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To whom it may concern:

I am writing you as a concerned resident of Chicago. I believe that what is going on at the Astor House right now, with the mass eviction of tenants, means that there will be less affordable housing in Rogers Park and on the North Side. I am concerned that the well-being of Rogers Park's current residents is being put aside in favor of politics and profit. I ask that you immediately convene negotiations between the owner of 1246 W. Pratt and the Astor House Tenants Association. Attached you will find a partial list of the articles that have been written about 1246 W. Pratt.

Sincerely,

Brown: Low-income residents rattled by take over of North Side apartment building BY MARK BROWN July 5, 2013 10:18PM Youre going to think Ive written this story previously, and in a way I have. But thats an indication of how often this same scenario is cropping up these days. Astor House, another of the dwindling North Side apartment buildings that once catered to lowincome residents, is rapidly being emptied out to the consternation of its remaining tenants. The 14-story building at 1246 W. Pratt housed nearly 150 people when it was taken over last November by BJB Properties, one of several companies currently specializing in rehabbing Chicagos old single room occupancy hotels into more upscale housing. As of Friday when I visited, only about 22 units at Astor House remain occupied, tenants told me. Those tenants complain of heavy-handed tactics to force them to move, similar to those described by residents of other properties purchased in the past year by BJB. That includes allegations of management failing to make timely repairs and serving eviction notices after refusing to accept rent. You may remember my columns about the Abbott Hotel, 721 W. Belmont, where BJB had shut off the heat and water and dismantled the fire safety systems with some tenants still living in the building, prompting an emergency city response. Nothing that extreme is happening at Astor House, where the rehab has been less extensive. To my mind, though, that makes this an even better time to put the property under a microscope before we ever reach that stage. What weve got right now is closer to what happened at the Chateau Hotel, 3838 N. Broadway, where BJB recently won a court order to get rid of the last remaining tenant in the 138-room SRO. That was the culmination of a months-long battle with tenants, their lawyers and community groups, who complained that BJB created hostile living conditions to induce residents to leave. In the end, many of those who had stuck it out for months accepted modest cash settlements to finally move. In addition, the community groups eased up after they say BJB principal Jamie Purcell indicated a willingness to consider using government subsidies to keep a portion of the former SRO units available as affordable housing. Astor House residents who spoke with me Friday say they want Ald. Joe Moore (49th) to broker a meeting with Purcell to help negotiate similar arrangements for them. Moore told me he is trying to work individually with any tenants who come to him for help but is not inclined to intervene on behalf of the entire group without knowing the details of each ones circumstances. Like the Chateau in Lakeview, Astor House under prior owners was generally regarded as one of the worst buildings in its East Rogers Park neighborhood because of an abundance of police activity and tenant complaints including heating problems, faulty elevators and bedbugs. The prospect of new ownership investing in improvements, therefore, was viewed as a big plus by Moore, who said he has experienced no problems with BJB at its other properties in the ward. It was a really horrible building, Moore told me Friday. Nobody should live there. It needs to

be fixed up. My hope will be they will fix it up. The tenants would be the first to tell you how crummy the Astor House is, and some of them showed me around Friday to see for myself. I can confirm: the place is a dump. But its in a good location. And as in all these situations, were talking about a group of people who are at the bottom of the housing food chain and dont have a lot of other options, especially if they want to remain on the North Side. After sprucing up some of the apartments a floor at a time, BJB has recently started marketing the building to college students at rents comparable to what it is currently charging the tenants being ousted. The company has applied for permits to make more extensive electrical and plumbing improvements, Moore said. Tenants predict a much higher rent increase when that work is completed. Having witnessed a few of these battles now, Im well aware that some of the tenants in these matters are trying to work the system to their advantage. Some have been through prior evictions. Still, I find that the little people generally get bulldozed in these situations, and theres never any harm in bringing attention to their cause. On Monday, city inspectors are scheduled to pay a visit to Astor House, which was a beehive of activity Friday in preparation. Damaged and missing fire hoses might be a good place for the inspectors to start.

