Blue Island meeting provides some answers on mobile home park; residents given months to leave

UPDATE  November 16, 2025 

Attorneys discuss next steps for Blue Island mobile home park residents as part of lawsuit between the city and property managers.

Attorneys for the owners and residents of a mobile home park being shuttered by Blue Island, along with the city’s attorney, decided after meeting Tuesday it would be unrealistic to save the park, contrary to the residents’ aims.

Infrastructure issues and building code violations would require significant investment to remedy, according to the residents’ attorney, Krisann Kuecher.

Cook County Judge Eve Reilly ordered the parties to meet as part of a larger legal battle between the city and Forest View Mobile Home Park Inc., Mer-Car Corporation, Chicago Title Land Trust and Steven Dukatt, president of Mer-Car Corporation. The case will continue Aug. 13 on Zoom.

While residents have advocated to save the park and even purchase it as a resident-owned mobile home park, Kuecher said there is not a viable, quick enough plan to do so.

The residents will have six months to a year to find alternative housing, and any eviction actions properly initiated, she said, will be dismissed upon resident acceptance and compliance with the proposed relocation agreement.

Kuecher said no rightful resident will be evicted before being given opportunity to consider and accept or reject a proposed relocation agreement, which will contain an agreement for the timeframe for relocation.

Many of the mobile homes are old and unable to be moved without the risk of destroying the trailer, Kuecher said.

“That’s a significant blow to them economically, and it’s deterring heir future plans and their economic prospects for their families,” Kuecher said. “Many people, myself included, thought mobile homes were, well, mobile, that they can just move them, but that’s not the case.”

Kuecher called the situation an affordable housing crisis for Blue Island and said the city has a political and moral responsibility to provide assistance. She said about 300 people, or about 1% of Blue Island’s total population, live in the park and could soon be unhoused, according to an estimate from her recent survey of park residents.

According to these surveys, residents also reported people purporting to be management or representatives of the owners renting out homes without knowledge or permission of the owners or city, and collecting rents from those residents, Kuecher said.

She said the differences between the property owners’ estimates on the number of residents, reported at about 10 legal residents, and the residents reported numbers, at about 300, is due to issues with rental payments reported versus received. Some residents, alleged as squatters by the management company, said they have paid rent.

“We are trying to learn more about this to ensure that the criminals conducting this fraud are prosecuted and that families who have been defrauded are not treated like squatters, but have the same protections as lawful residents,” Kuecher said.

In the meantime, Kuecher instructed residents to not pay rent, “except as directed by counsel in the residents’ group to ensure this does not continue,” she said.

The residents are also working with the city and owners to ensure they receive adequate support for relocation. Residents expect to have a proposal by the end of the week representing the funding needed for relocation and plan to work with the owners toward negotiating a final agreement in the next few weeks, she said.

While residents have previously advocated for the property to remain residential, City Administrator Thomas Wogan said Tuesday that Forest View does not have the proper zoning classification to legally operate a mobile home park and said the property is zoned as industrial and not residential.

These zoning issues dated back to 1971, he said, when the property was originally developed as a mobile home park. While the Planning and Zoning Board recommended approval of a special-use permit, he said, there is no record that the City Council ever officially granted it.

Wogan said the subsequent owner received a special-use permit in 1980, but there is no record of the current owner, Mer-Car Corporation, ever applying for or receiving a special-use permit.

“Special-use permits do not transfer with the sale of a property, meaning the current operation lacks the required zoning,” said Wogan.

The property managers also owe the city almost $4 million in unpaid water bills, Wogan said. In 2023, the city came close to shutting off the mobile home park’s water service after the landlord did not pay $850,000 in water bills. Residents protested and received a temporary restraining order to keep the water on.

In late June, Blue Island officials sent a letter to the Forest View property owners demanding the owners to “cease and desist” and evict residents, mainly due to unsafe conditions, calling the property a “clear and present danger to the public health, safety and general welfare of the City” as well as those living on and near the premises.

Between June 5 and July 27, the Police Department received 30 calls concerning the mobile home property for issues such as theft, aggravated battery handgun, domestic battery, shots fired, domestic trouble or loose animals. Police were called 11 times to assist an ambulance on the property.

The Fire Department was called 26 times during the same time period.

As residents weigh options on moving in the next 6 to 12 months, Kuecher encouraged residents to stay informed by being involved in the residents’ group as they work toward a solution.

She said she, with the help of other residents, have collected surveys from 41 out of the residents in 85 occupied trailers in order to negotiate a relocation agreement that adequately reflects their families circumstances and needs, but need the remaining residents to complete the survey.

Kuecher also said residents welcome any assistance and to contact her if an organization can provide “any help to these residents in their time of need.”

awright@chicagotribune.com

Originally Published: July 29, 2025 at 2:17 PM CDT