Tenants from a troubled South Side building have filed a class-action lawsuit in Cook County, seeking monetary compensation because of the conditions they’ve been living in for the past three years, according to court records.
Three residents who live in the Ellis Lakeview Apartments, located at 4624 S. Ellis Ave., filed the lawsuit Thursday in the Circuit Court of Cook County against the building’s owner, Apex Chicago IL LLC, and the company that used to manage the property, Integra Affordable Management LLC.
The 11-story building has 105 family units, and it’s federally subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing. The federal agency is not part of the litigation.
The tenants allege that Apex failed to maintain the property, which had issues related to mold, rodents, plumbing and a leaky roof, according to the lawsuit. They also allege Apex and Integra were negligent in maintaining the building, and the tenants said the owner hasn’t paid interest on their security deposits, according to the lawsuit.
Tonnett Hammond, one of the three residents named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said the residents decided to move forward with legal action against Apex and Integra to hold them accountable.
“You just can’t get these buildings and say, forget about these people because of the title ‘low income,’” Hammond said. “I feel like this class-action lawsuit will be an example for many more to come.”
Attorneys for Apex and Integra could not immediately be reached for comment.
Hammond is among the residents who have been pushing for repairs and changes to the building for years.
In March 2021, the city filed a housing complaint against Apex Chicago stemming from building code violations. And then earlier this year, city attorneys filed an emergency petition seeking the drastic measure of having a receiver take over the property until repairs were addressed and completed, according to court records.
After a three-day hearing, the city withdrew the petition, and Apex Chicago agreed to hire a new management company, 5T Management, on June 9, according to court records. The city’s housing case against Apex remains pending.
The new management company is not named in the class-action lawsuit. It’s focused on the time period between July 29, 2019, to June 8, 2022, which is before the new management company took over the day-to-day management of the property.
Hammond said she and the other tenants want to give 5T Management a chance to fix the issues throughout the building. She said the new management team has been in close contact with residents.
During the past couple of years, Hammond said her apartment has had plumbing problems that at times forced her to find another place to take a shower.
“It’s embarrassing because sewer comes up from my tub, and that’s still an ongoing issue,” Hammond said. “And when the water comes up, it takes three days, maybe a week, sometimes more for it to go down.”
The tenants are seeking financial compensation through the class-action lawsuit while the city’s housing case is focused on enforcing building codes, said Elizabeth Mazur, one of the attorneys representing the tenants in the class-action lawsuit.
“To compensate them for things like property losses, and really the difference between the fair market value of what they had leases for, which was a habitable apartment,” Mazur said. “And the value of what they had to live with, which was a building where elevators didn’t work, where there was flooding, where they couldn’t use their own bathrooms, where they’d get sewage coming up through the bathtub.”
The first hearing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 23, according to court records.
Elvia Malagón’s reporting on social justice and income inequality is made possible by a grant from The Chicago Community Trust