City's sudden 'concern' for SRO conditions questioned, Astor House struggle tip of affordable housing debacle in Chicago
July 23, 2013 at 6:09pm

Story and photo by BOB ZULEY As a brave band of 20-some residents of Astor House, 1246 W. Pratt Blvd., holdout against probable relocation, the drama highlights the embarrassingly inept response by city officials to maintain an accessible, affordable, and diverse independent housing stock against the monied interests behind unfettered urban gentrification and enhanced economic development at the expense of the North Side's urban poor. The remaining residents now face imminent court eviction as their rent payments have been refused in the moderately affordable, 1920's vintage 13-story, 100-plus unit residential apartment building ever since the building was purchased for $6.2 million by Park Ridge-based BJB Properties in late October 2012. BJB is controlled in principal by mega-developer Jamie Purcell but doing business at Astor House as an entity known as 1246 Pratt LLC. The drama began in 2012 when troubled building owner Sam Menetti ran into financial trouble and his properties, including Astor House, were foreclosed upon, as reported at the time by this newspaper. Other Menetti residential properties include the Lawrence House Retirement Hotel, 1020 W. Lawrence Ave., 4526 N. Sheridan, and 1673 W. Pratt. Community leader Marc Kaplan, of Northside Action for Justice (NA4J), questions the city's sudden concern for building conditions at Astor House that its residents face daily. After a recent court-ordered building inspection of

Astor House last week, Kaplan asks, where was the city's concern about the building when it was being bled for years under Menetti. A lot was overlooked back then. Kaplan said that the anticipated gut-rehab of the building has apparently been postponed with only minor cosmetic repairs being made, though new tenants have moved in on short-term leases. After putting up with poor heat, nonworking elevators, low water pressure, lack of hot water, cockroaches, mice, collapsed ceilings, and the plague of the north lakefront bedbugs residents of Astor House now believe they may be ordered out of the building through the eviction process. Lifelong Chicagoan Arbie Bowman, has lived in Astor House for three years with her children, an 8-year old boy, and a daughter with asthma. To me, it's heartbreaking, says Bowman. I guess the alderman [Joe Moore, 49th] is all about development. What about us? All we want is a place to live.

A lot of us look at this as affordable housing at least housing that we can afford. There's no affordable housing
available on the North Side. The city isn't making any relocation alternatives or assistance available to residents, says Bowman.

It's horrible. There's no pest extermination. Ive had to buy a cat, she says, finding a remedy in response to finding
mice on her children while they slept. Bowman is worried about finding alternative, comparable housing nearby. She doesn't want to disrupt the life of her childrens schooling, camp, scouts even as she worries about her daughter's AD/HD medical condition. Ald. Moore appears to be siding with developer Purcell rather than the building residents, according to building tenant leader Melvin Jennings. Jennings doesn't fear an imminent court order to vacate, but admit that finding alternative housing would be difficult. Jennings spoke of an early July rally and meeting at the office of Ald. Moore, saying that the new property owner has ignored unsafe building conditions as a ruse to make residents flee. He said that several former building tenants are now homeless. Purcell owns some 5,000-plus rental units in downtown Chicago, the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, Lake View, Uptown, and Rogers Park. The company is known for purchasing vintage and/or distressed properties, gut-rehabbing the units, and re-marketing them to a more upscale resident base at a higher monthly rent. Purcell also owns the Beyond The Ivy rooftop clubs overlooking Wrigley Field. Under Purcell, BJB Properties has purchased, vacated, renovated, and re-rented several SRO-type rental buildings on the northern lakefront that served as home for renters of limited financial means, including local service industry workers, military veterans, aged Social Security retirees, and disabled Social Security recipients including persons living with HIV. Such rental properties taken over by BJB Properties over the past 24 months extensively reported here include Single Room Occupancy (SRO)-like residential hotels including the Belair Hotel, 424 W. Diversey Pkwy., Sheffield House, 3834 N. Sheffield Ave., Ambers Hotel, 1628 W. Belmont Ave., Abbott Hotel, 721 W. Belmont Ave., Chateau Hotel, 3838 N. Broadway, and now the Astor House. The rent-paying tenants feel that the refusal of management to accept their rent payments last fall was improper, if not unlawful, insofar as other newer tenants have since been accepted into the building in the interim, and want to

