CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - A tenant of low-income homes on the South Side has been served a notice to vacate this week after leading a charge, demanding repairs to her building’s sewage system.
“It’s just terrible. This is the most terrible thing that ever happened to me. I’m not going to lie to you,” said tenant Nicole Moore.
Moore, a mother of three, began searching for answers last year when her children became ill while living in a unit that she still occupies at the Washington Park Homes on South Champlain, in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood.
“There was 3,500 pounds worth of sanitary waste in a combined sewer, and that’s the very thing that’s causing us to be sick, the stuff that’s allowed to sit stagnant,” Moore said.
Moore and other tenants told WBBM negative health impacts, even the death of a child, can be blamed on this sewage, with their doctors confirming environmental factors as cause for their illness.
Despite asking for reasonable off-site accommodations for her and other tenants, Moore, was silenced for months by the Chicago Housing Authority at meetings.
In March, a City of Chicago Department of Buildings inspector finally confirmed a need for sewage system repairs at the property by a licensed plumber.
An administrative hearing was held April 5, but the CHA failed to appear and was fined more than $2,000 in a default judgment.
Tuesday, Moore was served by the CHA with a 30-day notice to vacate and termination of her tenancy, with the document referring to a direct threat to her health and safety by staying in the unit.
The CHA had offered to move Moore to another unit within the Washington Park Homes, but it was an offer she refused.
"It affects every unit on the property," Moore said. "It affects the air quality. The things that [are] supposed to go into the sewer, it's been stagnant. It comes back into our house as an aerosol."
The CHA has also requested a new hearing with the Department of Buildings.
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