The founder of an anti-violence advocacy group sent a letter to the city of Chicago Monday, threatening a federal lawsuit if its South Side community center doesn’t receive a commitment for water service within 10 days.
The Mothers Against Senseless Killings Community Center at 7500 S. Stewart Ave., provides a safe haven daily for about 40 children, ages 2 to 16. The children learn crafts and music during the summer and get help with homework during the school year.
The Englewood center, led by South Side mothers, has operated since 2019 without water or a bathroom. The group has spent $1,000 to $1,600 a month for bottles of water for drinking and cleaning, founder Tamar Manasseh said. The group wants running water for drinking and for a planned bathroom. Children now use a portable toilet.
Manasseh said she will be forced to close because the group can’t afford to continue paying for bottles for water.
“If we aren’t here, people will die,” Manasseh said. “If we quit, they don’t go to school, all sorts of bad things will happen.”
In a letter to the city’s law department, MASK asked for access to running water and written assurance from the city that the group will not be subject to discriminatory or retaliatory actions. It also asked for unspecified punitive damages. The letter gives the city 10 days to comply with its request or it says it intends to file a suit in federal court.
Manasseh said she plans to file the suit herself but is being advised by an out-of-state attorney.
City law department spokesperson Kristen Cabanban did not respond to requests for comment on the group’s demand letter.
Manasseh, who also is a rabbi, formed MASK in 2015 after 34-year-old Lucille Barnes was fatally shot and five others were wounded near 75th Street and Stewart Avenue. Because Barnes was a mother like her, it struck a nerve, Manasseh said.
Years ago, she said she had moved from Englewood to Hyde Park to keep her kids safer.
Manasseh had planted trees at spots where people in Chicago were killed but wanted to do something to stop the violence. She got her chance when she formed MASK with a handful of other mothers.
Yet, instead of being lauded by the city, Manasseh said the group has faced opposition by three mayoral administrations and various city departments. She added that the lack of water access is only the latest in a string of slights from the city. Manasseh, who lives in the 3rd Ward, said she believes part of the reason MASK has been ignored is that it is located in a poor area in the 6th Ward.
“I live in Pat Dowell’s ward (3rd) and this wouldn’t happen there because there are a lot of professionals who live there,” Manasseh said. “It’s a class thing…People don’t make noise here. If this happened where I lived, oh my God, the outcry, it would be crazy.”
For the first few years, Manasseh was joined by a group of about six other mothers who would sit on lawn chairs at a corner, putting gang members on notice to take their activities elsewhere. She said the group faced harassment from the Chicago Police Department during this time, speculating that they did not like the fact that their arrest numbers were going down because crime was going down because of MASK.
In an email, CPD spokesperson Thomas Ahern responded: “Whenever a citizen has a complaint regarding an interaction with an officer, they can always contact the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) or the CPD Bureau of Internal Affairs.”
Then, in 2016, the group moved from the sidewalk at the northeast corner of 75th and Stewart to a double-lot on the northwest corner. Manasseh said former U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., helped to facilitate getting the deed from Cook County for one of the lots — but the group is still waiting for the deed from the City of Chicago on the adjacent lot — chalking it up to one of many indignities from the city.
Manasseh said the group cleaned both lots, which were infested with litter, burned out cars and used hypodermic needles but former Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) refused to help her group with garbage pickup. To get rid of the trash that was on the lot, the group was forced to ask neighbors for garbage cans that were then wheeled back to the homeowners alleys after being filled because the city refused to pick up from the site.
Manasseh added Ald. William Hall (6th) has not provided speed bumps that the group asked for on 75th Street, where she said cars routinely speed and blow through a stop sign at Stewart Avenue.
In a phone call, Hall said that he has not been asked for help. He also said he cannot help with speed bumps until the City’s Water Department gives him the green light and confirms that it is finished with work they performed on 75th Street.
“Until I get the green light from the Water Department for the work they already were doing, I cannot give a timeline for speed bumps,” Hall said. “This allegation of me not helping her, she’s never reached out about this water issue. There’s no email, there’s no reference to a call, there’s voicemail, so this idea that people are not helping her is a lie.”
He added that he would be open to helping MASK if they ask.
“If she needs help, she has my information,” he said. “I will be more than willing to assist. But she’s continued to run to the press with allegations that are not true.”
But Manasseh said Monday that she spoke to Hall personally around Memorial Day in 2023 about the water problem and this year was promised a meeting with him by his staff but has yet to happen.
After seeing a segment on HGTV about shipping containers being converted into homes in 2018, Manasseh said she got the idea to build a community center and bought several containers, which MASK then converted into classrooms.
The entire project cost $60,000 and was made possible through a combination of donations and support from Benchmark Construction, which provided a concrete slab, excavation, container stabilization and labor. The group also hosts outdoor activities like gardening and cookouts outside on the lot, which is surrounded by aluminum fencing and monitored by surveillance cameras. While the group does have electricity, it still does not have water.
Before the group had the community center, Manasseh said the group asked the former Mayor Rahm Emanuel administration for access to water from a nearby fire hydrant to fill barrels for cleaning water but was rebuffed. Then, the administration of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot basically ignored the group’s pleas, she said. However, Johnson promised Manasseh’s group water on more than one occasion without coming through, she said.
Manasseh said the first time Johnson promised the group access to water was in 2023 during his mayoral campaign. She said she didn’t know who Johnson was at the time and had planned to vote for Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia for mayor, but gave her endorsement to Johnson after agreeing to let him use her image in a mass text to potential voters that touted her endorsement.
She said she got nothing from Johnson.
She added that she had planned to send the group’s demand letter last week but waited after being contacted by someone on Johnson’s staff. When nothing changed last week, Manasseh said she was forced to send her letter on Monday.
In a statement, Cassio Mendoza, a spokesman for Johnson, did not address Manasseh’s claim that Johnson agreed to help her. Instead, he focused on permitting issues.
“Upon reviewing our records, the Department of Buildings (DOB) has no building permits on file for any structure at 7500 S. Stewart Ave,” Mendoza wrote. “The Department of Water Management (DWM) has no records of a customer service request and verified that there is no water service line leading to that address.”
Manasseh also said MASK is one of many groups making a difference in Chicago and that losing it would hurt the entire city.
“The mayor likes to talk about how the [crime] numbers are going down. Who brought them down? He didn’t,” Manasseh said. “It’s organizations like this one, the ones that are feeding kids, hugging kids. Those are the ones that are bringing your numbers down and you treat them like crap.”
While Manasseh said she doesn’t expect the city to act on her demand letter, she also isn’t ready to go down without a fight. Along with the planned lawsuit, Manasseh said she could potentially do a crowdsourcing fundraiser to help save the group and also said it may slate its own candidate for alderman.
“We’re going to figure it out and then I don’t know, we’re going to start running for office,” she said.