Logan Square tenants stage rent strike after two weeks of failing heat

CHICAGO - Tenants of a Logan Square apartment building staged a rent strike after two weeks of failing heat leading up to Christmas Eve.

They are withholding half of their January payments to send a message to their landlord company, Mark Fishman & Co.

Twenty-one tenants in the 45 unit building in the 2300 block of N. Spaulding say they informed the management company about problems with their heat on Dec. 10 and nothing was fixed until People’s Gas workers showed up on Dec. 24, when temperatures in Chicago were frigid.

By city ordinance, the heat in a rental unit should be at or above 68 degrees during the day, 66 degrees at night. They say some of the apartment temperatures fell to 60 degrees.

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Resident Becca Smith said she had to go to a store and purchase heated blankets, run her space heaters and get under the blankets with her freezing Chihuahua. 

Miles Bennett Hogerty, the building tenant organizer, said as renters, the only thing they can do is withhold the rent payment equal to the time their apartments were not habitable.

FOX 32 News reached out to the landlord, Mark Fishman & Co. for comment. There has been no response.

The city’s Department of Buildings is looking into the complaints.