CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Chicago police have taken to warning residents of one North Side neighborhood about a house on the block that is making it less safe for everyone else.
The home, until just the other day, was being used as an AirBnB rental. It’s in the Noble Square area around Greenview and Blackhawk.
Late last week, Chicago police were handing out flyers to neighbors warning that a home on their block was driving up crime in the community.
CBS 2 talked to a neighbor who already knew there trouble had been brewing there.
“It’s scary, you know?” said one neighbor who did not want to share her identity.
"It’s loud music. There’s cars double-parked. There’s groups walking back and forth, yelling and talking very loud."
Police said that early Sunday, a woman told officers she was leaving a party at the rental house when she heard gunshots and then realized she’d been shot in a leg.
“I could’ve been any of us,” the neighbor told CBS 2. “It could’ve been a stray bullet through a window. It’s very scary and unsafe."
Ald. Brian Hopkins said AirBnB rentals have no business being in quiet residential neighborhoods.
“There’s all sorts of illicit activities that happen in these AirBnBs, and it’s just not a good fit for a quiet residential neighborhood where people are just trying to go about their lives,” Hopkins said.
Ald. Hopkins told CBS 2 he has asked the city to investigate the property.
“Enough is enough,” he said. "They’ve been through all their chances and they’re out of chances now. Now the goal is simply shut them down, put them out of business.”
AirBnB has deactivated the listing for this particular house near Greenview and Blackhawk, for now, as it investigates.
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