For five years the 40-unit apartment building on North Waller Avenue in Austin sat vacant but was not boarded up. Its landlord didn’t pay property taxes, and prostitutes and drug dealers used it for their headquarters.
That happy twist of fate came after two years of lobbying, politicking, and pleading by the Coalition for Housing Court Reform, a citywide network of almost 50 groups whose members are fighting the war for low-income housing. Some of the groups, such as Bethel New Life, are using the few remaining crumbs of federal low-income-housing subsidies to build new units or rehab old ones. Others are pressing the Chicago City Council to reform housing-code laws, which, they say, favor landlords over tenants.
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As a coalition they are trying to break through the logjam of housing-court cases by building better relations with the judges. Members of the coalition meet periodically with developers, landlords, city officials, and judges–all of whom are part of an advisory committee convened by Judge Donald O’Connell, presiding judge for the First Municipal District.
After the hearing Roti appointed a committee of aldermen, community groups, and landlords to reach consensus on a bill that would be brought before the council. A committee meeting was held. More testimony was delivered. A compromise ordinance–virtually the same as Orr’s original proposal–was produced. Rumor has it that the building committee, and eventually the whole council, will approve the measure–when and if Mayor Daley tells them to. At the moment, no one knows Daley’s position on the matter.
“Not all landlords are evil. We understand that,” says Jocelyn Woodards, organizer for the Lake View Tenants Organization. “Maybe someone inherited a building, or bought it when he had a job and is now out of work. That’s why we support the City Council ordinance to create an administrative panel. That would free up the housing-court docket and allow the judges there to handle only the worst offenders. There should also be a resource center in the Daley building where the smaller landlords can go for training or help getting loans.”
Coalition members acknowledge that bad tenants are also part of the problem. As a solution they advocate more thorough tenant screening. “A manager who cares about his building won’t just rent to the first guy who comes up and can make one month’s rent,” says Gunn. “The success of not-for-profit developers and guys like Joe English is their tenant screening.”