be able to remain in the building as renters until renovations begin. They seek an accommodation to return to the newly renovated units at an adjusted rental rate once work is completed. The new renters are paying $600-900 per month, while the previous tenants paid $550 monthly. Because of the absence of city officials and agencies to serve the needs of rent-paying tenants, agencies such as NA4J, Communities United Against Foreclosure and Eviction, and the Metropolitan Tenants Organization are assisting residents. In addition, some Astor House residents facing eviction are being assisted by lawyers from the Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing and by Chicago landlord-tenant attorney Paul Bernstein. The crux of the matter is the unrelenting loss of accessible and relatively affordable independent housing on the northern lakefront area as well as throughout the city, which in practice serves as a housing source of last resort for many people. This includes not only minimum wage workers and the aforementioned Social Security recipients, but couples who wouldn't otherwise qualify for joint shelter or supportive housing programs, as well as housing options for adult women. Kaplan believes that city TIF funds could be used for stabilizing affordable and accessible housing on the North Side, if only those priorities were established by city leaders. Two recent questionable TIF expenditures include $5 million to relocate Vienna Beef to Bridgeport, and $55 million to subsidize a tax-exempt basketball arena for DePaul Univ. Hundreds of people, generally limited-income wage earners, have been involuntarily vacated and forced to find alternative housing in a diminishing stock of comparable housing as the city's functionaries essentially ignore their plight. As these residential hotels have been taken over and vacated without prior notice to building tenants, aldermen Tom Tunney [44th], James Cappleman [46th], and Moore have demonstrated silent indifference toward the rentpaying building residents giving the appearance that they lack vision regarding housing needs to maintain a diverse, accessible housing stock. Many government officials, oftentimes lacking any comprehensive knowledge of issues facing people of limited financial means, including housing needs, view unfettered urban gentrification as something to be emulated. Accusations shiftlessness, drug abuse and lack of a work ethic are sometimes leveled against SRO residents in general by new area residents as yet another wedge issue that detracts from the crucial underlying issue of maintaining a vanishing, viable diverse stock of accessible and affordable independent housing options.

Rogers Park protest targets Astor House purchase and 49 eviction cases
April 16, 2013 at 1:12pm
City again ignores affordable housing losses on North Side BY BOB ZULEY As people of limited financial means oftentimes do, inconveniences and deplorable living conditions that traditional renters wouldn't put up with are tolerated as few other comparable independent living options are available elsewhere.

After putting up with poor heat, nonworking elevators, low water pressure, lack of hot water, and the plague of the north lakefront bedbugs longtime residents of Astor House, a 13-story, 100-plus unit residential building at 1246 W. Pratt Blvd. have now been told that they must vacate by the end of April after the Oct. 2012 sale of their building. Nearly 50 eviction cases from the building were filed in court according to the Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court website. Some Astor House residents facing eviction are being assisted by lawyers from the Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing and by Chicago landlord-tenant attorney Paul Bernstein. The drama began in 2012 when longtime building owner Sam Menetti ran into financial trouble and his properties, including Astor House, were foreclosed upon as reported at the time by this newspaper. Other Menetti residential properties include 1020 W. Lawrence Avenue (Lawrence House Retirement Hotel), 4526 N. Sheridan, and 1673 W. Pratt. In Oct. 2012, building tenants of the Astor House, who possessed traditional one-year leases, learned that the building had been sold and that lease renewals for existing tenants would be limited to one-or-two month lease extensions along with a 57% rent increase. Astor House was reportedly sold for a $6.2 million and is now believed to be owned by Park Ridge-based BJB Properties, doing business as 1246 Pratt LLC. BJB Properties is owned in principal by mega-developer Jamie Purcell who also owns the Beyond the Ivy rooftop clubs overlooking Wrigley Field. Purcell owns some 5,000-plus rental units in downtown Chicago, the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, Lake View, Uptown, and Rogers Park. The company is known for purchasing vintage and/or distressed properties, gut-rehabbing the units, and re-marketing them to a more upscale resident base at a higher monthly rent. On Thursday, a protest organized by Northside Action for Justice, Communities United Against Foreclosure and Eviction, and the Metropolitan Tenants Organization, was held at Astor House targeting BJB Properties and Purcell. Similar protests targeting BJB Properties were previously held at the Abbott Hotel in Lakeview and the Chateau Hotel in Uptown. As has happened in past transactions, existing rent-paying residents at the time of the change of building ownership were denied prior knowledge of the pending sale. They are then forced from the building after substantial rent increases, oftentimes using legally defective notices to vacate. While some of the low-income and fixed-income residents have been forced into homelessness, others have scrambled into the fewer and fewer alternative residential properties that offer accessible and independent living at less-than or at-near market rates. Residential properties taken over by BJB Properties over the past 18 months extensively reported by Inside Publications include Single Room Occupancy (SRO)-like residential hotels including the Belair Hotel, 424 W. Diversey Pkwy., Sheffield House, 3834 N. Sheffield Ave., Ambers Hotel, 1628 W. Belmont Ave., Abbott Hotel, 721 W. Belmont Ave., Chateau Hotel, 3838 N. Broadway, and now the Astor House. Some Astor House residents formerly lived in the aforementioned now-closed SROs. This vital housing stock provide housing of last resort not only for people of limited financial means including service industry workers, but also couples who wouldn't otherwise qualify for joint shelter or supportive housing options and for adult women.

