 times the allowable limit.

While this story is haunting, it is all too common in a city that does not mandate proactive inspections of rental units. In Chicago, units are not typically tested for lead until after a child has already been poisoned. Buildings constructed before 1978 commonly contain lead, yet Chicago has no proactive inspection program.

The Bolin family has made significant adjustments to protect their son, who recently celebrated his third birthday, and their daughter, who is just beginning to crawl. The Bolin family spend “all day cleaning the floors so we aren’t tracking lead all over the apartment.” They have set up a playpen and foam mats for their daughter to protect her from dust containing lead on the floor. They refrain from running the AC units, because the inspector noted that the units may pull lead dust from the windows. And everyday,

Rachel Bolin answers questions from her son. He asks why he feels different, why he can’t go to sleep at night, and why he gets so angry – all symptoms associated with lead exposure.

For Rachel, this has been heartbreaking.

“Our children deserve to live normal lives.”

With the help of MTO, the Bolins terminated their lease, and plan to move. Amidst ongoing visits to the doctor’s office, they also face other challenges, such as finding housing on a limited budget on a short timeline. A quick move is costly, and currently after much pressure, the landlords have offered less than a month’s rent of assistance.

Despite these challenges, the Bolins’ first priority is to get their child into safe and healthy housing. This priority needs to inform our city’s policies, too.

 

Organizing Works – Past Campaigns By Ward

Posted on by Gordon Dymowski
2023 - O'Shea Neighbors United Protest Levav Properties Serving Non-Renewal of Lease Notices to Over 100 Beverly Tenants
Beverly Tenant Protest – 2023

Organizing around tenant rights is about winning through building community and collaboration. We are not only proud of our work but our consistent victories in the city of Chicago. Check out several of our recent tenant organizing successes in this ever-growing list.

2024

  • S. Stony Island (8th Ward) – Tenants expressed concerns about management and security and wanted to form a tenant association. Tenants organized to form an association and through direct action ensured that new security measures were implemented. 
  • N. Sheridan (48th Ward) – Building tenants faced various safety issues including fire prevention, bedbugs, and poor building management. Tenants mobilized and formed a union, presenting management with their demands. Results included repairing fire escapes and the building’s elevator and mitigating a severe outbreak of bedbugs. 
  • S. Daniel Drive (9th Ward) – Tenants organized around the landlord’s reluctance to make necessary repairs, Despite landlord retaliation, tenants organized around holding the landlord accountable. Not only were repairs made, but tenants formed an association to continue efforts to ensure building quality and safety.
  • S. Drexel (20th Ward) – Tenants organized to focus on issues of poor property management. After establishing a union, tenants forced landlords to improve security and ensure further cooperation.
  • W. Cermak Rd (20th Ward) – After receiving significant rent increases without remediation for healthy home issues, tenants organized to assert their rights. After securing legal counsel and withholding rent, tenants received significant repairs (including windows and floors) and improved pest control efforts.
  • S. Champlain (4th Ward) – Tenants organized around health and welfare issues caused by 3500 pounds of sanitary waste and other debris. Results included inspection, engagement of the alderman, and negotiations.

2023

  • W 103rd (19th Ward) – New property management company provided no-cause lease terminations for over 100 residents across six buildings. Tenants organized and received rent forgiveness, rental reimbursement, and some received lease extensions for one year.
  • E. 79th (6th Ward) – Landlord attempted to intimidate tenants by charging for refrigerators, visiting the property with armed security, and threatening eviction. Thanks to tenant organizing, landlord was forced to make changes including security screen doors, tuck pointing, heat, installing a new stove, and tenant rent forgiveness
  • S. Burley (10th Ward) – Tenants organized around issues concerning lack of repairs and the resulting landlord harassment and retaliation. Efforts around organizing resulted in hiring an  extermination company, improving security,  and increased tenant input on renovation priorities.
  • E. 41st St (3rd Ward) – Organizing around efforts to reopen the building’s community room, tenants formed an association to address this and other issues, including smoking in units, ventilation issues, and disrespectful management.
  • E. 38th Street (3rd Ward) – Tenants organized around a series of maintenance issues including broken washers and dryers, bedbug infestations, and a flooded community room. Despite landlord harassment and intimidation, tenants successfully organized and had washers and dryers fixed, bedbugs exterminated, and an improved community room with increased attendance.
  • N. Hudson (27th Ward) – Forming a union to counter management harassment and security issues, tenants were able to have needed repairs made and improve security.

