A group of residents from Forest View Mobile Home Park in Blue Island said Thursday they will ask city officials for more time after the city demanded June 24 that the property owners evict them.

Residents said they’re fighting for more time to relocate at a minimum, as the city ordered immediate evictions after revoking the property owners’ business license late June, citing unsafe conditions, code violations and unpaid water bills.

City Administrator Thomas Wogan said Tuesday the management company owes almost $4 million in unpaid water bills.

He also said the property poses health and safety concerns, as it has had some of the highest number of police and ambulance calls in the city.

Wogan said there are a number of health and fire code violations and said management has not provided the city with a list of residents.

Resident Paola Huijon, one of the leaders among residents, said it’s expensive and difficult to move so quickly, especially for her mom.

Huijon, who has lived in the mobile park home since age 11, left college in 2021 to take care of her mom, who had a stroke and breast cancer and now has a tumor, arthritis, polio and high blood pressure.

Huijon said the neighborhood has several long-term residents and was safe until management allowed residents who don’t pay rent to take over trailers, bringing drugs and multiple deaths.

“We’re trying to fight for what (residents) deserve, what is rightfully theirs, so they can have those funds, those means and resources to be able to relocate somewhere safe of their own choosing,” Huijon said. “We’re fighting for time, like if we get a year, that would be amazing.”

Huijon said residents deserve reimbursement for property damages and emotional shock, and said her mother deserves medical attention.

Huijon said most residents stopped paying rent once the property owner’s business license was revoked, and many plan to stay.

Some, like Michael Brown, who has lived in the park for less than a year, along with his family who has lived there several years, started packing Wednesday.

Wogan said Tuesday the city’s main focus is to bring business operations on the property to a close. Wogan said the city’s lawyers have met with the management’s attorneys but have not received a detailed plan to shut down operations and rehouse residents, as the city requested by July 3.

Wogan said the property managers still have some legal steps to take but did not clarify. The city has no mechanisms to enforce much more than closing business operations, he said, and said officials are pushing for this to happen as “reasonably quickly as possible with the understanding that the residents need to be addressed.”

In late June, the city also asked the management company to give each resident $5,000 for rehousing costs, but Wogan said Tuesday the city has no mechanism to force them to do so.

“These people are caught in between it and it’s extremely unfortunate but that’s why we’re telling the owners you need to take responsibility for this problem,” Wogan said.

Wogan said the city’s efforts to encourage the management to seize operations has resulted in “slow and frustrating results.” In response, he said the city has taken efforts to keep residents informed, such as posting the cease and desist letters on residents doors, because management has not communicated with residents.

“We’re just trying to tell them, here’s what’s happening so you can hopefully make some plans accordingly,” Wogan said.