Who Lives in the Chateau?

By Sreya Sarkar

With the formal announcement of the closing of Chateau Hotel at the Housing Court hearing on Tuesday, January 29th, 2013 by attorney Mitchell Asher representing the unknown new owners of Chateau Hotel, 3838 N. Broadway Avenue, the residents of Chateau are certain that they will have to leave soon.

In the last two years, this is the fifth Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotel closing its doors on its residents. With the Chateau shutting down, almost 700 affordable housing units will disappear from Lakeview with no known plans to replace them anytime in future.

But this commentary is not just about the buildings, it is about the people living in them. Many are not acquainted with the diverse population residing in SROs. Lakeview Pantry’s long and deep interaction with the residents at the Chateau allows it to disintegrate the negative image of the SRO residents sometimes painted by Lakeview neighbors who have not had the opportunity to interact with them closely.

Jenny Dwyer, manager of client services at Lakeview Pantry states, “Many of whom I have interacted with from Chateau are minimum wage earners (both full and part time), individuals with disabilities including veterans, trauma and domestic violence survivors and ex-offenders who are trying hard to put their life back together.” “These are vulnerable individuals who live quietly and responsibly”, she said.

Greg Nergaard, Lakeview Pantry’s East site coordinator added, “Many at Chateau live on very small fixed monthly incomes such as SSI and SSDI averaging $690-725 per month. Residents of the Chateau pay $585 per month for a single room, with no kitchen facilities. Many people in this situation can barely afford to pay for basic food. Other expenses such as medicine or transportation are all but out of reach. Saving enough money to pay for the security deposit on a better place to live is tremendously difficult.” “In short, most of the people that live in The Chateau don’t live there because they choose to- they live there because there are no other choices that they can afford.” he said.

The least know facts about the conditions faced by people living in SROs are:

• A substantial number of individuals have mental and physical disabilities and are placed in SROs by social service agencies as a result of absence of permanent housing arrangements for these vulnerable individuals.
• Low-income couples who want to live together end up in SROs as many supportive housing projects have a policy of allowing only one person per unit.
• Low-income single member households who want to live independently have almost no other option other than SROs.
• Public housing and supportive housing projects have long wait lists that have hardly moved in years. Many of those in these wait lists find SROs the only immediate housing option.
• SROs are not really inexpensive. They are market-rate housing. Their monthly rents for a single room range from $500 to $700 in Chicago.

These are not typically the individuals that cause trouble and harassment to the neighborhood. They are also not the ones that make a neighborhood unsafe. They too seek what others in Lakeview want– peace and safety.