Residents of Chicago high-rise cleared to move in 22 months after fire, but still can’t

CHICAGO (CBS) — Residents of the south tower of the Harper Square Cooperative have finally been cleared to move back into their homes nearly two years after a deadly fire in the building—but on Wednesday, they were still out in the cold.
The fire that ripped through the building at 4850 S. Lake Park Ave. in the South Side’s Kenwood neighborhood happened back on Jan. 25, 2023. Just last week, some residents were complaining about how they were still displaced.
But with the city having given the thumbs-up a week ago for nine floors’ worth of those residents to move back in, only one has been allowed to do so. As to why, answers from those managing the building are scarce.
That wintry Wednesday coming up on two years ago, a fire broke out just after 10 a.m. on the 15th floor of the apartment tower. The fire spread to 10 floors of the 25-story building.
Debris was seen falling to the ground as firefighters rushed into the building to put out the flames, while residents inside the building spotted flames climbing past their windows.
“Looked out the window and saw fire rolling out of the window, on the outside coming up,” said Ken Harris, a resident of the building for more than 35 years.
A woman in her 80s, a retired schoolteacher, died in the fire.
Harris said there had been other fires in the building over the years, but they were all confined to one apartment.
But ever since the devastating January 2023 fire, Harris has been out of his home. He does not live on one of the floors that have been cleared for reoccupancy, but he emphasized that those who do have not been receiving information on timelines or next steps.
“Since it’s been gone, it’s been very trying,” Harris said. “We’ve had no consistency or real information about where, how we’re going to be, where we’re going to go, or how long this process was going to take.”
Harris said the timetable for residents’ return to their homes in the building just kept getting longer and longer.
“Imagine you right now going home tonight, and you get to your house or your apartment, and they say you can’t go in, and you’re not allowed to go back in for three weeks. You have what you have,” Harris said. “It was three months before we had our first meeting about how long it’s going to be, and what it would take from us. At that point, they said three months.”
And of course, it has now been a lot longer than three months.
“It just kept getting pushed back,” he said. “We didn’t get information on what was happening. There was no central communication.”
He said residents were optimistic last week when the city’s Department of Buildings finally cleared those living on floors 2 through 10 to move back in after what they called round after round of construction delays.
The city’s Buildings Department said problems with permit applications contributed to the long timeline for repairs.
Residents thought the city’s permit meant move-in would happen right away. But it turns out it hasn’t.
Harris’ own upper-floor unit will not be ready for some time to come.
 “Hopefully, they’ll be finished with my unit by the end of the year,” Harris said. “Right now, they’re continuing to work on my unit. It is not finished yet, and I don’t know when the exact date is going to be.”
But those whose units are ready are lacking answers about returning to them.
Harris says residents understand it will be a long process, since there are only two elevators for move-ins—one for odd floors and one for even. There is no freight elevator available.
Harris said last he heard, 40 units were complete. But he said with no real communication from building management, it’s hard for everyone to continue to be patient.
“People have died. People have died from the stress. That’s no joke,” he said. “The stress and uncertainty has really been weighing on people.”
Ald. Lamont Robinson (4th) said deferred maintenance on the building contributed to delays, and expressed disappointment just like the residents:
“I just like our board to be clear, upfront, and transparent with us about what’s going on—the state of our financial state, what that state is going to be after we get back in,” said Harris, “because like I said, there’s a financial part about that, what we’re going to pay and what we’re going to have to pay to manage this.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Buildings said the department will be back at Harper Square Cooperative early next week to check on four more floors. But as has already been seen, clearance from the department does not mean those people would be able to move in right away.