HUD Tenants Form Association, Win Big

Posted on by John Bartlett

HUD tenants recently had concerns about bed bugs, issues with re-certification, retaliation by management, and the use of their community room in their building.  Management at first did nothing to resolve the complaints.  Tenants called MTO and building organizer David Wilson went to the building and informed them of their rights.  Tenants in the Park Shore East building located at 6250 S. Harper then formed an association.

Tenants know that while committed individuals can make change, collective efforts are far stronger than the actions of individuals.  The tenants association requested a meeting with management.  Building management told the tenants they heard their issues and that they would be taken into consideration. At the next tenants’ association meeting, the leadership announced that the management brought in specially trained dogs to check for bed bugs and management agreed to extended time for the community room. It takes a tenants association to assert your rights,  and organizing get the goods!

If you want to form a tenants association, call 773-292-4988 and request to speak with a community organizer.  

 

The Power of Organizing

Posted on by David Wilson

I went to went to Lake Vista Apartments almost three weeks ago at the beginning of September.  The building looked amazing.  Almost everything is new.  The first floor was WOW. I wished I had taken pictures of the building when we started because the change is incredible.  I would move in there, it looks so good.  Seeing the change reminds me of the power tenants have when they work together.

I first went to the building almost 13 years ago and it was a mess.  Lake Vista tenant Mr.  Green called our hotline because he wanted to start a tenants association.  Mr. Green believed in housing equity. He did not think it fair the low-income residents in his building should live in fear because of poor security.  Tenants complained of being robbed in the hallways and parking lot.  With MTO’s help, tenants formed the Lake Vista Tenants Association and elected Mr. Green as President.

His first step as president was to set up an all tenants meetings with the manager and the property owner.  At the meeting, Mr. Green laid out the tenants demand for 24-hour security.  While the owner did not agree to that, the owner did agree to install security cameras in the parking lot, laundry rooms and throughout the first floor.  Security improved.

Improved security was just the beginning for the Lake Vista Tenants Association.  The building was old and in need of maintenance.  The building had pests, mold, appliances and cabinets that were as old as many of the residents.  As President, Mr. Green made sure the tenants understood the RLTO and that they engaged with HUD, the holder of the purse strings.  Mr. Green and the other tenants testified every year at MTO’s HUD Tenants Town Hall.  The tenants association challenged the owner as well as HUD officials to take care of the problems and make the building better for the senior residents. In the end, the owner and HUD officials agreed to rehab the entire complex.

The $14 million rehab is complete. The tenants have new meeting and exercise rooms, new cabinets, remodeled kitchens, and it is all repainted.  Unfortunately, Mr. Green did not get a chance to enjoy the new construction of the building as he is with his Lord but I am proud to say he played a huge role in it. Organizing works.  By David Wilson, Community Organizer

With Help MTO Resolves another Lockout. 

Posted on by admin

Ms. Bueno is a Pilsen resident. She became unemployed because of COVID-19.  The landlord turned hostile and refused to negotiate a fair agreement, which would take into consideration her financial hardship. Instead, her landlord started harassing her. She called MTO to report the landlord shutting off her lights and gas. 

A utility shutoff is a lockout, according to the City of Chicago Municipal code, so we instructed her to follow the City of Chicago’s lockout reporting procedure. She made a complaint to 311 and called the Police.  The officers did not take the matter seriously and claimed the situation was a civil matter.  As happens all too frequently, the officers did not follow the CPD Special Order #SO4-01-03. 

It took a while for Ms. Bueno to get a miscellaneous police report from the police and a building code violation.  She was able to get her utilities restored though this did not last long.  


The utilities did not stay on for long.  She called MTO again about another light shutoff and this time the landlord locked the breaker room access. We partner with the Chicago Tenants Movement (CTM) in order to create a more proactive response to lockouts. CTM sent a volunteer response team that included an electrician. The team was able to enter the breaker room and restore Ms. Bueno’s lights. The Chicago Tenants Movement response team took action when CPD and DOB would not. We need to push for proactive solutions to lockouts here in the City of Chicago.

