Photo: 2nd Ward Ald. Robert Fioretti, from left, 29th Ward Ald. Deborah Graham and Chicago Teachers Union coordinator Jackson Potter support the Vacant Property Safe Passages Ordinance in front of Leland Elementary School in Chicago on SundayTwo of the first five houses immediately west of George Leland Elementary School are vacant, and the boarded-up home next to Sherman Carter's has long served as a haven for dogfighters and drug dealers, he said.
Carter, 68, said this brick two-story home in the Austin neighborhood — its wooden porch sagging, its front gates held together by a chain — is more than just a "filthy eyesore," because it sits along the route children walk to school.
"I know it endangers them," Carter said.
Aiming to bolster student safety and hold banks accountable for foreclosures and vacant properties, City Council members and the Chicago Teachers Union are pushing a measure that would force owners of large numbers of houses to post security guards at empty homes they own near schools or face fines of up to $1,000 per violation.
Supporters of the ordinance to be introduced Wednesday say it would protect students while forcing lenders to accept accountability for risky loans that led to a wave of foreclosures.
The lack of safe passage for many Chicago Public Schools students, which came dramatically to light with the 2009 beating death of Derrion Albert near Fenger High School, stops children from coming to school and prevents them from learning, said Bonita Robinson, a teacher who retired before this school year.
"These are brilliant children in these areas," said Robinson, on the street with Carter in Austin, waving her hand around the neighborhood in which she taught for 39 years. "But they don't have the supports built in."
Citing foreclosures on more than 10,500 homes in 2010, the ordinance would compel owners of five or more buildings in the city to post a daytime guard at any vacant building within 1,000 yards of a public school. The ordinance would also call for night guards at all vacant building.
The ordinance, championed by council members Deborah Graham, 29th, and Robert Fioretti. 2nd, calls for fines of $1,000 for each violation within 1,000 yards of a school. The legislation says fines wouldn't apply to buildings "secured by methods approved by the commissioner of buildings," though those methods aren't specified.
The ordinance defines "owner" as an entity "owning, maintaining, operating, collecting rents for, or having any legal or equitable interest in any building, including a mortgagee or its assignee or agent."
The proposal is similar, Fioretti said, to one that failed to gain traction last year, but he added that he is optimistic the measure can pass.
CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll said school administrators had not reviewed the ordinance as of Sunday.
She noted that school district is putting about $10 million this year toward the Safe Passage program, which aims to protect students on the path to school. She also cited an initiative, piloted at Fenger, to expand security camera systems to 14 more schools. Reported crimes in schools have dropped 22 percent over the last two years, she said.
"Providing safe passage for our students to and from school is a top priority for CPS," she said in an email.
It's also a priority to teachers who want to "defend and protect" the communities they teach in," said Jackson Potter, of the teachers union.
Standing near the Austin elementary school, Fioretti said the ordinance would assign responsibility to banks for vacant homes that can serve as crime magnets.
"The kids, when they pass by these places, all kinds of things can happen to them," he said, just after supporters of the ordinance walked the block, chanting along with a megaphone-wielding leader. "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out."
The house next to Carter's has been vacant for more than three years, Carter said. He and other neighbors hounded police about it, occasionally cleaning up the premises themselves until a few days ago, when a crew came to work on the property, he said.
Carter and his neighbors would occasionally go into the building and find pit bulls, some living, some dead, he said, while drug dealers used the house as a base. He doesn't know who owns the house, Carter said.
Bonita Robinson, the teacher, recalled going to students' homes to bring them to class. Students who don't feel safe on the street are less likely to show up, she said. And students who worry for their safety can't focus on their studies, she said, standing in front of a house with its doors and windows covered in plywood.
"This is tied in with academics," she said.
