A woman experiencing homelessness is fighting to get her property back from the city of Markham, and she’s looking for a lawyer to help her.

Erica Bowman, 60, said she was staying in a detached garage when heavy equipment arrived to knock down a decrepit residence and a shed in early November.

“I had to quickly flee,” Bowman said.

Markham representatives disputed her account, saying no one else was present when a crew demolished the structures about seven weeks ago. The city made several attempts to help Bowman but she refused offers of assistance, officials said.

Bowman said the property at 15426 Cherry Lane in the Country Aire subdivision was the only home she had ever known. She lived there with her parents and three brothers, but all her relatives have died, she said.

“I’ve never been in a situation like this before,” Bowman said. “I’m getting more anxious. I’m losing my mind. I don’t have any place to go. Any day there’s going to be snow on the ground.”

Bowman wants to get off the streets, but she also seeks justice and accountability. Her anger may relate to the loss of family members and cherished items.

“They took my property and possessions and left me homeless and destitute,” she said.

She wants an attorney to help her pursue a claim against the city of Markham to seek compensation for her losses, she said. Police refused to take her reports about many thefts over the years, she said.

She feels she is the victim of a conspiracy and that the city improperly took ownership of her family’s home.

Michael Taylor, spokesman for Markham Mayor Roger Agpawa, said the city did nothing wrong.

“We made every attempt to help her,” Taylor said.

I learned of Bowman’s situation on Nov. 19 via an email from the Rev. Nathan Klein, pastor of St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Midlothian. Bowman had accepted food from the church pantry and had asked to use a phone, Klein said.

“Our community has been trying to help her however we can, but with the pandemic, the already fragile resources for people experiencing homelessness are at their limits,” Klein wrote.

“There isn’t a whole lot we can do to meet her immediate needs for shelter other than offering her food and making referrals to other organizations,” Klein said.

I subsequently met with Klein and Bowman four times. I listened as Bowman shared her story. We wore masks as we sat at opposite ends of a long table in an empty gym at the church. She declined to allow her picture to be taken, but offered her driver’s license photo as an alternative.

Bowman recalled precise dates and details about how she ended up in this situation.

James Bowman, her father, served in the U.S. Air Force. He was a ham radio enthusiast who made a living dealing equipment at trade shows and conventions. He died in 2005.

Her mother, Gwendolyn, worked for the Social Security Administration in downtown Chicago before taking early retirement in 1986, Bowman said. She died in 2013. Her parents are buried at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, she said.

Bowman said she had three brothers. Her parents bought the home in 1967 and paid off a 30-year mortgage eight years early, she said.

The property had a single-story home, a detached two-car garage and a shed where her father kept his ham radio gear. There was a tall antenna next to the shed.

Bowman said she had a typical childhood. She attended Spaulding Elementary and Bremen High schools in Midlothian, she said. There was domestic abuse in her family, she said.

“My father and mother argued constantly,” she said. “Neither one of them every acknowledged the violence.”

Serious property maintenance issues began around the time of her father’s death in 2005, she said.

“There was a hole in the roof,” she said. “We think raccoons got in there.”

A few years after her father died, her mother left the home to live with Bowman’s brother in University Park. Her late brother was disabled and used a wheelchair, she said. Bowman would spend four or five days at a time at the apartment taking care of them, she said, but would return to the Markham property.

“I would stay up all night doing laundry,” she said of her visits to University Park. “There were only a few washing machines in a building with 400 units.”

Other holes appeared in the roof of the Markham residence. At some point, water service and other utilities were shut off. Bowman said she could no longer live in the home, so she moved into the shed in the backyard.

Thefts occurred while she was away from the property, she said. A locked gate securing the property was broken. A padlock on the shed was busted off. The garage was burglarized.

“When my father died he left a massive inventory of electronic parts,” Bowman said. He would buy and sell coaxial cable and other ham radio parts on a trade show circuit, he said. Collections of other valuables were taken, she said.

“He had a train collection, my mother had a porcelain doll collection,” Bowman said. “I had $400 worth of Barbie dolls.”

The first items stolen were guns, jewelry, coins and other valuable items, she said. While she was away in University Park, two vehicles were stolen, a Lincoln Continental and a van, she said.

One day she returned to find the tall aluminum ham radio antenna had been taken down and presumably carted away and sold for scrap metal. She placed the value of her family’s lost possessions at about $100,000.

“They stole my property and I want it back,” Bowman said.

Bowman had planned to sell the assets and use the money to make repairs to the house, but never got the chance, she said.

Pictures provided by the city and street-view images published on real estate websites showed severe deterioration of the residential structure. Bowman said she was comfortable living in the shed, which had electrical service but no plumbing.

“The shed was like a little house,” she said.

Public records showed that Bowman filed a complaint with the Illinois Commerce Commission in 2015, disputing charges on monthly ComEd electrical bills. Bowman said she used a space heater for warmth during the winter.

Records showed the city acquired the property in 2018. Cook County Judge Marie Murphy Borman declared the property abandoned and awarded the deed to the city. The transaction involved the Cook County Land Bank, which has the ability to erase unpaid property tax debt.

Bowman grows angry when she discusses the legal case. Her father left no will when he died in 2005, she said. James Bowman was still listed as owner of the property when the city initiated proceedings to acquire the land. She inherited the property, even if it was never officially recorded, she said.

“None of the proper procedures were followed,” Bowman said. “The judge said I had no standing.”

When the city demolished the home and shed, Bowman said, she lost important documents and other evidence she needed to appeal the court determination that the property was abandoned, she said.

City representatives said Markham properly followed procedures regarding acquisition of the property, demolition and Bowman’s displacement. Sonia Khalil, administrative services coordinator, said safety concerns prompted the city to act.

Khalil said she recently became aware of the state of the property while she was in the neighborhood, where streets have just been repaved. Khalil said she worried about children getting into the abandoned home.

“In my mind, I thought, ‘Somebody is going to get hurt,’ ” Khalil said. “Then I dug up research and I found out the city actually owned the property.”

About two months ago, Bowman appeared outside Khalil’s office at Markham City Hall, Khalil said.

“There was a woman screaming out here in the lobby,” Khalil said.

On that day and others, Khalil said, Markham officials tried to refer Bowman to social service agencies, but she refused assistance.

“She became very irate with us,” Khalil said. “We were just trying to help her.”

The city had to demolish the structures on the Cherry Lane property, Khalil said.

“The home was not livable, let alone a shed,” Khalil said.

I asked whether the city was obliged to relocate Bowman before demolition, even if she was living illegally in a shed on property that now belonged to the city.

Khalil insisted there was no evidence of anyone living in any structure on the property.

“I remember that day because I came to work dressed up, and public works told me I had to dress down because I was going to walk in the back,” Khalil said. “I just wanted to make sure nobody was there.”

Bowman said she spends her days at the Crestwood Public Library and her nights in a grocery store parking lot. She said she would keep fighting the city to get justice.

“I am stubborn,” Bowman said. “I’m not going anywhere. I know I’m right. This is only making me more angry.”

Even now, Taylor and Khalil said, if Bowman came to City Hall, Markham officials would try to help connect her with a social service agency that might be able to provide shelter and other assistance.

“Especially with COVID, we don’t want people on the street,” Taylor said.

Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown.

tslowik@tribpub.com