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Residents of Harvey, Illinois, are distraught after a Black man says he was boarded up and locked inside his Chicago suburban apartment without him knowing.
According to AP, 73-year-old Rudolph Williams claims his door and windows were boarded up in his apartment while he was still in it.
“I didn’t know exactly what was going on,” Rudolph Williams told AP. “What the hell?”
On Friday, a crew without logos of company branding on their clothing or vehicles began boarding up units at the complex.
There have been conflicting accounts about what happened at the apartment building 30 miles south of Chicago.
Residents say no one from the city or property management company warned them about their complex being boarded up. When residents tried to tell the crew that people were still in the building, crew members allegedly ignored them and kept working.
“I feel sick,” resident Genevieve Tyler told AP. “I’m still sad.”
Taylor claims she was home when she heard noises, thinking it was a break-in. But the crew had begun boarding up her door as well.
City officials claim police performed well-being checks at the site earlier in the day, but not when the property was being boarded up.
The property owners claim that residents’ stories of being boarded inside apartments are false and that all the units were empty before they started boarding up the complex.
The property managers also claimed that boarding up the complex was at the behest of the city.
Thankfully, no injuries were reported.
In a joint statement emailed late Monday, the property owners dismissed the residents’ “viral allegations.” The owners said they tried to negotiate more time with the city for renters to stay and aimed to have required repairs finished by March for the building to reopen.
The owners hired property management company, Chicago Style Management, in November.
Tim Harstead with Chicago Style Management disputed Williams’ account, saying crews found one unauthorized person who left before they started boarding up units.
The complex had been in shambles for months, according to reports. Some of the buildings had no heat, forcing residents to use stoves and space heaters to keep warm. Garbage filled up the hallways and a set of stairs collapsed, forcing residents to use another set to leave the building. According to Harvey Police Chief Cameron Biddings, in 2023, Police were called to the property more than 300 times.
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