Crews clean up overgrown abandoned property on Chicago's South Side a day after CBS News Chicago report
On Tuesday evening, CBS News Chicago reported on wild weeds taking over a property in the South Side's Washington Heights neighborhood, and neighbors who said they spent months trying to get help.
A day later, there was a happy update, and one that came together rather quickly.
After months of frustration, neighbors on a block in Washington Heights woke up to the sight they'd been waiting for — Streets and Sanitation crews arriving at 7 a.m. Wednesday to clean up an abandoned property.
The neighbors said the difference is already making the neighborhood feel whole again.
After the property went into foreclosure in 2024 and the homeowner abandoned it, neighbors say the home went from one of the nicest on the block to looking more like a forest preserve — one that drew squatters and attracted critters such as rats and opossums.
It caused a nightmare for neighbors like Joyce Bennett.
"My roof, I had a hole in it. I had to get that repaired," Bennett said. "My screen, I had to get those repaired twice. It's just getting out of hand."
But calls for help from neighbors and the alderman's office only led to citations — no action.
The problem was that after the owner went into default, the property was supposed to be sold in the spring — but the sale was postponed. So the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation said it was still working to find owner information to determine if the home was technically vacant or occupied.
Nevertheless, the morning after CBS News Chicago's story aired, city crews arrived to take care of the job. The vegetation was dense, and clearing it was no small task.
Crews spent more than five hours completing the job, and neighbors said just hours later, they have already noticed fewer bugs and critters around the property.
CBS News reached out to the Department of Streets and Sanitation for an interview and to ask what had changed since the story on Tuesday.
The interview request was denied, but a spokesperson said the property was deemed "unsafe, unsanitary and had rodents on the premises, which posed a health risk for the neighboring residents." For those reasons, the commissioner authorized crews to clean it.
