Chicago Drug and gang houses, houses of prostitution and other disorderly houses Ordinance (Chicago Department Of Housing)

Nov. 16, 2023

VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL:

Dear Jenny Wadhwa:

"On behalf of the Department of Housing, I am responding to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request(s). Your request seeks and states:

Any and all records from the past five years (Nov. 2018–present) regarding your nuisance property ordinance that will be referred to as "ordinance" in this request but could be known (but not limited to) as "Drug and gang houses, houses of prostitution and other disorderly houses" as described in Sec. 8-4-090 in Chicago's city code.

Please provide any and all written records (including but not limited to hard-copy documents, memos, emails, word processor documents, PDF documents, PowerPoint files, images files, video files etc.) regarding the Ordinance including but not limited to:

• evictions filed by property owners and number of tenants evicted as a result of the ordinance
• written notices from the authorized representatives of the city to the owner or controller of the premises identifying nuisances and abatement measures
• police calls, reports, citations, or arrests, collected by the municipality police department for the purpose of enforcing the ordinance
•fines and penalties collected for the purpose of enforcing the ordinance
• information regarding any court actions related thereto, including motions for court orders to place a property into receivership or condemnation

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

The Department of Housing does not maintain documents or records responsive to your request. I suggest you submit this request to the Department of Buildings.

Please note that each City department is a public body under Section 2 of FOIA, 5 ILCS 140/2(a). See Duncan Publishing, Inc. v. City of Chicago, 304 Ill. App. 3d 778, 784, 709 N.E.2d 1281, 1286 (1ST Dist. 1999) (Clearly, each of the individual departments are subsidiary bodies of the City and are public bodies as defined by the FOIA.)

A FOIA request must be directed to the department that maintains the records you are seeking.

Sincerely,

Rima Alsammarae
Department of Housing"