As more rain arrives, West Side homeowners are still recovering from 2023 floods
Homeowners on the city's West Side are worried about more potential flooding as storms move into the Chicago area Friday night.
Many are still picking up the pieces from the destructive flooding damage from two years ago.
Homeowners said they just can't get ahead—saying the help they've gotten from the city or federal government simply isn't enough to repair their homes.
"After we finish cleaning up from one flood, then there's another flood," Debra Grant said.
Grant talks about the ongoing flooding she's seen on the West Side for the last 15 years.
"We have lost a whole lot of things that can't be replaced," she said.
In the summer of 2023, torrential flooding took over streets on the west side, backed up sewers, and flooded people's basements.
Grant and other homeowners said their insurance companies backed out, sending responses that read, "sewer lines backing up into your home is not one of the covered causes of loss." Essentially, saying the city is responsible for any damages.
The city is in the process of finalizing a disaster recovery action plan with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.
"Now y'all wanna come out with a five-point plan of what y'all wanna do with the money that's supposed to come to us? That's supposed to help us put our houses back together, that ain't right," Larry Quinn said.
Quin said his basement has tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage. So far, he's only seen $1,900 from FEMA, much less than what he said he was promised.
"They had passed out something to help us clean our basement out. Who need a bucket and a mop and our walls is infected," he said.
"This year, I still have water coming in the basement because the problem wasn't fixed in 23. That money should be put aside for us, to help us," Dorothy Rosenthal said.
As part of its action plan and in response to feedback from West Side homeowners, the city is planning to reallocate $15 million from infrastructure and mitigation to public services.
37th Ward Ald. Emma Mitts' office issued a statement that said, in part:
"This has been a somewhat challenging post-flood period for the 37th Ward and Chicago's West Side, but the GOOD NEWS is that Alderwoman Mitts is strategically and successfully working collaboratively with FEMA, the Mayor's Office, HUD and the State of Illinois to assist impacted residents, homeowners/renters, businesses, organizations, and others affected by the July 2023 and other 2024 storms. Today, these weather-related disruptions are becoming an unfortunate ongoing environmental-related reality in 21st century major urban areas like Chicago, and the city's West side is no exception.
In response Alderperson Mitts has hosted open-door flood relief sessions in her public service office for neighborhood residents, in addition to the 37th Ward monthly community meetings focused on addressing the specific requests, issues and information needs in our West Side Chicago communities. Ald. Mitts, her staff, FEMA, the Mayor's Office, other West Side and Chicago officials have also previously gone door-to-door to assess damages, in order to provide cleaning resources, enhanced garbage pick-up schedules, while offering a welcoming space for constituent discussion and generating direct, yet unfortunately somewhat slower responses by multi-governmental agencies than anyone wanted - - action."
"As Alderwoman, Mitts is and has always been committed to providing enhanced targeted service needs, information outreach, and other protections, and this approach continues for all 37th Ward residents. My staff and I continue to work with all individuals, families and organizations seeking assistance, and bi-lingual staff are available to respond as necessary in this regard. Further, the Alderwoman is available for phone calls, zoom/virtual, or in-person meetings during the 37th Ward weekly ward night or at other scheduled times."
CBS News Chicago has contacted HUD about when those homeowners can expect additional funds to come in. They have yet to respond.