Hector gamboa chicago

One out of three calls is related to a foreclosure problem, he says. People with low to moderate incomes, whether owners of single-family houses or rental properties, generally used subprime lenders, Gamboa says, and comprise most of his clientele. He is a board member and volunteer for the Metropolitan Tenants Organization in Chicago, a group dedicated to educating and organizing renters on decisions that affect the affordability and availability of housing. An estimated 55 percent of Chicago residents live in , rentals, according to the tenants' group.

And a renter's fate is tied to that of his landlord, Bernstein explains. If a homeowner loses his mortgage, the renter loses his rights too. Those risks include the likelihood utilities will be shut off with the attendant damage. Or a city could deem the building unsafe, forcing tenants out. These are problems that banks don't want to deal with during a foreclosure, Bernstein said. Besides, banks can't do anything until they formally get the title. Renters got a small reprieve with a state amendment passed in January that requires landlords to give those current on their payments days to move out.

Along with losing their homes, tenants also lose security deposits, adding to financial challenges.

A handful of cities in Illinois have landlord-tenant ordinances that cover security deposits and other issues like repairs and lease rules, according to John Bartlett, executive director of Metropolitan Tenants Organization. Cities with such ordinances include Chicago, Mt. Prospect, Evanston, Oak Park and Urbana. But when the landlords can't be found, which is becoming more common, "tenants have no recourse" in recovering their deposits, says Weiss, who has put in 12 years at the center.

Hester has left his place but learned a lesson: "I got the apartment in an instant. OK -- it's yours. Now I'm asking questions" before getting ready to move in. And though Robinson would like to stay in his apartment, he is using the same vigilance as he keeps his eye out for a new place.

We weren't expecting anything," Robinson says of his situation. The housing summit at the Humboldt Park field house marked the latest effort by the Puerto Rican community to protect their culture -- symbolized by the two foot steel Puerto Rican flags on Division Street that border the Paseo Boricua business corridor -- from gentrification.

Jose Lopez, executive director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago, said gentrification is "displacing the throwaway people" and "is just another form of recolonization.

But a growing foreclosure crisis has complicated their campaign and left for-sale signs and boarded-up houses in its wake. In Humboldt Park, the number of foreclosure filings has risen at an alarming rate, from about last year to more than 1, this year, said Hector Gamboa, program development manager at the Spanish Coalition for Housing. Gamboa said there are some positive signs, such as some mortgage lenders who have begun negotiating with homeowners, lowering their interest rates and principals.

But in the last few years, rents in parts of Humboldt Park have more than doubled, he said, forcing even some new affluent tenants to move out.