Troubled Buildings Initiative

Background
The Troubled Building Initiative was established to compel landlords to maintain safe and drug-free environments for City residents. Primary areas of concern include:

• Neighborhood gang and drug activity
• Disconnection of utilities that place residents at risk
• Lack of maintenance or repairs that creates dangerous conditions for residents

Program
Coordinates the response of City Agencies to address existing conditions that pose a threat to the community and help prevent properties from going into a state of disrepair that leads to non-viability and property abandonment. The City is focusing its efforts to target problem properties and ownership through assessment of fines and economic disincentives. Lenders and mortgage holders are also brought into the process to help address the City's concerns about vacant and abandoned buildings.

City Agency Participants

• Department of Community Development
• Police Department/CAPS
• Department of Buildings
• Department of Law
• Department of Administrative Hearings
• Department of Planning and Development
• Department of Human Services
• Department of Water Management

Supporting Organizations

• Community Investment Corporation
• Neighborhood Housing Services
• Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County
• Lawyer’s Committee for Better Housing
• Metropolitan Tenant Organization
• Globetrotters Engineering Corporation
• Local utilities

Goals

• Improve the comfort and safety of residents living in rental properties
• Enforce City Building Code requirements
• Separate bad landlords from their properties if they refuse to conform to requirements
• Discourage bad landlords from scamming system through hidden ownership
• Speed court process to alleviate the burden of discomfort and inconvenience created by process delays