CHICAGO — A tiny wooden house built by volunteers at a longtime South Loop homeless encampment was taken down less than a week after going up.
The 8-by-8-foot tiny house, at Roosevelt Road and South Desplaines Street along the Dan Ryan Expressway, was slapped with a “stop work” order by the city last week, Block Club first reported. It was built by the Orange Tent Project, a local nonprofit that’s drawn the ire of city officials and some neighbors for bringing hundreds of winterized orange tents to unhoused people across the city.
Morgan McLuckie, CEO of the Orange Tent Project, previously said the tiny homes were a temporary solution until the city does more on a decades-long promise to end homelessness and transition people into affordable housing — and that volunteers planned to appeal the notice and continue work.
But in a Thursday statement to Block Club, McLuckie said she ultimately decided to take down the house after conversations with city officials.
“In the spirit of cooperation, we have chosen to align our efforts with the city’s directives,” McLuckie said in the statement. “While it’s disheartening that we’re compelled to dismantle a structure that could provide essential support, I believe that forging a collaborative path forward is in our collective best interest.”
McLuckie said she is working with the city in “exploring alternatives to address the urgent needs of our neighbors.”
The tent city at Roosevelt Road and South Desplaines Street has been there for at least four decades.
RELATED: Tiny House Pops Up In South Loop Tent City, But Will The City Let It Stand?
Volunteers had planned to build at least one more tiny house with money from grants and donations. The fully insulated homes were designed by architecture students at the Illinois Institute of Technology and cost about $2,000 each to produce.
In a previous statement, a spokesperson with the city’s buildings department said the tiny house presented “public safety and quality of life issues.”
“Last week, [the buildings department] placed an off limits-do not enter sticker and a stop worker order on a structure that was placed at Roosevelt and Des Plaines because it was built without plans or permits,” the spokesperson said in the statement.
Some South Loop neighbors previously took to social media to express concerns about the tiny home, saying the encampment has swelled in recent years and the area was dangerous.
“Renovation of the housing units being abandoned every year in many parts of the city is probably a more sustainable and cost-effective solution than showoff or whizbang efforts” such as the tiny house, said Dennis McClendon, vice president of the South Loop Neighbors Association.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office would not comment specifically on the tiny house, but a spokesperson pointed to signature policy proposals to restructure hundreds of millions in city financing for affordable housing, as well as the Bring Chicago Home referendum on the March 19 ballot.
“Mayor Johnson believes that housing is a human right,” the statement said.
Support Local News!
Subscribe to Block Club Chicago, an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods. Already subscribe? Click here to gift a subscription, or you can support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation.
Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:
