Category: MTO News

News and updates from MTO.

Metropolitan Tenants Organization 25th Anniversary Celebration

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Deborah Harrington: 2010 Movement Builder Awardee

25 years of raising renters’ voices & community preservation

Please join us to celebrate MTO’s 25th Anniversary!

On Tuesday, May 4th at the Chicago Cultural Center in G.A.R. Hall & Rotunda, from 5:30 to 8:30pm, MTO is hosting a reception. Join us for hors d’oeuvres, wine, jazz and to honor some of our community’s outstanding leaders! MTO will honor Deborah Harrington, former President of the Wood’s Fund of Chicago and Steven Whitman, Ph. D, Director of the Sinai Urban Health Institute. The key note speaker for the event will be Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez.

Mayor Richard M. Daley will serve as the Honorary Celebration Chair and has agreed to issue a proclamation in honor of the occasion.

The following are several opportunities to support MTO and renters throughout the City in celebrating this milestone:

Buy Tickets

Table for 10 – $1,000.00 (limited availability)
Tickets – $100.00/person

Please consider sponsoring a renter scholarship ticket when you purchase some for your agency!

To purchase tickets by credit card on line:

1. Go to the MTO website at www.tenants-rights.org.
2. Under Support Our Work on the right hand side of the page, click on Donate Now.
3. Indicate the amount of your purchase and under Designation, indicate the number of tickets you are purchasing and write 25th Event.
4. Proceed as indicated.

Buy Ad-space in the Program Booklet

  • Full Page…………………………….. $300.00
  • Half Page…………………………….. $150.00
  • Quarter Page…..………………..…. $100.00
  • One Eighth Page…………………… $ 65.00
  • Single Line Mention……………. ..$ 35.00
  • Non-profit special package includes: 2 passes to the event & ½ page ad in Program Book….$300.00

Contact Kathy Cheney-Egan at 773.292.4980 ext. 230 or kathy@tenants-rights.org to purchase your ad or tickets today!

Deadline for inclusion on the print invitation is March 31, 2010. Deadline for ordering ad space is April 16th.

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