O'Shea, CHA Probing Subsidized Units in Mt. Greenwood Building

The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is looking into the rental practices of a Mount Greenwood apartment building after claims that monthly rent was doubled after current tenants were evicted in favor of subsidized housing program participants. 

The move comes after residents and 19th Ward Ald. Matt O'Shea raised strong objections to the owners of the building at 3225 W. 111th Street and their move to evict current tenants, renovate the units and bring in CHA program participants at much higher rental rents. 

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The story starts at the end of last year when new owners Chestnut Investments, LLC purchased the 16-unit building for $1.15 million. In March of this year, the 19th Ward office began to receive calls from some of the building's current tenants claiming that they were being evicted to make room for CHA subsidized housing program participants, O'Shea said.

On March 15, Noah Gottlieb, one of the owners, had a meeting at the ward office where he told O'Shea that the rumors were not true and they were simply undertaking cosmetic updates like new counters, painting and some minor electrical work. During the meeting O'Shea says he told the new owner to make sure he had the proper permitting in place and encouraged him to use union workers. 

Fast forward to present day and O'Shea says he has uncovered documentation that talks about the building's CHA plans began as early as August 2012. He believes Gottleib was flat out lying during their initial meeting.

"His words, and I am quoting, 'absolutely not'," O'Shea said. 

Gottlieb did not return calls for comment on this story. 

O'Shea says he reassured several dozen residents that the building had no plans to evict its current tenants and move in CHA participants. After finding out that he was mislead, he reached out to the CHA demanding answers. 

He discovered that the buildings owners had already begun the process of advertising CHA openings in the building and moving in residents. To date, five units are currently filled with CHA subsidized housing participants. 

After some initial resistance finding the course of action he needed, O'Shea reached out to Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He wrote a letter and met briefly with Emanuel to brief him on the situation. A copy of the letter is included to the right of this story. 

"Within an hour people from the CHA were tripping over themselves to help," O'Shea said. 

The main point of concern he raised was the fact that previously units in the building were being rented at $600 a month. Once the building began housing CHA tenants the rent was raised to $1,200 a month.

"My concern is that tax payer dollars are being wasted here," O'Shea said. "What is going on in other locations? Could there be more numbers that are out of whack?"

As of today, the CHA has agreed to halt any more program participants from moving into the building. In addition, they will be investigating the rental prices internally. The CHA has already reduced the amount of rent being paid to the landlords of the building from $1,200 to about $780 per month. 

O'Shea says that his office has collected comparable prices of other apartments within the 60655 zip code and was hard pressed to come up with any one- bedroom units approaching the $1,200 price tag. In fact, the average price for the area was $750 for a one-bedroom.

O'Shea says he will continue to work on the issue and push for additional scrutiny of the building.

"I want this building to be an option for our neighborhood and for senior citizens," he said.

In an email blast to constituents, O'Shea wrote that after the investigation into this building, he will push the city to look into all other Chestnut properties involved in the CHA housing program.