CHA sued by Humboldt Park resident over failing to maintain vacant properties

The HOPE Fair Housing Center and a Humboldt Park homeowner are suing the Chicago Housing Authority and two of its property managers for allowing some of its properties in predominantly Black and Hispanic communities to fall into disrepair.

The lawsuit, filed Feb. 13 in the Circuit Court of Cook County, accuses the housing authority, Hispanic Housing Development Corp. and Manage Chicago of “longstanding and systemic failure to adequately lease, maintain, and secure its scattered site portfolio.” It alleges these issues violate state human and civil rights laws and serve as public and private nuisances.

“These failures have produced profound and disproportionate harms for residents of predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods,” the lawsuit said.

The filing follows a two-year investigation by HOPE that found vacancy rates and duration, exterior maintenance and physical deficiencies at CHA properties were worse in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods compared to majority white communities. These conditions led units to deteriorate and contributed to neighborhood destabilization, the investigation found.

The housing authority has 2,800 scattered units, with more than 450 sitting vacant. Of those vacant units, approximately 78% are located in communities of color, the lawsuit said. The CHA is the largest single owner of rental housing in the city.

Scattered units are small- to mid-sized apartment buildings and single-family homes. In 2023, the agency announced a push to renovate its scattered sites portfolio.

The Illinois Answers Project and Block Club Chicago published an investigation in 2023 about the CHA’s chronic vacancy issues with scattered site units. The CHA’s inspector general office also reported in recent years on the agency’s inappropriate maintenance of the properties, including its failure to comply with the city’s vacant buildings ordinance by registering, securing and maintaining the properties.

“These properties should be maintained at a standard worthy of the communities they exist in — and that standard still applies when those communities are Black and Latine,” Josefina Navar, deputy director at HOPE Fair Housing Center, said in a Wednesday news release. “Every day that a unit sits abandoned or in disrepair is a major disservice to both these communities and the thousands of families lingering on the waiting lists for housing.”

The CHA’s waitlist numbers in the thousands for its housing programs, with some applicants waiting up to decades.

CHA spokesperson Matthew Aguilar said the agency hasn’t been formally served with the lawsuit and can’t comment on pending litigation.

Manage Chicago CEO Chris Amatore said in a statement that many of the incidents mentioned in the lawsuit predate his company’s involvement. The property management firm took over in July 2025.

“Since assuming responsibility, we have operated within the scope of our contractual authority with CHA regarding maintenance and security matters,” Amatore said.

He declined to comment further, citing the pending litigation.

Hispanic Housing Development declined to comment and said it hasn’t been formally served with the lawsuit.

Humboldt Park resident and plaintiff Caroline Bermudez has lived next to a CHA property at 849 N. St. Louis Ave., which has been vacant for nearly a decade, according to the suit. The single-family home was previously managed by Hispanic Housing and is now operated by Manage Chicago.

Bermudez experienced “persistent disruptive activity, found used drug paraphernalia in her yard, and endured repeated incidents that made her home environment unlivable and unsafe,” according to the lawsuit. The property’s conditions, described as a “stash house with significant narcotics activity,” led her and her partner to temporarily relocate to live with family for more than a year, due to safety concerns. While they were gone, people broke into their house and left a stolen vehicle with a loaded firearm inside her garage, according to the suit. She’s now back in her home, despite continued issues.

She brought her complaint to HOPE, which spurred its investigation. Bermudez and her neighbors reported the issues to city agencies, law enforcement and the CHA, according to the suit.

“I’m angry because I had to relocate out of the house because the city and CHA have refused to do anything,” Bermudez told the Sun-Times. “It is a systemic failure on multiple levels.”

As for the lawsuit, Bermudez hopes the CHA makes the home next door habitable for a family in need.

“I call on city officials — the City Council and the mayor — to finally hold CHA accountable for its negligent practices,” Bermudez said.

The mayor’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new discrimination lawsuit is salt in the wound for the embattled housing authority, as it scrambles to address a recent whistleblower complaint alleging dysfunction of the agency’s reasonable accommodations process for residents with disabilities.

Records show the CHA violated federal disability laws and the civil rights of residents for at least eight years — leading to negotiations for a voluntary compliance agreement between the CHA and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.