Residents of one South Shore building are demanding accountability after they were left without heat or water for months at a time — only to find out last week the company that managed the building had abandoned them.
Tenants voiced their complaints at a news conference Saturday morning, saying the water and plumbing at 6733 S. Paxton Ave. went out Jan. 22, soon followed by the heat. One tenant said the property manager for CKO Real Estate, the company that owns the building, told them the basement had turned into an “ice rink.”
Tenants received an email from CKO on Thursday saying their access to their property management portal would be shut off and they would receive information about a new property management company.
“Please note that a new property management company will be assuming management responsibilities in place of CKO real estate,” read an email CKO sent to tenants that the Sun-Times obtained. “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.”
A tenant J.W. — who would not give her full name out of fear of retribution from the owners and management company — said she had no water immediately after moving in last June. Her heat didn’t turn on until Thanksgiving, she added, in violation of the city ordinance that requires that heat be turned on Sept. 15.
“The unit was uninhabitable, basic necessities of heat, water and plumbing weren’t available,” J.W. told reporters outside the building. “They have not taken the issue seriously. … I was forced to uproot my life and find alternative housing of my own accord just to have a safe place to stay.”
Some tenants are now demanding the new management company pay to relocate them to new units, allow them to break their leases without penalty, exempt them from paying back rent for months they were without essentials and return rent payments from January.
CKO Real Estate didn’t respond to calls and emails asking for comment. Calls to the most recently listed building owners also went unanswered.
City records show issues at the building dating back years, through multiple owners and management companies. Problems included rats, non-functioning lights, bulging walls, mold and missing carbon monoxide detectors, all compounded by a lack of heat and, at times, running water.
In January, city inspectors recorded apartments as cold as 31 degrees, with others just a few degrees warmer, and a broken boiler, for a total of 11 municipal code violations. In February 2024, inspectors found units at 59 degrees while the heat was on, below what’s legally required by municipal code.
It’s part of a larger issue in the area.
No-heat reports reached a new high in January 2024, but residents of three South Side ZIP codes — 60649, 60619 and 60637, which cover South Shore, Woodlawn, Burnside, and parts of Chatham and Greater Grand Crossing — had submitted more no-heat reports than any other ZIP code in Chicago nearly every year since 2019, according to a 2024 WBEZ analysis. About 8% of all renter-occupied units are in those three ZIP codes, but tenants there filed nearly 20% of all heat-related complaints.
A WBEZ analysis of 311 complaint outcomes from Feb. 1, 2019, through Feb. 29, 2024, showed about 40% of investigated complaints were at residences where the heat was restored or the inspector determined there was no violation, and 30% were not investigated because the inspector couldn’t gain entry. Five percent were referred for either an administrative hearing or for circuit court. The remaining 20% were processed with a violation, listed as active, transferred to other departments or didn’t have an outcome listed at all.
The city also fined a few owners of properties where residents have reported heat ordinance violations between 2019 and 2024, and most buildings that saw dozens of complaints received no fines. From Feb. 1, 2019, through Feb. 29 of last year, building owners at fewer than 200 out of the more than 9,000 addresses where residents have logged 311 complaints were found liable and issued fines of $500 to $3,500, according to a 2024 WBEZ analysis of ordinance violations filed with the Department of Administrative Hearings.
Contributing: Amy Qin