Hundreds of people have been involuntarily vacated and forced to find alternative housing in a diminishing stock of comparable housing as their elected aldermen and city functionaries, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel, essentially ignore their plight. As these hotels have been taken over and vacated in the 44th, 46th, and now the 49th wards, aldermen Tom Tunney, James Cappleman, and Joe Moore, respectively, have demonstrated silent indifference toward the fate of rent-paying residents and their sudden need for affordable housing. Other SRO-like residential buildings on the North Side with precarious futures include the Lawrence House; the Norman, 1325 W. Wilson, and the Wilson Men's Club, 1124 W. Wilson Ave., now targeted for closure by Ald. Cappleman in his on-going quest for enhanced economic development in his ward at the expense of the poor.

Astor House Residents Say New Building Owner Wants Them Out
By Benjamin Woodard on March 28, 2013 4:28pm | Updated on March 28, 2013 4:28pm

ROGERS PARK Residents at the Astor House on Pratt Boulevard said they have long suffered with bed bugs, poor heating and low-water pressure. But since new owners took over in October, tenants say 47 of them now face eviction, threatening to put some out on the street. "All of a sudden, they gave me a bogus eviction notice," said tenant Melvin

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Jennings, who claimed to have never stopped paying his rent. "They got me in court." Property records show that a company called "1246 Pratt LLC" purchased the property for $6.2 million. Attorney Gerard Walsh is listed as the principal agent of that company. Walsh has also represented other distressed properties, such as the Chateau Hotel, which is rumored to have been purchased by an investor group that includes Jamie Purcell, the principal of BJB Properties. Walsh did not return emails or voicemails requesting comment. Tenants say BJB Properties now wants to empty the building so it can be renovated and

marketed to Loyola students and others at a higher rent. The property management company owns three other buildings nearby, which arelisted on its website. "The Chateau they said the same thing," said Marc Kaplan, a member of Northside Action for Justice. "This is a whole real estate speculation scheme that's going on all over the North Side." Kaplan and other affordable housing advocates say developers are purchasing older buildings to fix them up, leaving many fixed- and low-income residents without a home. "There's no affordable housing," Kaplan said in front of TV news cameras during a rally in front of the Astor House on Thursday. In fact, some of the newer residents at the Astor House were former Chateau House tenants before they were told to leave. Residents in Rogers Park said they have been meeting in their building's laundry room over the past few months to organize against the new owners. Tenant Arbie Bowman, 45, said she'd lived in the building with her daughter for 2 years before she was served an eviction notice. Bowman said she's suffered through bed bug infestations that forced her 8-year-old daughter to sleep on a coffee table to avoid being bitten. "My daughter can't even take a bath," she said, because of mold in the bathroom affecting the girl's asthma. Sometimes the water doesn't get hot enough to take a shower, she said. "No one should have to live in these conditions," she said. Bowman said she pays $550 a month for a one-bedroom apartment. Similar apartments offered by BJB Properties lease for up to $1,295 a month, according to its website. She said because of the Astor House's reputation of being ridden with bed bugs, she has had a hard time getting landlords to accept her application elsewhere. Bowman might have to move into a shelter, where she had once lived before. "I told my daughter that she'd never see a shelter as long as I'm a live," she said, worrying she'd break the promise is she had to leave the Astor House. Paul Bernstein, a lawyer specializing in landlord-tenant issues, represents a dozen of

