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

Last updated: May 10, 2019 – 1:35 PM

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.

All 5 Comments

  1. RESIDENTS ONLY BIBLE STUDY CAFE APPLAUDS METROPOLITAN TENANTS ORGANIZATION’S (MTO’S) RECENT PROTEST DEMONSTRATION & UPCOMING MAY 31ST CONCESSION MEETING @ HUD CHICAGO OFFICE WITH REGIONAL ADMINISTRATOR, JOSEPH GALVAN

  2. We endure the same problems here at Concordia Place Apts were lately we are noticing walls that are not completely finished to floor levels, and for first floor tenants they are consistantly seeing more mice, spiders, roaches etc. Constant toilet backups along with tubs and kitchen sink back ups. Our water is horrendous and stand to demand the replacement of pipes in all our buildings. We stand on a location where our complex is built over stewards. Cracking walls sometimes patched up and never completed. Lately wild life on the complex, and found to be very sick animals but management states that we the tenants must pay 200.00 to have them removed. Our most recent is the overly large charges of light bills that suggest that management has connected possible outside lighting and camera equipment onto the residents bills.

  4. GREAT !
    BUT WHAT ABOUT HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER HOLDERS WHO LOSE THEIR VOUCHER DUE TO THIER LANDLORD NOT KEEPING UP THEIR PROPERTY TO HAP STANDARDS !?
    WHILE THE NEGLIGENT LANDLORD STAYS IN THE PROGRAM THE TAX PAYER IS MADE HOMELESS !
    HUD REFUSES TO INTERVENE!
    THE VOUCHER HOLDER BY LAW IS NOT GIVEN A HOUSING. LOCATOR ,RENTAL ASSISTANCE OR AN EVICTION ATTORNEY.
    INSTEAD THE TAXPAYER IS PERMANENTLY MADE HOMELESS.
    WHICH IS GENOCIDE AND ETHNIC AND CLASS CLEANSING OF THE CITIES !

    https://www.aclu.org/blog/womens-rights/violence-against-women/unfair-eviction-screening-policies-are-disproportionately

    https://beta.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/06/16/evictions-hurt-black-women-as-much-as-incarceration-hurts-black-men/?outputType=amp

    https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/tenant-screening-thirty-years-later-a-statutory-proposal-to-protect-public-records

    https://www.theroot.com/study-eviction-rates-for-black-women-on-par-with-incar-1790876083/amp

    https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_56e996e3e4b065e2e3d82403

    https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-violence-of-eviction-housing-market-foreclosure-gentrification-finance-capital

    https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/09/evicted-landlords-tenants-rent-housing-milwaukee-racism

    https://housingstruggles.wordpress.com/2010/02/06/usa-eviction-is-for-black-women-what-incarceration-is-to-black-men/amp/

    https://www.motherjones.com/media/2016/03/matthew-desmond-evictions-poverty/

    https://www.amazon.com/Evicted-Poverty-Profit-American-City/dp/0553447459

    http://www.evictedbook.com/

    https://evictionlab.org/about/

    http://lcbh.org/news/need-help-housing-issue-theres-app

    http://lcbh.org/news/eviction-filings-are-barrier-to-finding-future-housing

    http://lcbh.org/reports/prejudged

    https://lcbh.org/reports/no-time-justice

    http://www.housethehomeless.org/all-the-empty-houses/

    https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/02/we-accepted-homelessness-while-the-rich-left-houses-empty-no-more
    https://www1.nyc.gov/site/hra/help/legal-services-for-tenants.page

    WE WANT FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS LAW NOT PHASES !

    https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/08/nyc-ensures-eviction-lawyer-for-every-tenant/536508/

    https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2017/10/27/how-free-legal-help-can-prevent-evictions?amp=1

    https://shelterforce.org/2018/05/02/take-back-the-land/

    https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/031616/10-us-cities-most-vacant-homes.asp

    https://calmatters.org/articles/will-vacant-properties-tax-help-homelessness/

    https://voiceofoc.org/2017/09/santa-ana-wants-county-to-shelter-homeless-people-on-vacant-irvine-land-considers-suing/

    https://www.marysplaceseattle.org/newsroom-2/2018/10/14/a-solution-for-vacant-buildings-awaiting-redevelopment-house-the-homeless

    https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2018/04/retake-the-house/

    https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_6881206

    http://chicagoantieviction.org/?m=1

    https://youtu.be/1lfwtchoD54

    https://www.amazon.com/Slaughter-Cities-Renewal-Ethnic-Cleansing/dp/1587317753

    https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5aa6c75ee4b03c9edfae87f1/amp
    https://www.amazon.com/Living-Apart-Government-Betrayed-Landmark/dp/B00DO27MU2

    https://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article225524900.html

    https://vawnet.org/material/no-safe-place-sexual-assault-lives-homeless-women

    https://www.thelily.com/homeless-women-who-experience-high-rates-of-violence-need-a-metoo-moment/

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/10/26/feature/sexual-assault-survivors-include-homeless-women-heres-what-happened-to-me/?utm_term=.9e8919cd2631

    https://youtu.be/YYGF87vzkd0

    https://youtu.be/JRtmls5DPbM

    https://www.chicagohousinginitiative.org/news/tag/Rent-Control

    THERE IS AN ARTICLE BY ETHAN MITCHAELI WHO. INTERVIEWED MICHAEL PENSACK IF ILL. TENANTS UNION .
    THE ARTICLE IS ENTILED 80% OF EVICTIONS ARE ILLEGAL.

    https://shelterforce.org/2016/04/30/post/

    GOOGLE THE PDF HOW EVICTIONS FROM SUBSIDIZED HOUSING ROUTINELY VIOLATE THE….

    GOOGLE-
    DISCRIMINATION IN EVICTIONS SCHOLARS AT HARVARD PDF

    https://scholar.harvard.edu/mdesmond/publications

    https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150429/wakefield/homeless-man-stalked-shelter-director-for-days-before-murder-sources-say

    https://pix11.com/2015/04/29/bronx-homeless-shelter-director-abducted-killed-by-ex-resident-cops/

    https://news.sky.com/story/amp/bronx-shelter-director-shot-dead-escaping-rape-10361573

    https://www.sj-r.com/article/20080423/NEWS/304239944?template=ampart

    https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/homeless-woman-says-rape-was-price-of-a-nights-shelter/

    https://citylimits.org/2012/03/05/homelessness-its-about-race-not-just-poverty/

    https://www.houstonchronicle.com/serialindifference/

    GOOGLE – SHELTER SHOCK- NATIONAL COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS
    https://dbknews.com/2017/10/24/hate-crimes-homeless-poverty-richard-collins-fbi/

    https://www.homelesshub.ca/resource/hate-crimes-against-homeless-brutality-violence-unveiled

  5. I am so proud of Mrs Johnson..ww need more people like her who understand that we are not animal we are human people who want to live in living conditions peacefully APARTMENTS

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