Pilsen Landlords Threaten To Evict Immunocompromised Tenant

CHICAGO, IL — A Pilsen resident told Patch on Friday that her landlords threatened to evict her in five days' time over unpaid April rent, despite the current state-wide moratorium on evictions.The tenant, who asked only to go by Lauren, lives on West 22nd Place and said she and her partner's income has been significantly diminished by the coronavirus closures. She also said she has a weakened immune system from a previous condition, and fears being out of her home amid the ongoing pandemic.

"They told us that they didn't want us here anymore after they realized we couldn't really offer much more than we were really offering," Lauren said.

Lauren said she and her partner had planned to move in March when their lease expired, after the landlords had said they planned to raise their rent from $1,200 to $1,278 per month. With the onset of the coronavirus shut-down, she said she and her landlords — two brothers named Eduardo and Salvador Farias — agreed that it wouldn't be feasible for them to move right away. The brothers extended the couple's lease through the end of April, Lauren said. And that's when the conflict really began.

"I have my income still, but my partner is only working... once a week," Lauren said. "They work for a courier service... so we're not really eligible for unemployment, so we only have my income at the moment."

That single income — which Lauren said she earned by working on a communications team for a retail firm — proved not enough to pay the whole of April's rent. She said she offered her security deposit to the brothers in lieu of the whole rent check, but that they ignored that offer. According to a notice the landlords gave Lauren, she and her partner now have until April 28 to either pay the full month's rent or vacate the unit.

"We do want to move but at the same time, as I explained, I'm really not trying to be out," Lauren said. "I haven't really even being going to the grocery store or anything like that because I do have a [weakened] immune system; we do want to move... as soon as the situation allows, but for now we're kind of stuck."

Patch contacted both brothers for their side of the story, but both declined to offer comment.

The conflict between the Farias brothers and Lauren and her partner is only one of thousands of such incidents happening around the country, as renters find themselves out of work and unable to pay their landlords. Activists in Chicago have begun demanding rent freezes and moratoriums on eviction filings, but most government bodies - including Illinois' - have largely ignored such proposals. Part of the problem is the state's 23-year-old ban on rent control legislation, which prevents municipalities from altering rent prices in any capacity. A recent legal memo from Chicago law firm Despres, Schwartz and Geoghegan, Ltd. argued that Gov. J.B. Pritzker could use his emergency powers to repeal that ban, but so far he has made no indication that he will do so.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot's administration did recently announce a grant program offering $1,000 to 2,000 residents who have been adversely affected by the coronavirus crisis, but critics have dismissed that plan as woefully inadequate. Some tenants' rights groups in Chicago have instead been advocating for a rent strike since the beginning of April.

One supporter of a rent freeze is Pilsen's own representative on the city council, 25th Ward Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez.

Lauren and other renters in her situation have one advantage in their corner. Despite Gov. Pritzker not yet using his emergency powers to lift the ban on rent control, he did issue a moratorium on all evictions and foreclosure enforcement through May. The Farias brothers may have warned that Lauren and her partner would be evicted by next Tuesday if they didn't pay April's rent, but it's unlikely that eviction could be enforced.

"We don't execute an eviction unless the court orders us to," a representative from the Cook County Sheriff's Office said. "And right now the courts aren't doing that."

The brothers can still file eviction paperwork, though, and without a rent freeze it's possible that Lauren and others in her situation could owe several months of back rent or face immediate eviction after the coronavirus closures end. How the conflict between her and her landlords ends now depends on the actions of city, state and federal officials.

She said it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

"Yesterday [the landlords] came to the door and slid this [eviction] notice under the door," she said, "because we wouldn't open the door for them."