A group of tenants from the 2014, 2018 and 2024 Wesley Ave. apartment buildings recently deemed unsafe for habitation are seeking greater financial support from the city and want to bring the issue to the full City Council.
William Carter, an unofficial spokesperson for the Wesley tenants, addressed the city’s Equity and Empowerment Commission Thursday evening about the group’s contact with the city since they were first told they had to vacate on Feb. 13. He said they’ve asked the city to help provide “certain needs – not demands, not wants, needs” for their pending moves into temporary housing, including at a meeting with city staff on Wednesday.
“The meeting last night [Wednesday] with the city did not go quite as we had hoped it would,” Carter said to the commission Thursday evening. “We did not get a single answer, yea or nay, to our questions about these bullet points [requests], and we are looking for an opportunity to get in front of the City Council, on their agenda, to address these needs.”
The three buildings are owned by the Evanston Housing Coalition (EHC) and have been managed by the Housing Opportunity Development Corporation (HODC) since September 2022. According to the city’s website, city staff met with Council Member Bobby Burns of the 5th Ward and representatives from EHC and HODC on Feb. 2 and determined “the safety of the residents could not be ensured, and they needed to be relocated.”
This danger is primarily due to the deterioration of exterior metal staircases and platforms, which are the only way to enter the walk-up apartments. The city’s wesbite states these exterior entryways are “vulnerable to accelerated deterioration in Evanston’s climate,” which experiences “extreme temperature fluctuations between seasons, leading to freeze-thaw cycles.”
Seeking three years of rent subsidies
The city has not yet condemned the buildings or ordered tenants to immediately vacate and is offering assistance in finding temporary apartments and year-long rent subsidies to bring their rents down to what they currently pay at Wesley, among other resources.
According to a new letter given to the tenants at the Wednesday meeting, the temporary, rent-subsidized apartments will be based on “Small Area Fair Market Rents,” which are federal estimates of standard rents in a given ZIP code used for programs like Housing Choice Vouchers, also known as Section 8. The new letter also says the year-long subsidies “may be extended based on tenants’ needs to maintain their housing.”
But in their own letter to the city, sent prior to the March 20 meeting, the Wesley tenants requested greater and longer-term financial commitments than what the city is currently offering. These requests include:
- Guarantees of one year of full rent subsidies for their relocation apartments, followed by two years of partial subsidies to make their rents match their current Wesley rates.
- Refunds of current security deposits and rent payments for an unspecified period of time.
- A right to return to the Wesley buildings once they are made safe for occupation at their current income-based rates.
On their request for three years of rent assistance, Carter said leasing a subsidized apartment for one year before it jumps back to market-rate rent would put tenants “in a worse position than we are now.” He said tenants currently pay around $550 to $600 a month for one-bedroom units at Wesley, which is far lower than the federal small area rates of $1,780 and $2,100 for one-bedrooms in 60202 and 60201, respectively.
“We’re looking for a guaranteed, at minimum, three years, which gives them [the city] time to find us the proper housing that we need,” Carter said, “and us the peace of mind to know that we are not going to be nomads, moving from this place to this place to this place, or worse, running out of options and being put out into the streets altogether.”
Any right to return is also uncertain, as the city, EHC and HODC have not yet decided whether the buildings will be repaired or demolished after the tenants are relocated. The city’s new letter to tenants ends by stating that “the inclusion of the current residents in any plans for the property will be prioritized.”
Commission plans letter to City Council
After some discussion with Carter and among themselves, commissioners ultimately moved to draft a letter to the City Council with their concerns about how the city handled communicating the situation with the tenants – but not before sorting out more of the details before their next meeting.
While the vote was unanimous, some commissioners said they want to see all the communications between the city and tenants to understand the full scope and timeline of what happened. Commissioner Molly Malone noted that Chair Darlene Cannon had asked City Manager Luke Stowe to attend that evening to answer questions they might have, but Stowe was unavailable to attend.
Commissioner Parielle Davis said even if they find the city handled the situation as best as it could, the tenants’ pending displacement is still “damaging our community” and they should still “be calling attention to it and providing support.”
“Even if it’s [the commission’s letter] not condemning the city for their actions, which I’m not saying is or is not the case,” Davis said, “there’s definitely an EEC issue here, and I think there’s a need in our community, and we should always be trying to support people.”
I hope the City will see the wisdom in supporting and respecting the Wesley Tenants. Preserving and repairing the staircases in these 24 affordable units is directly in line with our city’s stated priorities of maintaining and expanding affordable housing. Not only is it far more cost-effective to repair these units than to construct new ones, but by doing so, we can simultaneously increase the availability of safe, affordable housing. Opting to demolish and rebuild would subtract 24 units from our already limited affordable housing stock, a move counterproductive to our goals. Many buildings in Evanston and the Chicago area share similar architectural styles and, when properly maintained and updated, remain structurally sound. Let’s stand in solidarity with the Wesley Tenants, establish an Evanston land trust, and translate our commitment to equity and affordable housing into tangible actions. We can create a land trust and/or a cooperative community like madison community co-op which has existed over 50 years. https://www.madisoncommunity.coop/about-us
I’m glad to see continued coverage of this situation. Missing from the Wesley Avenue buildings timeline and a fair question to ask is: what was the City’s response when told by HODC they needed funds to repair the buildings as reported on in the previous RT story on Wesley: (https://evanstonroundtable.com/2024/02/21/city-tells-wesley-avenue-residents-to-vacate-amid-safety-concerns/).
Could it now cost the City nearly as much or more to assist the residents in relocation and beyond, than if the City had made funds available for the building repairs when City officials were first made aware of the buildings’ deterioration and needed funds for repair? If the knowledge existed about the building conditions, did the City ignore the request for funds, all the while making funds available for other renovations of city properties and new real estate purchases? We still don’t have that answer.
I would much rather spend money helping people like this than on an NHL-caliber double ice rink with heated seats.
The tenants of the Wesley apartments would like to thank this reporter,Alex Harrison and their staff of the Evanston Roundtable for taking an interest in our situation. We look forward to further articles concerning our situation.
Again thank you very much.