Janko Properties
From Tenants Talk 7
Something is brewing across Chicago. Tenants are tired of being beaten down by slumlords. In a number of buildings under the thumb of Janko Properties, tenants are coming to recognize something new: that they don’t have to fight back alone.
Over the past few weeks, organizers of the All-Chicago Tenant Alliance have been meeting in Janko buildings across Garfield Park, Hermosa and Austin, where tenants have been subjected to some of the worst conditions one could imagine:
Cockroaches and pests spilling out of sinks, kitchen cupboards, and carpets. No matter the method of extermination, which many tenants pay for regularly out of their own pocket, buildings are totally infested.
Unusable bathrooms. Broken showers, shoddy pipes, and bathtubs painted with house paint which flakes off frequently in regular use.
Mice run rampant through building walls and rats “the size of dogs” chew through the electrics of kitchen appliances making ovens and dishwashers totally unusable.
Thousands of dollars worth of furniture thrown out due to bed bug infestations.
Dirty water and urine routinely leaking from ceilings.
No heating or cooling, making homes uninhabitable during Chicago’s extreme summers and winters.
Deadly surprise gas leaks.
Broken front doors, gates, and locks.
These buildings are in terrible shape. But why? Those looking to pass off the blame for the problems point at the tenants. Matt Janko’s maintenance men are good examples of those who benefit from shifting the blame. “They’re dirty! They don’t clean up! That’s why there’s bugs and mice.” But what’s the truth? All you need to do is talk to the tenants and take a look at the apartments and hallways. You’ll begin to understand the bigger picture.
The tenants are folks who have tried time and time again to keep their apartments in good condition, digging deeper into their pockets for cash to spend on exterminators, new appliances, and new furniture.
These are tenants who are deeply concerned about the well-being and safety of their kids, their parents, and their neighbors as it relates to their homes. They do not blame one another for the circumstances they’ve found themselves in. They know who is really to blame: their money-hungry landlord, Matt Janko.
There are hundreds of slumlords in Chicago. Matt Janko is one of them. In his own words, he has “acquired and manages 50 properties with over 450 units. Aggregate purchase price of over $18.5 million.” Tenants Talk writers have visited four of these buildings so far (around 40 units in total), and every single tenant has significant problems with the conditions of their apartment and the building. Yet this man refuses to fix these issues. He boasts about the amount of money these tenants make him, but with oh so much, why wouldn’t he repair their broken-down apartments? It’s very simple. Sending the maintenance man out costs money. Extermination costs money. Water and gas pipe repair costs money.
To the tenants, despite their dissatisfaction with the conditions, these apartments are their homes. Their apartments are no luxury items, but rather necessities for survival. But, to their soulless bastard of a landlord, the same apartments, their shelter, are a vehicle for investment. His only concern is getting more money out than he put in. From this cruel perspective, why pay for repairs if tenants pay rent on time, regardless of the conditions of their apartments? If that investment, that money-making-machine, still runs, with or without a repair, why bother spending the money? It’s only when that money-making-machine is threatened, or when the rent checks cease to line his pockets, that the slumlord yields to demands.
An example can be found in a recent article published by Injustice Watch highlighting the plight of ex-Janko tenant James Ware and his family. The Wares had a good number of the listed issues above, but namely, no heat for the past two winters. The family routinely called Janko’s maintenance, who, shockingly, never bothered to make repairs. They called the city, who fined the slumlord but later dropped the case. Finally, pushed to their limit, the family put the heat on Janko, withholding rent for months to pressure the landlord into repairs. In order to stop the bleeding, the money-hungry Janko repaired the boiler, and the Wares returned the back rent withheld.
When another winter rolled around, and the heat stopped working again, the Wares skipped the maintenance requests and city phone calls and withheld rent again. This time, the slumlord was prepared, and pursued evicting the Wares, arguing it was an illegal withholding. Pressured with a costly eviction case, the Wares settled for moving out. But, finding a new place was as challenging as ever: credit-checks and rising rent prices pushed them to settle for less-than-preferable new housing situations: after being pushed from their apartment, the family found themselves split between relatives' houses, romantic partners, and shelters.
The Wares knew the truth: that the only way Janko would yield to repairs is by threatening to stop his money-making-machine. Despite the tenants’ rights they found on paper, the city proved to be too slow and toothless in pushing the landlord to uphold his side of the contract. After all, what’s a small fine to the landlord worth to a tenant without heat in the winter?
The Wares knew exactly what it would take to really put fire under their slumlord. Their unfortunate mistake is the same one many tenants make: they fought the landlord alone. For Janko, it’s pretty easy to get rid of one “bad tenant”. Getting rid of the whole bunch? That’s a lot harder. Imagine the money-making-machine runs on gas, and each tenant’s rent is a drop. One less drop of gas? Machine works fine. A total empty tank? Need to fix that right quick.
As of this article's publication, tenants in Janko properties across Chicago are in the early stages of their united fight back. Tenants of a building in Garfield Park have formed their own tenant union: the 525-527 N Homan Tenant Union. Bound by their shared problems with the conditions of the building, they’re looking to fight Janko together. In the words of one of the building’s leaders, “One band, one sound.”
Tenants in the Wares’ old building in Austin still find themselves with the same old issues James did, and are beginning to speak to one another about how they, too, can get what they are owed. Updates on the brighter future for the fighting tenants of Janko properties will be published in future editions of Tenants Talk.