Ms. Bueno is one of many stories of lockouts occurring in Chicago. Since the Eviction Moratorium began in March 2020, MTO has received reports on 574 lockouts. In a normal year, MTO receives about 250-300 lockout reports.  The COVID-19 pandemic has only multiplied the already existing housing crisis here in Illinois. The lack of consequences from the police and building department allows bad landlords to continue the illegal lockouts as a way to dance around the Eviction Moratorium. As the housing crisis escalates, we encourage you to join us in pushing resolutions to lockouts. Contact Javier Ruiz at javierr@tenants-rights.org to become part of the solution.

Leland Building- Organizing Success

Posted on by admin

For most of us, 2020 has been a year of trials and tribulations. A seemingly never-ending barrage of new challenges has confronted us at the turn of each season. As Chicagoans continue to grapple with a deadly global pandemic, many are struggling desperately to hang on to the only thing that can keep them safe: their homes.

After moving into her two-bedroom Albany Park apartment with her teenage daughter in January, Ferrus Najemba felt safe and secure. Victor Munoz, who had lived next door with his wife and two daughters for 13 years, felt the same way. But that all had changed by May of this year, when all 20 or so tenants in the seven-unit building were told that they had to go. Just five days after purchasing the building on May 23rd, the new owner, Brian McFadden, sent 30-day notices to the tenants telling them they must leave by the end of June.

Salvadore Alvarez holds up a copy of the 30-day notice he received outside of his apartment building on September 4, 2020.

Everyone in the building had always paid rent dutifully. Many of the tenants, most of whom are immigrants with children, have lived in the building for years. Their former landlord never mentioned anything about selling the building. The tenants were surprised, confused, and angry. In hopes of delaying their ouster from the building, Ferrus and her neighbors worked with organizers from Metropolitan Tenants Organization and the Autonomous Tenants Union to form a tenants union and demand one-year leases for all current residents.

The newly formed Leland Tenants Union (named after the street where they reside) tried to meet with the owner, but he ignored them for weeks. They worked with their Alderman (Carlos Ramirez Rosa (35th), and held a press conference outside their building in September. “He has not called me back. Pick up the phone, Brian. Sit down with these tenants. They’re prepared to sign permanent leases. They’re prepared to pay rent. Do the right thing,” Rosa said. One by one, tenants from the building shared their stories and demanded a meeting with McFadden. “When we got the eviction notices, it was heartbreaking and scary. I was angry,” Victor Muñoz said during the press conference, his voice cracking with emotion. “I started worrying about my kids. How am I going to keep a roof over their heads during this pandemic?”.

Victor Munoz speaks during the press conference outside his apartment on September 4, 2020.

The tenants union didn’t stop making their demands, and their dedication paid off. A week after their protest, negotiations with McFadden resumed. In October, McFadden agreed to waive back rent and give all the tenants one-year leases.

Today, MTO is joining the Leland Tenants Union and the thousands of renters across Chicago calling for a Just Cause bill, which would eliminate no-cause evictions, give more time to tenants who do have to move, and put certain limits on reasons why a landlord can displace a tenant. With such a bill, tenants like Victor and Ferrus would be protected, and our communities would be that much safer.

Drexel Tenants Win Relocation

Posted on by admin

Tenants at 4625 S Drexel formed a tenants association.  The building was in horrendous condition and the owner of the building in April of last year decided to close the building and evict all the tenants.  The tenants flyered the building and met monthly.  They all called the city to report  the building’s numerous building code violations and to request an inspection.  The City inspected the building.  The City told the owner to fix the building.  Then the heat went out.  The landlord tried to use this as an excuse to evict all the tenants and issued everyone 30 day notices to vacate the building.  At court the judge ordered the owner to fix it.  Then the water went out.  The judge ordered the landlord to pay each of the 17 remaining tenants $1200 relocation assistance.  This was on top of the 3 months the tenants did not have to pay rent.  The tenants won $51,000 plus months of additional time to find a new residence.

BHF Tenants Work Together

Posted on by admin

Tenants living in buildings owned by the Better Housing Foundation continue to advocate for the City of Chicago building court system to improve their housing. One such family – the Finkle’s – reached out to Amy de la Fuente, one of MTO’s Healthy Homes organizers, about mold, mushrooms and water damage in their unit. Ms. Finkle is wheelchair bound and lives with her son. She asked her son to email photos of the unit conditions to Amy, who in turn shared the photos with the program officer from the Community Investment Corporation (CIC), a partner in a citywide effort to preserve the Better Housing Foundation’s buildings. Mrs. Finkle’s son decided to attend the next court hearing to speak about the conditions.

