KENWOOD — Fifteen renters living at a troubled Kenwood affordable apartment building have sued to stop eviction proceedings and prevent future ones while accusing their property manager of retaliating against them for holding a rent strike at the property.

The Ellis Lakeview Apartments, 4624 S. Ellis Ave., went into foreclosure and was sold to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation — the federally chartered company better known as Freddie Mac — last summer. Freddie Mac now aims to resell the property.

Residents began a rent strike in March after notifying Freddie Mac in February of their intent to withhold some rent until repairs are made. That’s allowed under the Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance with 14 days’ notice “if the landlord fails to maintain the property in compliance with [city] code, and the failure renders the premises not reasonably fit and habitable.”

Fifteen tenants say they’ve received “retaliatory” eviction notices since the strike began, and that the notices are based on inaccurate rent balances. Ansonia Property Management, Ellis Lakeview’s property manager, filed for eviction against three tenants April 17, according to Cook County Circuit Court records.

The 15 tenants sued last month in county court, seeking an injunction against any eviction attempts based on the notices they received in March, as well as a jury trial to consider their claims that Ansonia and Freddie Mac illegally retaliated against the striking renters.

“We repeatedly asked management for complete [rent balance] ledgers to figure out what the hell is going on, but we can’t get them, even though it’s our basic right,” Kimberly Marzette, a plaintiff and member of the Ellis Lakeview tenants’ association, said during an April 30 rally. “How can you tell a tenant their lease will be terminated if they don’t pay thousands of dollars in back rent, [but] refuse to give any evidence?”

In addition to the 15 plaintiffs behind the complaint seeking to stop evictions, tenants have filed an additional seven civil court cases regarding living conditions at Ellis Lakeview since March.

Freddie Mac spokesperson Melissa Silverman declined to answer Block Club’s questions, citing ongoing litigation. Ansonia Property Management did not respond to a request for comment.

The rent strike comes as tenants pressure the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to require any landlord who buys the property from Freddie Mac to collectively bargain with the Ellis Lakeview tenants’ association.

Ellis Lakeview’s foreclosure came after former landlord Apex Chicago IL failed to fix filthy, hazardous conditions in the building, despite being given numerous chances by different judges over several years to bring the property up to code.

Though Apex is gone, repairs are still needed at Ellis Lakeview, and a collective bargaining contract would let residents set the terms of its rehabilitation, security, management practices and other living conditions with the new owner, they said.

Tenants aim to prevent another “slumlord” like Apex from taking over the property and reversing years of gains they’ve made by organizing, Ellis Lakeview resident Arthur Evans said last fall.

State Sen. Robert Peters supports the push for a collective bargaining agreement, which would “prevent a profit-driven landlord from undoing the progress that y’all have made,” his chief of staff, Maya Rodriguez, told tenants at last week’s rally.

A legally binding collective bargaining agreement is also necessary amid President Donald Trump’s massive staffing cuts, which threaten the stability of key federal agencies, including the federal housing department, Ellis Lakeview resident Laila Scott said.

Just days after last week’s rally, Trump proposed cutting $33.5 billion from the housing department’s 2026 budget — a 44 percent reduction from 2025, according to The New York Times.

The tenants’ termination notices and eviction cases are “why we need a contract with our [future] landlord: to make sure we can live stably in the safe, decent homes we deserve,” Scott said. “If we can’t rely on [federal housing officials] to care about and protect the safety of our building, we’ll need a contract so we can do it ourselves.”

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