Fear has become a new expense cost for Chicago landlords as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids across the city have led to missing tenants, contractors not showing up for work and headaches for property managers, according to reports.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that tenants cannot pay rent on time because they are missing work due to fear of agents. Tenants are just staying home in fear of ICE.
Maintenance staff members also are not showing up for work. Contractors working on building repairs for rental units are also missing. Landlords estimate up to 40 percent of their contractors are now absent.
Property owners and property managers worry this is all going to lead to rent increases for the existing tenants to cover losses.
John Warren of Forte Properties, who has been in the real estate business for a decade, talked about the fear among residents and workers – both documented and undocumented – with the Sun-Times.
“Residents are scared to open their doors” for maintenance workers, he said, and it has become harder to schedule repairs with his work force
“All the risk you try to factor into making a business decision to lease and buy property, never had I had to compute ICE or federal authorities,” said Gene Lee, founder of TLG Development, who has been in the real estate industry for 10 years.
Lee said most of his workers are of Hispanic descent, and he has noticed absenteeism and disguises, with workers wearing street clothes and then changing into work gear once inside the building. The absences have caused paint and electrical jobs to be deferred, and Lee’s labor costs to rise. He’s had to spend time finding new vendors, as opposed to relying on workers who he has known for years.
“We didn’t need them here,” said Tracy Scanlon, who manages 70 buildings totaling around 1,000 units on the North Side. “Nobody is benefiting by this. It is making even my American residents and staff, who are Black and brown, scared to go to work.”
Scanlon had contractors tell her two weeks ago that they could not come fix a clogged bathtub and overflowing toilet at one of her buildings because ICE was in the neighborhood.
