The post Ralph Cielocha, One Slumlord Among Many: The Horner Park Tenants Union’s Ongoing Struggle appeared first on It's Going Down.
Report from Chicago’s Autonomous Tenants Union on a recent organizing campaign.
Many of ATU’s anti-eviction struggles are against large developers who are moving into Albany Park, buying old, under-maintained buildings for cheap, and renting them out for double the cost after kicking the former tenants out and making some minor repairs. But as important as these fights are, they really only reflect one part of the story — there are certain conditions that can make a particular neighborhood or building attractive to developers by easing the process of displacement.
These conditions are created by landlords, often small-time and family enterprises, who by a combination of neglect and abuse set up their tenants for displacement, but get to walk away with a tidy profit for themselves. Lack of maintenance keeps their buildings relatively cheap for speculating developers and gives them opportunities to portray displacement as “fixing up the neighborhood.” An attitude of entitlement and lack of respect for their tenants makes for an overall feeling that tenants are disposable. Even when a landlord doesn’t plan on selling in the near future, these behaviors puts tenants at a disadvantage when resisting displacement in their communities.
Ralph Cielocha’s 4036 N. California building plastered with a stop work after the landlord began disruptive and dangerous unpermitted interior work outside his tenants doors.
A prime example of this is at 4036 N California Ave, where the Horner Park Tenants Union and ATU have been resisting neglect and abuse at the hands of Ralph Cielocha of DiSilvestro Family LP since earlier this year.
On March 3 2018, there was a small electrical fire (later ruled accidental) between two units on the third floor of 4036 N California Ave, damaging the roof and several apartments. After the fire, the tenants received no news from the landlord, DiSilvestro Family LP, about the condition of the building, repairs needs, and potential health hazards. After several weeks of continued silence from DiSilvestro Family LP, seven tenants were shocked to receive 10-and 30- day eviction notices posted on their doors on March 23. Many have lived in the building for twenty, even thirty years, some are elderly, disabled, or ill — none of whom were prepared to move in such a short amount of time. Most units were still tenable and had only limited damage. However, it was later revealed that repairs to the roof and walls would require all units on the top floor, and a few on the lower floors, to be vacated even if they weren’t directly damaged by the fire. Not one of these repair needs, potential health hazards, or a construction timeline, were communicated by Ralph Cielocha at the time. Nor did Ralph Cielocha say anything about security deposits, March rent, or compensation for damaged property.
The tenants were shocked and dismayed when they found the notices posted to their doors (an improper method of service according to Chicago’s tenant’s laws), but ultimately were not surprised that Ralph would consider this an acceptable way to treat his tenants. Long-time tenants have described a noticeable decline in maintenance at the building since Mr. Cielochainherited responsibility for the property from his grandfather, who originally built it. Over the last decade Ralph let parts of the building fall into disrepair and established a distanced relationship from tenants. With the mortgage long paid and no financial risks to take on new construction, Cielocha’s family handed him a personal cash-cow which he could manage with limited effort from his suburban home, funded by the hard-earned rents of his tenants.
After receiving the notices, the tenants rapidly organized the Horner Park Tenants Union and sent a comprehensive letter with the following demands: transparency around the repairs required and a construction timeline, a chance to negotiate more time to move, relocation assistance, and compensation. Not only did this letter go unanswered, but several days later DiSilvestro Family LP rapidly increased the (unpermitted) cleanup and repair process without waiting for tenants to vacate, littering the hallways with hazardous materials and preventing tenants from entering and leaving their units. Although the city would put up a stop work order a few days later for the unpermitted work, it was obvious to the tenant union that Ralph Cielocha had no respect for his tenants and that they needed to send a strong message that they were not to be ignored. A call-in action was organized, supported by the ATU. Supporters called Ralph and the business his family owns, G&M Metal Fabricators (also DiSilvestro Family’s and Ralph’s place of work) to express their disapproval of his behavior and to ask that he negotiate fairly with his tenants. This must’ve struck a nerve with Cielocha because he immediately sent a formal response to the union with his initial offer.
The tenant union rejected this offer, which still did not even allow them a full two weeks to vacate their units, and soon obtained the pro-bono legal services of Community Activism Law Alliance (CALA), through which negotiations began in earnest. Eventually, the tenants and DiSilvestro reached a settlement agreement in which the landlord had to pay out over $20,000 in relocation assistance, property damage compensation, and returned deposits & rents, to the tenants. Tenants who needed to vacate for repairs had until the end of April to move, and even were granted right-of-first-refusal: the opportunity to move back in at their original rents once repairs were finished.
The settlement was an example of what can be accomplished when communities work together to support each other and resist those who would treat them as an inconvenient impediment to undeserved profit. But old habits die hard, as it seems Ralph didn’t learn his lesson about his responsibilities as a landlord. He has continued to be hesitant and unresponsive to maintenance requests, and even threatened to evict another tenant for her complaints. Even though he demanded that tenants in the fire damaged units leave by the end of April, Ralph dragged his feet on getting his building permit, which was only issued in early July. Now, a month and a half later, he has done almost no construction work at all and has provided no information on his plans, leaving the vacated tenants in limbo, unsure when they will be able to move back into the units they thought would be available by now.
Is the delay in construction a tactic to make the vacated tenants find other housing, thereby allowing their units to be rented out to other (less organized) tenants at high rents? Is DiSilvestro planning on selling the building, so they can recover their losses, and likely make a profit, while condemning their tenants to displacement? We can only guess at this point, since no information has been provided, but what’s obvious is that Ralph Cielocha and DiSilvestro still feel that their tenants and their community are expendable resources. Like so many landlords, they’d rather contribute to and benefit from gentrification than take responsibility for their property, harming not only their tenants but the whole neighborhood. As long as we grant property owners this amount of entitlement over other people’s living conditions, landlords in gentrifying neighborhoods will neglect their buildings and disrespect their tenants, setting the stage for larger developers to displace them down the road. This is why the ATU fights alongside our community to reclaim control of our housing and make our neighborhood one of mutual respect rather than displacement.
Ralph Cielocha, One Slumlord Among Many: The Horner Park Tenants Union’s Ongoing Struggle SOURCE: itsgoingdown.com]]>
