UPTOWN — Residents of one of the last remaining single-room occupancy buildings in Uptown were forced to leave their apartments Friday due to the building’s deteriorating conditions — leaving some with nowhere to go.
Tenants had to leave the Northmere, 4943 N. Kenmore Ave., by 10 a.m. Friday, as ordered by a judge on Oct. 21 in a case brought over the building’s conditions. On Friday morning, social workers walked down the hallways, some littered with trash and with holes in the ceiling, trying to connect the last-remaining tenants with support and shelter placement.
The social workers knocked on doors, with some tenants answering and saying they were unaware of the deadline to leave the building. Others carried their possessions out of the building in shopping carts, milk crates and trash bags.
Police showed up around the 10 a.m. deadline to confront a few tenants who refused to leave, unlocking and sometimes breaking doors open.
The evictions are an unfortunate turn in the case of the Northmere, whose neglect could cause one of the last affordable housing buildings of its kind to vanish, at least temporarily, from Uptown, organizers said. Such single-room occupancy, or SRO, buildings offer bare-bones rooms often in dormitory like settings for cheap rents, providing housing for people who may otherwise face homelessness.
The Northmere has failed all 13 of its building inspections since 2022 and has racked up 63 code violations over the past two years, city records show.
On the top floor, the ceiling tiles are caving in, and water from leaks drips onto the stairs. The building currently has no heat, a severe roach infestation, and hallways littered with trash. Bricks from the building’s facade have fallen off and hit people, said Aubrey Dvorak, a social worker with Uptown People’s Law Center.
The city took the Northmere’s ownership to court to address the building infractions, which resulted in the judge on Oct. 21 ordering it vacated over dangerous condition. And while the building may remain an SRO, some of its previous residents are struggling to find new housing or can’t afford the move the court required.
“As awful as it is to be there, people [wanted] to stay,” Dvorak said.
David Jacobson, 70, has lived in the Northmere since 2018. After getting a notice to leave, he is moving to DeKalb, Illinois. Credit: Reema Saleh for Block Club Chicago
Of the 70 people who lived in Northmere, 42 moved out before Friday, according to Dvorak. Some who remained had difficulty moving out due to age, disability, and mental illness.
“We have been working with a number of social service agencies in the area. A ton of coordination has been happening,” Dvorak said. “But many people absolutely have nowhere to go … they have no money.”
The Northmere is owned by a land trust with Lino Iscra as the beneficiary, records show. His recent passing has created confusion over the building’s ownership and whether his son, Ken Iscra, inherited the land trust. The building has been given to a receiver while the court case and ownership issues are untangled, property records show.
“Unfortunately, this property’s unique land-trust ownership structure and the uncertainty surrounding the succession of the deceased owner’s beneficiary have confined us to a complicated legal process,” Nefsa’Hyatt Brown, director of public affairs for the Department of Buildings, said in a statement.
Bryan Higgins, a staff attorney with the Uptown People’s Law Center, claims that Ken Iscra does not legally own the building and has been illegally collecting rent checks from tenants over the past few months. Ken Iscra did not respond to a request for comment Saturday.
A hole in the ceiling of a stairwell landing at the Northmere, an SRO building at 4943 N. Kenmore Ave. in Uptown. Credit: Reema Saleh for Block Club Chicago
A room at the Northmere, an SRO building at 4943 N. Kenmore Ave. in Uptown. Credit: Reema Saleh for Block Club Chicago
After living there for eleven years, Felix Maceiro moved out of the Northmere a couple of weeks ago and into a seniors building in Ravenswood. He lost many of his possessions to flooding caused by the building’s broken pipes and had to contend with a ceiling leak and a bedbug infestation, something he said that ownership had done nothing about.
“It cost a fortune buying bedbug sprays. The bathroom [was] not working. I had to spend my own money trying to get it to work. My wall [was] falling down,” he said. “He did nothing about it. He never even came to the room to look at it.”
At 73, moving out felt like completely starting over, Maceiro said. He got help from the Department of Family and Support Services and the U.S. Veterans Affairs’ housing department to find a new place to live, but he is still frustrated with the short timeline the vacate order gave tenants, saying residents learned of the deadline too late.
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“The thing that gets me about the city is [that] they knew about all these violations for years. This did not just happen overnight. It goes back here years and years and years, and to let them get away with it,” he said. “But in the end, it’s the tenants who pay for it.”
Following the vacate order, each tenant received $2,500 in relocation assistance from the building’s receiver, CNR Advisors, LLC: $1,500 to begin the process and $1,000 upon moving, according to the tenants and housing organizers.
All relocation checks have been issued, Brown said, but because some tenants do not have IDs, the receiver is exploring options to allow those tenants to cash their checks.
An office at the Northmere, 4943 N. Kenmore Ave., which was ordered to be vacated Friday, Dec. 12, 2025, over dangerous building conditions. Credit: Reema Saleh for Block Club Chicago
Like other tenants, Antwon Van received two relocation checks from the building’s receiver totaling $2,500. But it’s not enough, he said, after getting movers to move his furniture and paying fees to look for a new apartment with his partner.
“That money don’t last from day to day. We have to get a hotel, so [that] we won’t be on the streets, and that money [is] almost gone. We might have enough to get probably a month’s rent in, but what happens when that runs out? They’re gonna put us back out,” he said.
Local social services groups Uptown People’s Law Center, Voice of the People, and ONE Northside have been working with tenants to secure their relocation checks and, before Friday’s deadline came, delay the vacate order. Other nonprofits, including Thresholds and Trilogy, have also been providing mental health services to people in the Northmere’s final weeks open.
The Northmere is one of the last five remaining single-room occupancy buildings in Uptown, a neighborhood that historically was home to many SROs. But such buildings are vanishing across the North Side. Nearly 40 percent of the city’s SRO buildings have closed since 2014, according to a 2024 study by the University of Illinois Chicago.
The Northmere, 4943 N. Kenmore Ave., is seen with scaffolding around its first floor. Credit: Reema Saleh for Block Club Chicago
One of the other five remaining SRO’s in Uptown — the Chatelaine, 4911 N. Winthrop Ave. — is for sale, with some worried it could be converted to market-rate apartments.
Over the past six years in Uptown, multiple buildings of this type, like the Lorali, the Darlington, and the Hazelton Hotel, have been converted into market-rate housing.
The future of the Northmere is unclear at the moment. The court case is still ongoing, and there so far is no indication that it will be converted into market-rate apartments, Brown said. The city’s SRO Preservation Ordinance includes some requirements to keep the building affordable should it change ownership, among other protections.
“The Northmere has historically provided affordable units for individuals on fixed incomes who face a heightened risk of displacement or becoming unhoused without them, which is why the city remains dedicated to safeguarding this irreplaceable source of affordable housing,” Brown said in a statement. “Despite this complexity, the Department of Buildings has not received confirmation of any intent to change the property’s status as an SRO and remains focused on the safety of residents and supporting them through their relocation as the legal framework governing the trust continues to evolve.”
Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th) said the loss of the Northmere as an SRO would be “devastating for the community.”
“Our goal is not to get rid of affordable housing. It’s to build more and preserve what we’ve got. But we don’t own these buildings. The city doesn’t own these buildings,” Manaa-Hoppenworth said at the Northmere Friday. “We’re relying on property owners to do their jobs and to take care of the buildings because it’s not just a building. It’s housing people, and we should take care of our people.”
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