Cook County Sheriff Faces Federal Suit For Slowdown In Tenant Evictions; Local Landlord Feels Squeezed By Lenient Approach To Booting Problem Renters

In Cook County, Illinois, NBC Chicago reports:

• What made him a star has now made him a defendant. With so many rental properties in foreclosure last year, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart for a time halted evictions. It was his contention that many tenants who had been paying their rent were being unfairly removed from their homes, when it was, in fact, their landlords who had not been paying mortgages and were the real culprits. That firm stance led Time Magazine to honor Dart as a "leader and revolutionary," but Lyons landlord Mike Slinkman says the pace at which tenants are now being evicted is wreaking havoc on his business.

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• Slinkman is so serious that he and his father plan to file a federal lawsuit Wednesday claiming what Dart and a Cook County Judge have done to his business is unconstituitional, that apartment evicitions have slowed to a crawl and that the Judge's order to halt evictions in bad weather has been taken to an extreme.

• "It's running us out of business," Slinkman said. "We're on the brink of not making it, in large part because we can't get our product back." Slinkman and his father own 50 buildings -- roughly 700 units -- in Cook County, but right now they say that so many of their tenants are behind in rent that their cash flow is down $20K to $25K per month.

• The apartment owners claim the overcrowded apartment of one deadbeat tenant at their property in Lyons and a BBQ held in the lviing room at another building in Justice are also jeopardizing the the lives of the rest of their tenants.

For the story, see Landlord: Pace of Evictions Wreaking Havoc on Business (Property manager to sue Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart).

In a related story, see The Southtown Star: Too much compassion exists in Cook County (Landlord Mike Slinkman claims that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's political grandstanding is threatening to put him out of business).