Vanishing SRO Hotels Provide Critical Homes for Chicago’s Working Poor

by Sreya Sarkar

Single-Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels have provided shelter for low-income Chicagoans since the late 19th century and today play an important role in reducing homelessness. But many of the hotels are closing because according to the owners they are too expensive to maintain. The land is being mostly sold to developers. Last year two SRO hotels in Lakeview, the Belair and the Sheffield House, closed along with the Ambers Hotel on Belmont Avenue last month. Only a few SRO hotels remain in the area.

Often, SRO hotels are the last step before homelessness. While this kind of residential hotels serves as home for many local workforce workers, retired people, and people with physical disabilities, some service provider agencies like Thresholds also place their clients in them. It has been like this since the 1970s when government began de-institutionalizing people with mental illness.

Some in the Lakeview community like Bob Zuley, an activist with Lakeview Action Coalition, have been demanding action for quite some time now. “The stability of affordable housing in any community is dependent upon responsible management as well as proactive intervention by city officials and community leaders when these buildings become problematic with reports of criminal behavior and deplorable building conditions.” Zuley said. “While some North American cities have recognized SRO’s as a viable and necessary component of our urban housing stock and have constructively engaged in SRO preservation efforts, Chicago isn’t one of them.”

In fact, there has never been a comprehensive city ordinance to support the few remaining SRO hotels or establish any rights for tenants.

One piece of good news is that, 46th Ward Alderman James Cappleman has expressed his intention to improve and not close Hotel Chateau, a multi-unit residential building. By monitoring managerial procedural changes by the hotel and improving the screening process, modifying service provider agency policy, consulting city agencies, by working with community organizations such as the Lakeview Action Coalition, the Alderman hopes to improve living conditions in Hotel Chateau.

He initiated a community meeting on January 19th of this year in which the hotel management, community organizations, neighboring businesses concerned about the neighborhood safety and Thresholds, a service provider agency who place people with histories of mental illness in various residential venues including the Hotel Chateau, participated.

Some good solutions were discussed in the meeting including creating a Hotel Chateau tenants’ leadership group, enforcing building code violations, and creating a community patrol group.

Alderman Cappleman is on the right track. Revitalizing the Hotel Chateau would be a major step forward to maintain at least some of the SRO hotels that provide critical shelter to so many of Chicago’s working poor.