JEFFERSON PARK — The only clue Monday that the house at 4639 N. Lawler Ave. was once occupied by a dozen squatters who made life miserable for the entire block was a trash-strewn backyard and a gangway littered with beer cans and bottles.
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 to those living near about 55,000 vacant, abandoned homes in Cook County, officials said.
"This house was the very definition of a nuisance," said Owen Brugh, chief of staff to 45th Ward Ald. John Arena.
Like many vacant houses in Chicago, the Lawler Avenue house fell into legal limbo after a foreclosure, attracting a number of squatters who transformed the single-family home into three illegal apartments. No one answered the door Monday afternoon.
Heather Cherone explains so-called "squatter's rights" in Chicago:
For nearly a year, Arena's office worked with various city departments, trying to force someone to take responsibility for the brown-brick house near Avondale Avenue that had become a constant source of complaints to the alderman's office — and more than 100 calls to 911.
"One of the people illegally living in the house punched a neighbor in the face," Brugh said. "On Halloween, one of the squatters threatened to fire bomb a nearby house in retaliation for calling the police. It began to escalate."
Pit bulls were trained at the house, which also drew complaints after neighbors saw residents using drugs and having sex in public. There were even complaints about the smell of raw sewage wafting from the home, Brugh said.
Earlier this month, a judge issued an emergency order appointing a company to manage the Jefferson Park home and ordering all occupants to leave the house by Tuesday, Brugh said. The house will be boarded up until it is sold.
"It will be the first time we'll be happy to have a boarded-up house in the neighborhood," Brugh said.
In Sauganash, a team of police officers removed a man and two children living in the home at 4200 W. Rosemont Ave. on Oct. 29 after residents complained they were living there illegally and had threatened neighbors who questioned them.
In an email to 39th Ward residents, Ald. Margaret Laurino said removing the people living in the house illegally was complicated by the fact that they had filed a deed with county officials claiming possession of the foreclosed house, which is now on the market for $729,900.
Laurino called the squatters' actions outrageous and unbelievable.
About a dozen homes in Morgan Park and Beverly fell victim to a scam similar to the one that took place in Sauganash, prompting Ald. Matt O'Shea (19th) to urge his constituents to place a fraud alert on their homes' deeds with Cook County Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough.
"When we learned how widespread the problem was, we made a much bigger push for people” to sign up for the alert, O'Shea said.
City officials said property and mortgage fraud is the fastest growing white-collar crime, according to the FBI.
Yarbrough's free fraud alert service notifies property owners when someone attempts to change the owner listed on the home's deed, according to her website.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