the tenants he said have been served eviction notices, including Bowman and her daughter. "It certainly seems the intent is that the new owners want to get everyone out to rehab it," Bernstein said Thursday in a phone interview. Bernstein said he's arguing in court that the evictions were given in retaliation to tenants who reported problems in the building, like pests and faulty elevators. "I just think some landlords theyll take the second syllable of landlord too much to heart," he said. "It borders on class warfare." Bernstein, a self-described advocate for the tenants, said the property owner's lawyers refuse to sit down with him to discuss ways to help the tenants of the Astor House find alternate housing. "If BJB wants to do wonderful things, maybe they should start to be perceived as wonderful people and help people move on," Bernstein said. "This is America for God's sake. Why cant these people be treated properly as human beings?" The tenants have also faced attempted arson and flooding at the building. In early January, an unknown person set fire to a garbage bag in the Astor House's stairwell. Then less than a week later, it happened again on a different floor, according to police reports obtained by DNAinfo.com Chicago. Residents say they don't know who set the fires, but burn marks remain on two levels of the building. In another incident, someone had unrolled permanent fire hoses on three different floors in the building's stairwell, turned them on, and flooded several apartments, according to another police report dated Jan. 6. Damage from the flooding is still visible on the ceiling of Arbie Bowman's eighth-floor apartment. Bowman said she called Ald. Joe Moore's 49th ward office and complained about her situation. Other residents had as well. When reached by email Thursday, Moore said he had received the complaints and planned to sit down with the new owners, whom he had yet to identify. "This building has been on our radar screen for the last several years," he said. His office had taken the previous managers through housing court.

Moore said he did not know if the new owners planned to "empty out the building" for renovations."But given the state of disrepair of the building," he said, it would not surprise him.

Astor House Residents Take Their Protests to Developer's Doorstep


By Benjamin Woodard on April 9, 2013 7:31am | Updated on April 9, 2013 7:31am @benjamdub

PARK RIDGE Affordable housing activists are taking their fight against gentrification on Chicago's North Side right to developers' doorsteps. A weekend march at the Park Ridge home of developerJamie Purcell came on the heels of a similar protest against FLATS Chicago developer Jay Michael in January, when two buses of protesters paid a visit to his Gold Coast condo.

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On Saturday, about two dozen people loaded into a rented school bus in front of theAstor House, 1246 W. Pratt Blvd., and drove 10 miles to knock on doors in Purcell's neighborhood to protest plans to redevelop the building. "It's the 99 percent going against the 1 percent," said Melvin Jennings, a security guard who claims he was served a "bogus" eviction notice at the Astor House. Jennings and other residents say they're being wrongfully evicted so Purcell, a principal partner of BJB Properties and the person who signed the Astor House's new mortgage, could renovate the bed-bug infested building and raise rents. "He's buying up property all over the North Side. They're trying to evict tenants already there and make it unaffordable for" them, said Kevin Brown, a university student and Rogers Park resident who volunteers with activist group Northside Action for Justice. "There's very little affordable housing on the North Side." After Jennings and other residents spent 30 minutes canvassing Purcell's

neighborhood, passing out fliers, they convened on the developer's doorstep. Jamie Purcell's brother, Robert Purcell, and two Park Ridge police officers, who had expected a larger crowd, were waiting for them. Robert Purcell told some of the protesters that BJB Properties was doing all it could for residents of the Astor House and other buildings the company recently bought, such as the Abbott Hotel and Chateau Hotel in Lakeview. Tenants insist they've received no help finding new place to live. "They're just kicking people out," said Mark Caplan, a long-time activist and proponent of affordable housing in Chicago. He said some residents had been looking for months and haven't been able to find affordable housing on the North Side. "This particular time in history is the worst gentrification I have seen" since the '80s, he said. "This is something we have to stop because it affects the survival of the community." Caplan said that if Purcell "doesn't meet with the tenants and negotiate in good faith," then the group will hold more protests. Jennings, holding a sign expressing the sentiment, slipped past the two Cadillac Escalades parked in Purcell's driveway to knock on the door. There was no answer. Brown, the young activist from Rogers Park, said he hopes the message was clear: "We're watching you. We're not going to let you destroy affordable housing in our community."

Astor House Residents Get Legal Help To Fight Bed Bugs, Busted Elevators

By Benjamin Woodard on June 10, 2013 6:27pm | Updated on June 10, 2013 6:27pm

ROGERS PARK The remaining 30 or so residents living in the Astor House, which was purchased by a developer known for kicking out residents to renovate derelict buildings, have a new advocate on their side. The Lawyers' Committee For Better Housing has agreed to represent the tenants during a building court hearing planned for 11 a.m. Tuesday in the Daley Center, 50 W. Washin gton St.

