GARFIELD PARK — An inspection into a Garfield Park apartment building, where multiple families went without heat for a week will lead to charges against the landlord, the city said Friday.
"As part of the City’s continued efforts to ensure renters have heat in their residences during these frigid conditions, the Department of Buildings completed a follow-up inspection today," the department said in an email Friday.
Inspectors determined the building's owner "had been working since Monday to dismantle a broken boiler system and subsequently install a new boiler system to bring heat to the tenants."
The Department of Buildings and the Department of Law intend to file a court case against the owner Monday, the email said.
Otis Redmond and his family, which includes a month-old baby, a 2-year-old and 5-year-old, said the furnace in their apartment building, in the 3800 block of West Congress Parkway broke Feb. 12 and they've been exhausting every resource to keep warm since.
Those techniques grew from inventive, using thick plastic on windows and mattresses in doorways to block the cold air, to desperately dangerous, keeping all four burners of a stove lit along with leaving the oven on for hours at a time.
"I ain't want to do it at the time, but after a while, the temperature kept dropping and dropping; then it was either that or freeze to death. We were running out of options. When it's that or death, you go with the way that's working," Redmond said Thursday.
After a week of exhausting ideas, Redmond visited the 28th Ward Ald. Jason Ervin and was visited by city building inspectors Thursday, he said.
Ervin said his office was aware of the problems at the building and he is working "to get the situation resolved as expeditiously as possible."
"I am always disappointed by the actions of bad landlords that leave their tenants to suffer in brutal conditions. No one should have to go without heat or hot water during this extreme weather," Ervin said Thursday.
In a news release, Ervin said that it was his understanding the heat was back on at the building, but Redmond said the heat in the apartment building was restored briefly but did not last long.
Ervin's office did not return requests for comment Friday.
"The heat came on but it's not working properly. The house hasn't heated up and some radiators in the house ain't working," Redmond said warming up in a car outside his apartment Friday.
According to the Department of Buildings, the heat is working for tenants but it may take time for some radiators to unthaw.
Despite still being without heat Friday, Redmond was grateful for Ervin's help. City inspectors Friday assured him his landlord "is in violation," he said.
His landlord, Renee Conley, did not be respond to repeated messages left on her cellphone Thursday and Friday.
"They brought their whole goon squad this time and checked the whole building. They're on [the landlord] now," said Redmond.
Conley offered to pay for the family to stay in a hotel Thursday, but the family declined, Redmond said. Meanwhile, Redmond's children are staying with family as workers continue to work to fix the heating problem, Redmond said.
"[Conley] keeps telling me it's supposed to be fixed today, but I've talked to the guy working on it and they might not be straight until the middle of next week. Now that's straight from the horse's mouth," Redmond said.
This week alone, the city fielded 442 complaints of no heat, completed 436 inspections and referred 20 cases to the Department of Law, said a spokeswoman for the mayor. Landlords are required to provide heat during winter months, and face fines of up to $500 a day if they are found in violation.
The Heat Ordinance mandates that during cold weather months landlords supply heat to rental units. Landlords face fines of up to $500 per day, per violation, for each day they do not supply adequate heat.
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