By Peter von Buol
Special to Inside
In the 2003 triennial property tax reassessment of Lake View Township many properties were reassessed at a much greater value than previously. Greatly increased tax bills for property owners will soon be the result. Property owners, however, will not be the only ones affected. To cope with rising costs, many property owners will be forced to pass on at least part of the bill to their tenants.
Because they do not personally pay real-estate taxes to Cook County, many tenants are unaware of the increase in the property-tax burden. “Many renters don't understand the how these increases affect them because they are not the ones writing checks of $3,500 to the Cook County Treasurer,” says Head, president of the Tax Reform Action Coalition (TRAC).
According to Head, many small property-owners are having an especially hard time coping with the effects of the increased assessments. Often living in the same building as their tenants, small property owners are often reluctant to dramatically raise the amount of rent. “If you live in the same building, these people become part of your family and you maintain a relationship with them. You want your tenants to stay," she said.
"However, when your property taxes increase by three to four thousand dollars [at a time], it becomes almost impossible to keep the building,” adds Head. Ursula Lindmeier, 71, a lifelong Lake View resident, moved from her longtime Wolcott Ave. residence several years ago to a smaller apartment because the building she was living in at the time had been sold. Despite having been in the property owner's family for four generations, the property was sold, in part, due to the increase in its real estate assessment. Lindmeier says when she had to relocate, she noticed a dramatic decrease in affordable housing.
“Most of the affordable apartments that were once in the area are now gone. The little bungalow-type homes where they would have had an apartment above an owner's unit is now gone. Developers bought these properties and have now built very large and expensive homes or condominiums,” says Lindmeier. Lindmeier says while she has been fortunate to have been able to remain in the neighborhood, many friends and relatives have moved away. “Even my sister sold her home and moved to Niles about 10 years ago,” adds Lindmeier. “It's so obvious that we are being driven out.”
Affordable housing advocate Reverend Dominic Grassi, pastor of St. Josaphat’s Roman Catholic Church for 16 years, says the tax burden of increased property-tax assessments has resulted in the loss of many two-flat and three-flat buildings in his own West DePaul neighborhood. Many such properties, says Grassi, used to offer affordable housing.
“Tenants had been living in an affordable mom-and-pop building, where it's one apartment above the owners’ unit. The rents these apartments generate have always been looked at by owners as a way to help pay their property taxes. Now those same people can't afford to offer low rents,” says Grassi.
Grassi says the dramatic loss of affordable housing in his neighborhood has hurt families with children and has especially hurt those who work in neighborhood hospitals, nursing homes, and schools. Even police officers and firefighters are often not able to live in the community that they serve. The high tax burden placed on the area's residential real estate, says Grassi, is definitely a contributing factor.
Grassi says forcing people to live far away from the place they serve is morally wrong and creates a transient community. “The teachers in my own grammar school can't afford to live here! The elderly are being forced out of the neighborhood, either by taxes, if they are homeowners, or if the couple they rented from passes away,” adds Grassi.
Head agrees with Grassi that high-property tax assessments have contributed to many former residents' being forced to relocate. Especially hard hit are nurses who work at Children's Memorial Hospital. One of the hospital's nurses was an active participant at TRAC’s “Chicago Tea Party” (a reference to the original American tax protest the Boston Tea Party), a property tax-protest held Aug. 14 in Lincoln Park, an event which drew more than 400 protesters. The nurse signed a tea-bag that was personally delivered to Mayor Richard M. Daley by Head's organization.
“She is an emergency room nurse at the hospital and she actually wrote on the tea-bag that she just couldn't afford to live in the neighborhood anymore,” says Head.
Former Lake View resident Thomas Gnoske, 38, whose great-grandfather was the first member of his family to live in the neighborhood, says he is disappointed he can no longer afford to live in the area.
“Four generations of my family lived on Wolcott [Ave.] and it is sad that I couldn't afford to continue renting in the area,” says Gnoske, a scientific researcher at the Field Museum of Natural History. High rents forced him to relocate to the Rogers Park area several years ago.
"We determine what the rent is in a given area by Assessor's Office interviewing Realtors, checking newspaper listings and having our personnel physically walk around a neighborhood to check," says Dana Marberry, Community Relations Manager with the Cook County Assessor's Office. "This information is used in the assessment process but only if the property contains seven or more units.
"If property owners charge below-average rent but have received what they feel is a high assessment," Marberry adds, "those taxpayers for buildings that contain seven or more units can file an appeal based on their actual income and expenses. Vacancies are also a factor."
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