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Astor House

"While theyre living there, [residents] want their units to be habitable," said Victoria Ogunsanya, an attorney with the organization. Ogunsanya said the building, which was purchased by BJB Properties last year, suffered from several building code violations, including bed-bug infestations, busted elevators and faulty plumbing. She said those things ought to be fixed for the current residents, regardless of the building owner's plans for the building. Melvin Jennings and other Astor House residents say BJB and principal partner Jamie Purcell should have helped them find new housing before dolling out "bogus" eviction notices earlier this year. "A lot of tenants are being threatened or pressured that they need to leave," said Jennings, who hasn't paid rent since he disputed his notice in court. In April, Jennings, other residents and affordable housing activists boarded a bus to protest outside the BJB's Park Ridge offices and on Purcell's front lawn. Neither Purcell nor a representative of the company could be reached for comment Monday. Ogunsanya said one of the possible outcomes of Tuesday's building court hearing would be for the judge to place the building into the care of a receiver who would make necessary repairs. "I see it as an emergency and something that should be dealt with" on Tuesday, she

said.

Astor House Residents, Fighting Eviction and Bed Bugs, Confront Ald. Moore
By Benjamin Woodard on July 2, 2013 8:41am | Updated on July 2, 2013 8:41am

ROGERS PARK Tenants of the Astor House, fighting evictions and bed bugs, sought their alderman's help Monday by protesting outside his office. Moore made an appearance and agreed to meet with five of the residents after they spoke to TV news cameramen and marched up and down Greenview Avenue with megaphones with about 50 other

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Astor House Residents Protest Ald. Joe Moore

volunteer organizers and community residents. The tenants said they've been tangled in eviction hearings since last year, when developers involved with BJB Properties, who also purchased the Chateau Hotel in Lakeview, bought the Astor House at 1246 W. Pratt Ave. The developers said they intended to rehab and rent the units at market rate. The tenants said they are particularly angry at BJB partner Jamie Purcell. "Mr. Moore," said Astor House tenant Melvin Jennings, "we want to talk to BJB properties. We want to look [Purcell] in the eye." But Moore said the tenants had "poisoned the well" when they protested outsidePurcell's Park Ridge home earlier this year, and a meeting with him and other investors would only be a shouting match. "Such an action may make for good theater, but I fail to see how it does anything to advance the ball down the field," he said.

Moore asked the tenants to write down their individual grievances providing proof in some cases and submit them to his office. He said if there are substantiated concerns, he'd take them up with Purcell and BJB. "It's delay tactics," said one of the organizers after the hourlong meeting. "Were going to keep on fighting," said tenant Arbie Bowman. "It's a shame what we have to do to keep affordable housing." Bowman, 45, said she's suffered through rodent and bed bug infestations since moving to the Astor House nearly three years ago. The infestation was so bad at one time that her daughter was forced to sleep on top of a coffee table to avoid being bitten throughout the night, she said. Bowman and the other tenants want BJB to help pay for them to relocate to other housing. But for residents used to paying $550 a month, comparable rent is hard to come by on the North Side. Robert Rohdenburg, 53, said he lived at the Chateau before his was evicted and is now staying with a friend in Rogers Park while he hunts for an apartment. "I would like to move back [to the Uptown area]," he said. "But it's going to be hard to find affordable housing for me." Yet Moore said he's heard that some residents haven't paid rent for months and are making unreasonable demands. "I'm more than willing to advocate on behalf of any tenant who has a legitimate complaint," he said. "However, I refuse to be used as a tool to justify some tenant organizer's salary."

Rogers Park building could be last truly affordable housing option on Chicagos North Side
By YanaKunichoff, July 22, 2013 at 2:53 pm
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Arbie Bowman, who lives in Astor House, looks into a newly renovated apartment inside the 13-story Rogers Park apartment building. Photo by Lucio Villa. In a crumbling Rogers Park high rise, a group of tenants is fighting the buildings new owner to keep in place what may be one of the last few affordable rental housing units in Rogers Park. This is the first story in a series on rental housing in Chicago for the very low income.

