LAVERNE CRAIG (left) and Nancy Jones talk about their experiences with slumlord CKO Real Estate during a press conference at one of the closed company apartment buildings at 6755 S. Paxton in South Shore.
On Monday, March 3, Alderman Desmond Yancy (5th) held a private meeting with four tenants of CKO Real Estate, the slumlord that forced unlivable conditions onto numerous residents in the past year.
The situation had come to a head. One building caught fire as huge financial losses and mounting lawsuits forced investors in February to permanently close CKO Real Estate, led by its embattled CEO, Chikoo Patel.
The meeting at Yancy’s office would be the first opportunity for many tenants to voice their frustrations after living without heat, water and sewage problems in their apartments.
Many tenants who lived in CKO Real Estate’s buildings in Yancy’s ward were unable to attend the meeting. His office gave just a few days advance notice of the meeting, which was held at noon on Casimir Pulaski Day. Despite the day being a state holiday, many tenants still had to go to work. Still, the meeting was held anyway.
Despite repeated requests from the Crusader, Yancy did not disclose the details of the meeting. But in recent days, tenants who attended the meetings told the Crusader that Yancy promised to host two community town hall meetings, one for CKO Real Estate tenants and another one for residents in his ward. Nearly three weeks after that gathering, Yancy has yet to release details about those meetings. There has been no press releases or information available about the meetings on his 5th Ward website.
Tenants also said that Yancy promised to fire some of his staff for failing to inform him of the many complaints the office received from CKO Real Estate. However, tenants also said Yancy did not give the names of staff members who would be fired or when the shakeup would occur.
Since that meeting, Yancy has not publicly released any details about the promises he has made during that private meeting with tenants.
Some tenants who attended the meeting told the CKO Real Estate that Yancy said he received one complaint about the problem directly from one tenant, Keara. However, those same tenants told the Crusader that Yancy didn’t say when or what month he received Keara’s complaint.
The Crusader has learned that Yancy received that complaint last September, about six months before the crisis boiled over. At the time, Yancy was told that CKO Real Estate was engaging in unethical business practices in managing its apartment buildings, which housed low-income residents.
The Crusader has also learned that Keara spoke about it in casual conversations with other tenants.
A recent Facebook post by an anonymous member said Yancy has “known since September, and he’s been publicly silent while privately sweeping this under the rug. It’s been left to the tenants and housing organizations to work by themselves. The more people speak up, the quieter investors and public officials get.”
When the Crusader received angry calls from some tenants about the post, the Crusader, through a text message, asked him whether he had known about CKO Real Estate since September from Keara.
The text also asked Yancy to elaborate on what Keara allegedly told him in September about CKO Real Estate.
That text message also included questions about the community town hall meetings and staff firings that he had promised in his private meeting with tenants.
This was Yancy’s response to the text message: “I’ll have more info on the community meeting this afternoon. As for my resident contact, I’d like to speak with her before I identify her to make sure they are in with being publicly named.”
Yancy never got back to the Crusader on the details of the community meeting. Nearly three weeks ago, the Crusader asked for details of his meeting with tenants. In that text message, Yancy promised to provide details on his private meeting with tenants but failed to do so.
Before it was permanently closed, CKO Real Estate operated 26 of its 34 buildings in South Shore. Twelve are in Yancy’s ward, and 14 are in Alderman Greg Mitchell’s ward.
On March 13, about six tenants participated in a tenant meeting on Zoom. The following week, the group grew to 18.
Tired of waiting on Yancy, tenants are discussing plans to hold their own community town hall meeting. They also want a face-to-face meeting with investors who own the buildings that CKO Real Estate once managed. Those investors now employ two individuals who worked for CKO Real Estate.
The PIP Realty Group and Halsted Taylor Real Estate now manages CKO Real Estate’s properties. However, deep distrust among tenants remains a concern with evasive investors who operate in secret.
On Monday, March 17, current and former tenants Nancy Jones, Laverne Craig, and Claire told their stories during a press conference outside a condemned CKO Real Estate building at 6755 S. Paxton.
At the March 13 Zoom meeting, one former tenant, Essence, a single mother, shared an emotional story of how she and her 4-year-old son were forced to move 20 miles south to Blue Island, Illinois, after the city condemned her apartment at 6733 S. Paxton. With time running out to move, Essence said she was unable to find an affordable apartment in South Shore as workers began boarding up her building.
Essence said she had little money and was promised help by property manager Jerome Faulkner, who didn’t return her calls. She said her hopes of returning to school while taking care of her son were put on hold because of problems caused by CKO Real Estate.
“This whole situation has made my life difficult,” Essence said.