Illinois
Harvey apartments boarded up amid concerns over unfit living conditions, ongoing crime
HARVEY, Ill. (WLS) — Harvey city officials said they have been talking with property managers about unfit living conditions and ongoing crime on South Halsted Street since October, but told ABC7 it was the owners who took it upon themselves, on Friday night, to board up the apartments there.
Some residents said they were still inside their homes.
Rudolph Williams spoke from inside.
“I opened the door, and here’s this big piece of plywood right there,” Williams said.
Williams is now able to walk through his opened front door after, he claims, crews boarded it shut with plywood while he was still inside.
When asked what went through his mind at that moment, Williams said, “Wondering how I was going to get out.”
He lives in the apartment complex on South Halsted in Harvey, where many were apparently forced out of their homes on Friday night due to what’s being called unsafe and dangerous living conditions.
Issues there, residents said, have been mounting for years.
“My mom was 73 years old, and I had to move her from up over here, because it was too much going on. The stairs had fell down. I fell through the stairs,” said James Williams, whose relatives live at the complex.
Mary Brooks, a resident of four years, also weighed in.
“Twenty-four-hour drug activity. One man was shot five times and dropped dead at my back door. There’s no one around here picking up trash,” Brooks, 66, said. “It’s been miserable.”
In a statement, Harvey city leaders said, in part, “Contrary to recent claims, the city did not evict anyone from these properties but has communicated with the property owners regarding the unsafe conditions of the buildings and need to immediately rectify the dangerous living conditions.”
In fact, city leaders said, the owners made the call. Harvey alderpeople have been scrambling for a resolution.
“Capital improvement should never come at the expense of someone’s livelihood,” said 2nd Ward Alderwoman Colby Chapman.
Brooks, who was diagnosed with cancer less than a year ago, is now left to fight for a place to stay.
“It’s hard. I want to plan, but you can’t plan because you don’t know where you’re going to move to, when you’ll be able to move, how much money,” Brooks said.
ABC7 has reached out to the property owners and the board up crew, but have not heard back. City officials said they will continue to monitor the situation.
At this time, it is unclear if or when exactly these residents will have to move.
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Illinois
Unincorporated Bensenville residents say ‘nightmare’ rat infestation threatens their health, safety
UNINCORP. BENSENVILLE, Ill. (WLS) — People living in a neighborhood in unincorporated Bensenville say a rat infestation is a threat to their health and safety.
Those in the White Pines neighborhood say they know the source of the problem, but they feel like elected officials are not doing enough to help them.
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Multiple homeowners say the issue goes back at least two years. They believe one particular property is ground zero and that there have been no significant measures to eliminate what they are calling a rat infestation.
“It’s just a nightmare right now,” said White Pines resident Jim Brill.
Brill says for two years, he and his neighbors have dealt with rats running around their property.
“It’s impacting every house that surrounds that house. The rats come out when we put our trash cans out. They literally swarm out of the yard, that house’s yard, go in our trash cans,” Brill said.
Another neighbor says his home security picked up the rodents after they tripped the camera’s motion sensors, sharing at least a dozen videos with ABC7 showing them scurrying around the side of his house.
And pictures show multiple rats on the windowsills on the home that neighbors believe is the root of the issue.
“We have to, you know, take huge measures to maintain our property, and we’ve done that, but when your neighbor isn’t doing that, and then creating housing for these vermin, right, that carry disease, and can, you know, be troublesome and problematic, it’s quite frustrating,” said White Pines resident Kristin Henri.
Henri says her parents have lived there for more than 50 years, never with a rat problem, until 2024. She says the rats are a hazard to their health and safety.
“We’ve had rats on our property, running through in broad daylight, so it’s unnerving. I can’t let my dog out. I worry about my neighbor’s child across the street, who’s a toddler,” Henri said.
Henri and Brill say living in an unincorporated part of Bensenville has complicated matters. At this point, they believe it is in the county’s hands, but still the problem persists.
“We contacted the county. They keep telling us they’re going to take care of the problem, and they don’t,” Brill said.
“We need somebody to help eliminate this. It’s not fair to us. We maintain our properties, and we want to live in a safe environment,” Henri said.
The DuPage County Building and Zoning Staff told ABC7 they been working on this problem since 2024.
They are working with the owner of a single property to clean the home’s interior.
Once that’s done, the county says, it will have an exterminator come in and set traps in the area.
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Sightings of a fireball were reported across Illinois and at least eight other states on Monday night.
The American Meteor Society received nearly 200 reports of a fireball seen over Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin around 10 p.m.
Some of the reports out of Illinois came from Chicago, Aurora, Carpentersville, Warrenville, Addison, Waukegan, Oak Lawn, Shorewood Westchester, and Glen Ellyn. There were also reports from Indiana, including Valparaiso and Fort Wayne.
There was also a report out of Ontario, Canada.
Home camera footage, posted by the American Meteor Society, shows a flash across the sky in Michigan about an hour Northwest of Detroit.
A car crashed into a home in unincorporated Cary, Illinois, while three people were inside Monday evening, fire officials said.
A spokesperson for the Cary Fire Protection District said they were called to a home in the 2500 block of Oakdale Terrace just after 5:30 p.m. after reports came in that a vehicle had crashed into a house.
When paramedics and firefighters arrived, they found a black Jeep had slammed into a house, causing damage.
Three people were in the home at the time, fire officials said, but they were all able to get out safely and no injuries were reported. There were two people in the Jeep who got checked out by paramedics for minor injuries, but they declined further medical attention and did not want to go to a hospital.
Because of the damage to the home, McHenry County officials deemed it unsafe to occupy until repairs were made.
The American Red Cross is helping the four residents of the home with temporary housing and other needs while repairs are made.
The circumstances surrounding the crash are under investigation by the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office. It was not clear if any charges or citations would be issued.
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