Members of Evanston’s Equity and Empowerment Commission voted Thursday night to write a letter to City Council complaining about the city’s treatment of tenants in three decaying apartment buildings on Wesley Avenue.
The commission heard from one of the affected tenants, William Carter, and two community activists supporting the tenants’ concerns.
No one from city staff involved with the decision to seek evacuation of the buildings because of exterior staircases deemed to be at risk of collapse were at the EEC meeting.
They had addressed the issue at a Housing and Community Development Committee meeting Tuesday night and met with the tenants at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Center Wednesday evening.
The committee voted to write the letter shortly after 8 p.m. It had been meeting for almost two hours without a quorum, before a fifth member arrived at the Civic Center meeting room and the vote was taken.
“It’s very callous,” Committee Chair Darlene Cannon said. The city “is breaking up their community. No one is really doing anything for these people. It’s disingenuous to say we have equity here. It’s shameful.”
The buildings are owned by the non-profit Evanston Housing Coalition which has been unable to maintain them in recent years and brought in another non-profit, the Housing Opportunity Development Corporation, to manage the properties about 18 months ago.
HODC called in structural engineers who identified the serious issues with the staircases, requiring their complete removal and replacement.
The fundamental issue is that neither of the non-profits have the funds to do the work — said to cost several million dollars, and that even if they did, the work would require at least temporarily moving the tenants out of the buildings.
It a letter last week to city officials a group of the tenants argued that the city hasn’t offered them enough help or subsidies in finding new apartments and demanded a year of free rent and two additional years of subsidized rents in new apartments in safe Evanston neighborhoods.
Carter said the tenants “didn’t get a single answer” from city officials at the Wednesday night meeting.
He said some of the tenants can only afford $600 a month for rent, and that after any temporary subsidies the city might offer run out “we’re in worse condition than we are now.”
I hate to be callous but what obligations does the city owe to these renters? If you cannot come up with $600 per month in rent, you may need to move. In addition, this property is going to become extremely valuable once the 5th Ward school is constructed. Why is the city wringing its hands over the perceived inequity that is ultimately going to be trampled by simple economics?
I have to agree with Allen here. I just don’t see the equity issue involved. I can’t afford to live in Kenilworth. Is that an equity issue? As stretched as the example might be it really is comparable to what the Wesley tenants seem to be saying. The only real difference is the rents the Wesley tenants have paid in the past haven’t been enough to cover the costs of keeping the buildings safe and functional. Is having the city through taxes subsidize rents for those who can’t afford them “Equity”.
The City of Evanston has been eager to encourage and subsidize below market housing developments in the past couple of years. While these are private sector owned and operated, the fact that the City is so active in decicing which developmetns to approve and subsidize results in some people to think the City also has an obligation to take care of the residents.
Sooner or later some of the development which have recently been approved will need funds for major maintenance work, and the operators might not have it. I expect we will see this situation play out again sooner or later.
I hope members of City council consider what they are signing up for.