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DeKALB – A question asked about a recent settlement between the City of DeKalb and local landlord Hunter Properties eventually led to one human relations commissioner walking out after heated words were exchanged during a Tuesday commission meeting.
Members of the DeKalb Human Relations Commission brought up the settlement agreement – which was approved by the City Council on April 26 – during their Tuesday night meeting, including how the agreement, which Hunter Properties agreed to, required them to sell four buildings “at arm’s length,” meaning it cannot be sold to someone the landlord has a close relationship with. The agreement’s terms also include the City having the option to buy the properties mostly located in the Annie Glidden North neighborhood, though City officials have said the City is not in a position alone to buy Hunter Properties out.
The settlement came after a years-long effort by city officials to improve quality of living in several of the buildings owned by the Evanston-based Hunter Properties. The landlord owns the most units in the city, about 1,000 in total, and has over the years been the subject of nearly 500 unresolved code violations since 2019. Those include two buildings where tenants were forced from their homes after several fires which DeKalb fire officials said were attempted arsons in July of 2019, displacing almost 200 people.
Commissioner John Walker said during the Tuesday night meeting that, although Hunter Properties had many documented issues that needed to be addressed, Hunter Properties isn’t the only landlord in town that is just as problematic.
“Let’s not let the other landlords go unscathed just because we have all of our attention, all of our focus on Hunter Properties,” Walker said.
Commissioner Joe Gastiger said he was encouraged to see Hunter Properties agree to terms such as selling its Hunter Ridgebrook, Hunter Tri-Frat, Lincoln Tower and Hunter Hillcrest buildings within the next two years as part of the settlement terms.
“I see that as real progress,” Gastiger said.
Walker said to Gastiger he thinks it’s not enough progress, nor is that progress happening fast enough. He said.
“Let’s say that you lived in one of those buildings and, let’s say, you always hear this all the time: ‘We got this, we’re going to do this. We’re going to do this,’ but nothing ever gets done,” Walker said. “So ... would you think that’s progress?”
Walker said he was frustrated at several city officials not attending a community outreach fundraiser event hosted by the Sir Donald Foundation in late April.
“There’s always been excuses,” Walker said to commissioners. “Everybody wants to help everybody until it’s time to help people. And it’s just getting old.”
Walker got up to leave after that comment – then he and Larry Apperson, chairman of the commission, exchanged unintelligible words, including Apperson telling Walker that “when we get all the actions done that you want, we’ll let you know.”
“You’ve been on this board for so long and you haven’t done one thing,” Walker told Apperson before walking out of the room. “Sometimes boards just need different things or different people.”
Apperson later said during the meeting, after Walker left, that the commission’s June meeting may be his last, citing personal reasons and wanting to focus more on caregiving duties for his ill wife.
Commissioner Lisa King said she understands Walker’s passion and frustration and said she agrees that Hunter Properties isn’t the only landlord in the city that treats its tenants poorly. She said she also thinks this type of progress is slow and patience is necessary to solve the issues at hand.
“I think that we’re closer than we’ve ever been,” King said. “But still, it’s a process.”
DeKalb City Manager Bill Nicklas, who also attended the commission meeting on Tuesday, said he believes the commissioners wouldn’t be at the meeting if they didn’t feel a sense of “injustice and frustration” in dealing with landlords such as Hunter Properties. He said he knows Walker is privy to the situations of many tenants of those types of landlords, although he thought Walker “overflowed tonight.”
“His passion, though, is electric and genuine,” Nicklas said.
Walker said after the meeting that he has been a UPS delivery driver in the area for more than two decades. He declined naming other landlords he believes are problematic in the city, though he said he has seen and heard multiple stories of tenants living in the conditions they do while he has been out and about as a driver – enough of those instances to inspire him to eventually run for City Council.
Walker said he thinks of Nicklas as a mentor and appreciates the work Nicklas has done in arriving at the Hunter Properties settlement, though he’s tired of seeing families living under those types of landlords being taken advantage of. He also said he’s tired of people thinking they have more time to fix those problems when “we don’t.”
“The only time people care about these people with bogus landlords are during election years and at board meetings – any other time, it’s someone else’s problem,” Walker said. “Well, I’ll make it my problem.”