The owner of an Englewood home where nine children, including a 3-month-old, were found living in squalor Sunday appeared for an emergency court hearing Thursday that continued the city of Chicago’s ongoing threat to demolish the unsafe building.
During the hearing, the Rev. David Coleman — ex-husband of former 16th Ward Ald. Shirley Coleman — who owns the building on the 900 block of West 59th Street with his daughter Stephanie, standing Democratic committeeman of the 16th Ward, agreed to vacate and secure the first floor of the building and serve an eviction notice to the second floor tenant Tuesday.
Stephanie Coleman was not present for the afternoon hearing, which took place at the Richard J. Daley Center.
“The owner should have and could have at any time since last fall gone to eviction court and received an eviction order from the sheriff,” said the city’s attorney, Steven McKenzie. “They just failed to do so, and they still have yet to do so.”
The city filed a demolition lawsuit against the Colemans in August 2013 after complaints and failed inspections. A demolition order was issued in March 2015, deeming the building “dangerous, unsafe and beyond reasonable repair,” according to court documents. It was dropped less than a year later after the Colemans provided proof of permits to repair the home.
However, the building has been under a court order since January 2016 not to allow anyone to live there until it was up to code. After children were found
More Top Picks Best E Ink Tablets For Reading
living in filth in the building last weekend, the city issued a statement that it would again seek to demolish the building.At the beginning of the hearing, Judge Patrice Ball-Reed passed the case to allow David Coleman, 82, to talk in the hall with McKenzie. Sitting in a wheelchair, Coleman told McKenzie he knew people had been living in the building since last fall but admitted he did not follow the necessary steps to evict them.
Inspectors also found people living in the building last March and filed a petition citing the Colemans for civil contempt. It was withdrawn the following month after inspectors returned to find the property vacant, according to Department of Buildings spokeswoman Mimi Simon.
In the hearing, Coleman was given orders to vacate and board up the first floor, where the two families with nine kids were living without heat or hot water before being taken to safety Tuesday. He also must serve an eviction notice second-floor tenants, who have heat and started a gas account in January.
While Coleman alleged the people living there were squatting, McKenzie said police couldn’t charge the tenants with trespassing because they thought the tenants were living there with permission.
Despite Stephanie Coleman’s absence from the hearing, McKenzie said she lives nearby the home and held both her and David Coleman responsible.
“I think (the owners) should have gone to the legal system right away,” McKenzie said.
McKenzie did not say if or when the building will be taken down. A follow-up hearing will be held March 16.