COVID-19 Landlord Wall of Shame
HUNDREDS OF EVICTIONS ARE STILL BEING FILED IN CHICAGO.
THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE.
Contrary to what you may believe, there has not been a full “eviction moratorium” in Chicago during the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 13, Chief Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court Timothy Evans placed a moratorium on the execution of eviction orders and closed the circuit court to most civil proceedings. This moratorium prevents the sheriff from executing orders of eviction that have already been issued, and indefinitely postpones housing court proceedings - but it specifies that “civil lawsuits may still be filed in person or via electronic filing.”
Until Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued his April 23th Executive Order, landlords could still legally file for eviction in court against tenants who fell behind on rent. And unsurprisingly, despite Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s toothless call for “property owners to give tenants some grace,” they have been. In fact, some have continued to do so even after the Governor declared it illegal to “commence a residential eviction action” against tenants who do not pose an imminent public safety risk. And either way, tenants are explicitly expected to pay back all rent debt they accumulate while out of work responsibly adhering to the stay-at-home order.
This moratorium does not prevent harm; at best, it merely defers it to a later date.
The fact is that most people who are displaced by the eviction process never actually have the sheriff come remove them from their home. Eviction filings create a public record which can be enough to get a future rental application denied, even if the case didn’t result in an actual eviction. A filing - or the threat of one - is often enough to force a tenant to leave.
With tens of millions suddenly unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, paying rent is simply not an option for many. Any landlord filing an eviction right now is knowingly contributing to a public health catastrophe, either by forcing their tenants to look for new housing while they should be sheltering in place, or by contributing to an eviction case backlog that will explode into a full-blown housing crisis once the floodgates are opened in housing court.
What kind of person would do such a thing? Let’s meet some of the worst offenders:
Our inaugural wall of shame inductees include some of the biggest and most well-connected players on the Chicagoland real estate scene
EVICTIONS FILED: 26
Founders: Michael Tolliver and David Pezzola
Atlas Asset Management co-founder Michael Tolliver boasts of being one of Chicago’s most prolific real estate brokers. He’s a prominent member of the Chicago Association of Realtors (the organization recently seen playacting as good corporate citizens by touting Mayor Lightfoot’s bogus “solidarity pledge”), who named him the “#1 producing broker of commercial real estate for multifamily transactions” in 2017. His company manages a number of properties mostly on the South Side, many of them belonging to Icarus Properties - the company owned by another Atlas co-founder, David Pezzola. Combined, they are responsible for a stunning 26 evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the most of any landlord and/or property manager in the city. Each and every one of them was filed after Gov. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order was enacted. Together, Tolliver and Pezzola are the COVID-19 eviction kings of Chicago. Don’t hold your breath waiting for the Realtors Association to hold them accountable.
EVICTIONS FILED: 24
Founder: Stuart Handler
Industry veteran Stuart Handler’s TLC Management made a late but dramatic bid for the COVID-19 Eviction Crown, filing their first 7 evictions of the pandemic in a two day span after a full month of the stay-at-home order being in effect. Since then, they’ve racked up at least 24 total eviction filings in Chicago. Handler’s predatory evictions have shown him to be an enemy of working class renters, so it should be no surprise that he was named “Friend of the Industry” by the Chicagoland Apartment Association in 2008. In fact, Handler has been more than a friend to the CAA - he’s their Vice President, has twice served as their President, spent time on their Executive Committee, and chaired their Legislative Committee.
While eviction notices dangled over the heads of Handler’s tenants, CAA’s Executive VP Mike Mini was at Mayor Lightfoot’s solidarity pledge press conference trotting out the same tired talking points about being “all in this together” and being “committed to be a part of the solution to renters… in need.” Yet again, landlords’ actions speak louder than their hollow words.
Read more: Chicago Apartment Association PAC spending in Chicago City Council
EVICTIONS FILED: 9
Founder: Elzie Higginbottom
Inducted into the Chicago Association of Realtors Hall of Fame in 2000, East Lake Management CEO Elzie Higginbottom can now add COVID-19 Eviction Wall of Shame Inductee to his long and checkered resume. Higginbottom is one of Chicago’s most notorious, and notoriously well-connected, slumlords. The Chicago Tribune has described him as “one of the city's biggest and most heavily subsidized landlords… an opportunist who grew rich while neglecting his low-income tenants.” Higginbottom has spent decades lining his pockets with Section 8 voucher money while amassing a staggering collection of building code violations - with deadly results for his tenants.