Happy is a smidge of a kitten small, lanky and perfectly content to lounge among the boxes and suitcases that pile up the walls of Arbie Bowmans one-bedroom apartment in Astor House, a 13-story building in Rogers Park. But the reasons that Bowman has Happy arent quite as sweet.

I got her for the mice, says Bowman, who sometimes lends the kitten to her neighbors to deal with their own rodent problems. Bowman and her 8-year-old daughter have been living out of boxes since October 2012, when Bowman was first given a five-day notice to vacate her apartment. Astor House had just been purchased by BJB Properties, a North Side developer known for turning single room occupancy hotels into upscale high-rises. When BJB Properties bought Astor House, the developer also inherited the buildings legal battles. The building has been in and out of court since 2002, most recently with multiple code violations. After she first received the eviction notice, Bowman scrambled unsuccessfully to find an equally affordable home near her daughters Rogers Park school. But she couldnt. Bowman works as a home health aide, taking care of the sick and elderly, as a housekeeper and occasionally as a mover.

But none of these are steady employment. In a good month, her monthly income is over $1,000. In a bad month, she scrapes by with $300 and careful use of the Link card she receives.

Even with its rodent problem, crumbling plaster and bedbugs, Bowmans $550-a-month studio apartment was still an affordable home, unlike much of the housing she came across in the area.

She wasnt the only one having difficulty finding an affordable place to move, so Bowman and some of the 150 tenants in the building decided in November to protest their evictions. Nine months later, 15 are still in their Astor House homes. But BJB Properties also has been going ahead with its planned rehab of the building.

An ill-fitting door frame at Astor House, where construction work is in full swing . Photo by Lucio Villa. Fighting their case

Construction is in full swing around the Astor House.

On a Wednesday afternoon in June, nearly every one of the eight floors had one apartment whose worn gray carpet was being replaced with wood floors. The apartments that were already being worked on were easy to spot --a new but ill-fitting doorframe hung in place of the old.

The construction work has made her living conditions worse, Bowman says. The noise has pushed mice and roaches toward their quiet apartments, and since May the tenants have had trouble getting hot water. Sometimes, it takes more than 45 minutes for the water to heat, Bowman says.

The reason Im fighting to stay is because its affordable housing, she says. Everything for my daughter is around here. Her doctors appointment, her after school program, her camp.

The tenants, along with the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing, a Chicago-based group that advocates for affordable housing, have been following the building through its court hearings. They are calling on the city to take over as property manager because, they argue, construction activities by BJB Properties are creating bad living conditions for the tenants who are still fighting their

evictions.

In the longer term, The Lawyers Committee for Better Housing is fighting for BJB Properties to give the remaining tenants a stipend to help with relocating--or better yet, promise housing that they can afford in the building when the construction is completed. But the tenants push to stay in the Astor House is also one part in a larger battle for the last few rental units in Rogers Park that are affordable for the very low income. In the short term, they say that the construction is being done without a permit, and getting it shut down is the immediate goal of the activism around Astor House.

Arbie Bowman walks through the hallways of her building. Photo by Lucio Villa. Affordable rental housing an endangered lot Rental housing makes up a critical portion of the housing stock, especially for families without the capital to purchase a home. For the past 20 years, at least one in three households have been renters, according to the National Housing Conference, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group focused on affordable housing. A foreclosure crisis that hit low-income families and the landlords that rent to them disproportionately hard has made it challenging to find affordable rental housing in Chicago. Affordable housing is defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as taking no more than 30 percent of an individuals income, as calculated by HUD standards. Lakeside Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit housing and community development organization on the far North Side, considers the median income of an area when setting the rent for an affordable housing unit, Michael Polsky, vice president, says. Rents are based on what an individual earning just under the average median income of the area can afford by HUD standards. In the Rogers Park area, Polsky says, that would be $650-750 a month for a one-bedroom apartment.

Even $650 a month would be out of the reach of Bowman and her daughter, but its closer to what they can afford than most other apartment rents in the area.

Polsky says he has seen rents in Rogers Park skyrocket over the last 18 months. In most markets, rent could go up from 3 to 10 percent on a yearly basis, he says. What I found [in Rogers Park] is the competition to find good apartments has led to a 25 percent increase in rent on average in the area.

BJB Properties says it intends to rent Astor House apartments at market rate,according to DNAinfo Chicago.

