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Radio Extra: 55,000 Abandoned Chicago Homes Could Become Squatters' Havens

By  Heather Cherone and Howard Ludwig | November 18, 2014 2:47pm 

 The Jefferson Park house is one of more than a dozen homes scattered throughout the city that have been taken over by people with no legal right to be there, creating a nuisance in some of the estimated 55,000 vacant, abandoned homes in Cook County, officials said.
The Jefferson Park house is one of more than a dozen homes scattered throughout the city that have been taken over by people with no legal right to be there, creating a nuisance in some of the estimated 55,000 vacant, abandoned homes in Cook County, officials said.
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DNAinfo/Heather Cherone

JEFFERSON PARK — With more than 55,000 abandoned homes in Cook County, city officials are trying to be proactive to prevent a rise in squatters. 

A Jefferson Park home is one of more than a dozen homes scattered throughout the city that have been taken over by people with no legal right to be there.

Like many vacant houses in Chicago, the house fell into legal limbo after a foreclosure, attracting a number of squatters who transformed the single-family home into three illegal apartments.

On today's DNAinfo Radio Extra, Heather Cherone discusses what the county is doing to prevent squatters from ever taking over a home, and how hard it is to get them out:

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