“Thirteen people have died in fires and other mishaps in buildings managed by Higginbottom’s East Lake Management & Development Co. in the past eight years.”
Higginbottom has dodged any serious consequences for this, which is unsurprising when you consider the massive political clout he wields as an elite Democratic party fundraiser and City Hall insider. An example lowlight: while serving as Chairman of the Housing Authority of Cook County, he was a board member for a non-profit housing corporation the Authority created. That corporation awarded a $3.2 million building contract to his own construction firm.
EVICTIONS FILED: 9
Founder: Al Belmonte
Hey, have you heard the one about the landlord who burnishes his reputation by sitting on the boards of impressive sounding organizations, makes public gestures toward civic-mindedness, spends big on campaign contributions, and gets rich by exploiting tenants in neglected properties? The Wall of Shame seems to attract a certain type. Consider: Al Belmonte. Al wants you to know that he is “active in civic affairs through his role as past chairman and member of the Evanston Plan Commission, member of the Evanston Zoning Commission, the Evanston Historical Society, the Evanston Chamber of Commerce, Evanston Property Owners Association, the Rogers Park Builders Group and Housing Options.” Strangely missing from this autobiography are the hundreds of code violations he racked up in just one Mississippi property of his, the illegal units he rented out at a known fire-trap property he purchased in Brookfield, or the 9 evictions filed during this pandemic. Funny!
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EVICTIONS FILED: 8
Founder: Marty Max
Another well-connect developer with a carefully manicured public profile, Marty Max of MLC Properties touts his place “on the advisory board to the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Buildings,” as well as his time spent as “a member of the 49th ward zoning committee” during noted real estate stooge Joe Moore’s time as alderman. Notably, Max is also currently the Vice President of the Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance. While the public relations arm of the NBOA has busied itself disingenuously insisting that tenants and landlords are “all in this together” and sponsoring Mayor Lightfoot’s hollow “solidarity pledge,” behind the scenes they worked to kill a modest tenant protection bill that would’ve given renters a year to pay back debts. No surprise, then, that Max has been one of the most active eviction filers during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 8 filings between March 17 and March 24.
EVICTIONS FILED: 7
Founder: Jeffrey Cagan
An Illinois-based developer with national ambitions, Jeffrey Cagan is worth highlighting because of his position on the board of the National Multifamily Housing Council, a massive real estate industry lobbying and public relations group. After dropping a cool $4.84 million on lobbying in 2019, the NMHC is off to the races with $1.44 million spent in the first quarter of 2020. They’ve also spent lavishly on campaign contributions, with $866,000 already pumped into Federal legislative candidates and months to go before the general election. With contributions to 204 incumbent Representatives and 29 Senators evenly spanning both parties, the NMHC has what amounts to 44% of the legislative branch in their pocket, including 13 of 18 from Illinois. Think about that next time you hear a landlord try to justify their opposition to rent relief by complaining about narrow profit margins!
EVICTIONS FILED: 6
Founder: Eli Ungar
Chicago is full of bad landlords, but it takes a special kind of terrible to develop the reputation that Eli Ungar’s MAC Properties has earned. After all, how many have websites dedicated to documenting their bad behavior? It’s no wonder that MAC tenants were among the first to organize rent strikes during the COVID-19 pandemic - they’ve had no choice but to get a head start on organizing to defend their rights. It seems that nobody has anything nice to say about MAC, which may explain why they’ve started including non-disclosure agreements as a precondition to negotiation with tenants in need. MAC director of community development Peter Cassel all but openly states that the goal is tenant union-busting.
EVICTIONS FILED: 6
Founder: Adrian Tudor
A true renaissance man, Adrian Tudor has managed to run afoul of the law with both his taxi company and his property management company. As the owner of Medallion Leasing, Tudor once racked up a staggering $4.3 million in fines for running a fleet of illegally salvaged vehicles. Showing the same care and attentiveness to the well-being of tenants as he did for taxi passengers, Tudor’s Medallion Property Management was once forced to sign a building over to the city as part of a settlement after being sued for a host of code violations. After those other guys, it’s almost refreshing to find one landlord evicting tenants during a pandemic who seems to have no pretensions of being anything more noble than that.