Bowman stands next to another ill-fitting door frame. Photo by Lucio Villa. Developers cashing in on a trend Its no surprise to Mark Swartz, legal director with the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing, that rents in Rogers Park are going up, or that developers like BJB Properties are interested in cashing in on the trend. Swartz sees the story of the Astor House as part of the same trend affecting single room occupancy (SRO) hotels around Chicago, several of which have been bought by developers and turned into rental apartment buildings. In the process, the developers displaced some of the most economically vulnerable people. BJB Properties, the developer that bought the Astor House, also recently bought the Chateau Hotel, an SRO in Lakeview that residents unsuccessfully fought to save. The Chateau Hotel was the fifth SRO in Lakeview alone that BJB Properties had purchased, according to Lakeview Patch. BJB Properties did not respond to repeated requests for comment over a period of several weeks. Some residents of the Chateau were given cash settlements to move, which Astor House tenants also are demanding.

A hallway at Astor House. Photo by Lucio Villa. Affordable set-asides

Ald. Joe Moore of the 49th Ward, which includes Rogers Park, says he is aware of the tenants concerns about Astor House and the affordability of Rogers Park in general. Moore was the target of a July 1 protest by Astor House tenants and Communities United Against Foreclosure and Eviction, a local housing rights group. Moore says he has reached out to the tenants and offered assistance to those who were able to produce documents supporting their concerns. Regarding affordable housing in the area, Moore says: I have a long-standing policy of requiring affordable housing set-asides for any new development that needs a zoning change or some other relief from the City, and will continue to do so.

Even if BJB Properties agrees to set aside some apartments at affordable housing rates, Bowman is unlikely to be able to afford the going rate in the area.

A city inspector visited the building to see the tenants housing conditions on July 8 and they are still awaiting the results of the visit.

Bowman says she will continue to fight to stay at the Astor House, despite the cold showers and multiple code violations, primarily because she has nowhere else to go.

She sighs as she sees the apartments around her being rehabbed.

It makes me mad and angry because they were fixing up the new place and renting it to Loyola students, when they should have been fixing up this building when people lived there before, she says. Shouldnt nobody have to go through what we did.

Astor House court date brings another delay for residents eagerly awaiting resolution
By YanaKunichoff, July 25, 2013 at 10:26 am
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Photo by Bryan Bruchman/flickr. Even with the usually eclectic mix of people you see in court that brings together everyone along the food chain from landlords to tenants and their coterie of legal representatives, the Astor House residents and their supporters were a motley crew in housing court in downtown Chicago on Tuesday. There was Arbie Bowman, whom we featured in a recent story, a short woman, quick to smile, with her dark blond hair in a stubby ponytail. Another member of the group of tenants and supporters was Marc Kaplan, a tall, bald man with a goatee from Northside Action for Justice who towered above most of the people in the courtroom. Melvin Jennings, a heavyset man holding a baseball cap he nervously turned in his hands, had been one of the last tenants to move into Astor House before it was bought by BJB Properties, a management company known for turning single room occupancy hotels into high-end developments. The group, which included a handful of Astor House tenants, several supporters from Northside Action for Justice and Victoria Ogunsanya, a staff attorney with the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing, waited for more than an hour in court at 50 W. Washington St. to hear the results of the building inspectors visit to the Astor House on July 8. But it wasnt to be. The judge presiding over the case was on vacation, and the group received another court date, Aug. 6. At issue is the state of the Astor House, a 13-story high rise in Rogers Park. The troubled building was bought by BJB Properties in October 2012. At that point it was already in housing court for a litany of structural and upkeep problems. Shortly after purchasing the building, BJB Properties began to rehab Astor House. Tenants argue that the construction makes an already uncomfortable living situation worse.

The tenants are hoping the judge will order the city to take over as property manager. To increase the chance of this happening, the Astor House residents and their supporters will be pushing for a meeting with a city attorney before their next court date.

At least until their next court date, the Astor House residents will have to continue sharing the building with what they say are ever-present bed bugs and early morning construction.

Conditions are still poor, Bowman said. We have no running hot water in the kitchen. I have to boil the water. My daughter dont even want to stay there. She is like mom, Can we go somewhere else to live? And wherever you go, [potential landlords] see where you come from, they dont want to rent with you. They know that you are coming from a place thats got bedbugs, and mice and roaches.

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