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Low-Income Seniors Sue Presbyterian Homes Over Planned Ouster

By Ariel Cheung | October 16, 2015 10:02am | Updated on October 16, 2015 12:02pm
 Ald. James Cappleman (46th) joined residents of Presbyterian Homes affordable living apartments to protest the nonprofit's decision to sell the apartment buildings at market rate.
Ald. James Cappleman (46th) joined residents of Presbyterian Homes affordable living apartments to protest the nonprofit's decision to sell the apartment buildings at market rate.
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DNAinfo/Ariel Cheung

LAKEVIEW — Seniors on the brink of eviction from homes they thought they'd live in for the rest of their lives are suing the company ousting them.

On Friday, 112 low-income seniors announced the class action lawsuit against Presbyterian Homes — a move that comes one week after half the seniors traveled to the nonprofit organization's Evanston headquarters to plead with its CEO, Todd Swortzel.

Residents of Presbyterian Homes' three affordable housing buildings in Lakeview and West Ridge were stunned last month when Swortzel revealed he would sell the buildings at market rate and evict the residents, many who were told they could live in the homes for the rest of their lives.

"They would not have chosen to live there otherwise. They have life leases. Presbyterian Homes cannot break the leases because they now want to sell these buildings," attorney Matthew Piers said.

The lawsuit seeks an order requiring Presbyterian Homes to honor the leases and an injunction to prevent the residents from being evicted.

Piers asserted that any sale "must be subject to the existing lease rights, and compensation must be provided to those who have already been forced out."

Calls to Presbyterian Homes officials were not immediately returned Friday.

While residents have until November 2016 to find a new home, many said waiting lists they've encountered for other affordable housing buildings stretch three to five years.

Some have downgraded to smaller apartments at higher prices or explored options in the suburbs — an unsavory alternative with their doctors, friends and family in the Chicago neighborhoods some have lived in for decades, they said.

The stress is taking its toll, Crowder Place resident Patricia Healy said.

"It's not good for senior people, and now we're getting sick. It has been affecting some people's medications — their meds have been increased," she said.

Aldermen have rushed to the seniors' aid, lining up affordable housing developers who will buy the buildings at market rate while keeping rent affordable for residents, they said. But their efforts to negotiate with Presbyterian Homes have been so far rejected, they said.

Presbyterian Homes told residents the rent-subsidized apartments were no longer financially sustainable. Anticipated maintenance and capital expenditures, "along with current operating deficits," would overwhelm its Geneva Foundation Outreach Fund, which supports the program.

The low-income program was the only one to cost the company money in 2013, tax records state. The five suburb communities house about 1,000 residents and generated about $5.3 million in profit in 2013, tax records state. The nonprofit's health care centers generated $8.1 million.

The Neighborhood Homes program cost the company $546,074.

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