Young Mr. Finkle, who suffers from asthma, attended court. He met with Amy and prepared his talking points. When the judge called his building, he and several neighbors from the building stepped forward to testify. With Amy by his side, Mr. Finkle advocated in favor of safe, decent and healthy housing for himself and his mother. The judge, city attorney and program officer all listened and asked questions. Because of the tenant testimony, the judge authorized the receiver to make repairs related to water damage and to relocate tenants as necessary. As he left the courtroom, Mr. Finkle turned to Amy, shook her hand and said, “Thank you. Thank you so much.” It is strong tenant advocacy, like that of the Finkle family, which leads to positive outcomes for residents living in these buildings.

MTO and CIC, have worked diligently for the past nine months to help preserve affordable housing and keeps tenants stably housed in over 75 failing Better Housing Foundation buildings. The work is ongoing. For more information or to see how you can help, contact Amy at amyf@tenants-rights.org.

Tenants March on HUD HQ, Win Meeting with Top HUD Official

Posted on by admin

May 10th 2019

Mrs Johnson, a resident at
Barbara Jean Wright Courts, speaks about the living conditions at the complex.

Chicago, IL. – Twenty-five tenants and their supporters picketed outside the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offices at 77 W Jackson in downtown Chicago today.  The tenants were sick and tired of inaction on the part of their landlords and the lack of oversight by HUD. One tenant asked, “How can I celebrate Mother’s Day in my home when my kitchen cabinets are falling apart?”  

It was almost a year ago today that HUD representatives met with tenants at a Town Hall meeting of subsidized renters organized by the Metropolitan Tenants Organization (MTO).  At the Town Hall, HUD representatives promised action. They assured tenants they would come out to the buildings and hold the landlords accountable to very basic housing standards.  

For the tenants living in Barbara Jean Wright Courts, Germano Millgate and Indian Trails Apartments, HUD has not made good on its promise.  Tenants are living with rats, bed bugs, holes in the walls, elevators that don’t work, plumbing problems and more. One parent, who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation, is worried that DCFS is going to take her children away because the conditions are so bad.

Tenants were preparing to deliver a letter to HUD officials demanding a meeting. As the tenants chanted, “HUD don’t delay, Repairs in time for Mother’s Day!” outside of HUD’s downtown office, Joseph Galvan, HUD’s Regional Administrator for Region V, came out to talk.  Jesse Johnson of Barbara Jean Wright Court asked Mr. Galvan to meet with the tenants and to inspect the complexes.  Mr. Galvan agreed to inspect the above three apartment complexes and to meet with the tenants in his office on May 31st.  The tenants left feeling fired up and ready to keep the pressure on HUD and their landlords to provide decent and safe housing.

Joseph Galvin (left), HUD Regional Adminstrator, talks with HUD tenants outside his office on May 10, 2019.

Pilsen Tenants Fight Back Against Mass Eviction

Posted on by admin

Signs outside 1722 W 21st.

When the tenants at 1722 W 21st Street got 30-day notices saying they must move out of their apartments, they were outraged. Monroe management had recently evicted their neighbors too. The building next door was gutted and rehabbed, with new rents costing $1,500 a month. The tenants at 1722 W. 21st were facing an all too common problem – mass eviction and displacement – an epidemic in Pilsen. Eight families were being asked to leave their homes to make way for someone who could pay more. Eight families facing homelessness so that their landlord can make an extra buck.

To make matters worse, Monroe Management, the tenants said, was intimidating them by threatening to shut off their water and gas. Feeling ignored, tenants decided they would stick together and seek resources to fight back. They engaged community organizers, learned their tenant rights, and immediately wrote a 14-day letter asking for much-needed building repairs (the previous owner had neglected the building). They also sought legal assistance from the Lawyer Committee for Better Housing (who has since accepted their case). Monroe has responded by making repairs in the building, but they still want the tenants out.

On Wednesday, tenants held a press-conference to decry Monroe’s actions and call for an end to the mass gentrification of Pilsen. Shelonda Montgomery (see video below) spoke about how common it has become for big management companies to “buy up” the community, rehab apartments and price out long-term community residents.

Tenants also spoke about the need for rent control and a proactive inspection system in Chicago. One tenant spoke of the need to be engaged in the struggle – together – to fight against housing discrimination. The tenants at 1722 W 21st Street will soon have their day in court, together, thanks to the community members and allies that continue to support our work.

Check out the Twitter story below!