Nearly a year after a group of homeless people lived briefly on a vacant lot in West Bloomington, the man who allowed them to camp on his property appeared in court Thursday after failing to pay more than $7,000 in code violations to the City of Bloomington.
Chris Collins appeared in court virtually before Judge Don Knapp following a complaint of indirect civil contempt that rose from a failure to pay fines levied by the city’s administrative law judge late last year.
This is only the latest instance of friction surrounding a homeless encampment in Bloomington, following high-profile displacements at what’s now a Panda Express on the west side and near Constitution Trail near Oakland Avenue and Gridley Street. Collins’ case was unique, in part, because he sought the public’s help in fundraising — even addressing the Bloomington City Council during public comment two years ago.
Collins told WGLT earlier this week the court matter is a byproduct of his inviting a displaced encampment of homeless people to stay on his property at the end of August 2022.
“I said, ‘I’ve got a property over here that my charity owns.’ I said, ‘I won’t throw you in jail for being on it,’” he said. “‘But you are going to respect the neighborhood. There’s going to be some changes that need to be made, but I don’t want you to be thrown in jail.’”
Collins has long told people in the area that he has viable plans to “get people off the street and show them they have a purpose for being here” and established a nonprofit, H.O.P.E. Housing Our People Everywhere, accordingly in 2018. The plan to accomplish that mission on a whim last year, however, were spontaneous, short-lived and have now been abandoned — at least at that site.
Collins’ property was a lot on the edge of an established neighborhood in West Bloomington: 1326 N. Sherman Street. Although surrounded by houses, it had sat vacant and undeveloped for years.
That was until Collins invited displaced people to take up residence there in late August — camping, in essence, at least temporarily, since his long-term vision included building “tiny houses on” the land. Zoned for single-family residences, Collins needed a special permit to allow camping on the property, which was never obtained.
When city code inspectors did a round at the property in September, they recorded a number of ordinance violations from the encampment, ranging from improper camping to accumulated trash and debris that also wasn’t stored properly.
At the time, unnamed neighbors told a local TV stationthey were “extremely concerned” by the new encampment; a man living at the property said he appreciated the chance to sleep somewhere knowing he wouldn't be arrested, since a felony record barred him from access to other shelters.
Collins told WGLT he remembers “one person” being particularly vocal and others “not saying it to me, but saying it under their breath.”
“I was like, ‘Look, these people have a right to have a place to sleep as well as anybody else,’ and I said, ‘But if you’ve got a problem and you think your property values are going to go down, I own more land in that community than anybody. I will buy your house,’” he said.
As it turned out, an eviction notice was eventually issued for the encampment, and Bloomington put a lien on Collins’ property after ordinance violations went unpaid and unresolved for weeks. Records from the city’s administrative court, which handles such violations, show the fines started small per count — $50 per day — but eventually racked up to $7,360.
“They’ve tried to totally take me out,” Collins said of the fees. “The difference is they’re not taking me out, they’re just making me leave Bloomington. That’s the only thing they’re making me do.”
On Thursday, Bloomington city attorney Jeff Jurgens told Judge Knapp the municipality was seeking a trial date in August, since the property violations still “have not been abated.” Collins said he “was not aware that the property was not abated” since he had “not been to (the) property over the winter at all.”
“Anything that will be on that property, will be off that property today,” he said. “I thought it was already done.” Collins added that he had conversations with city officials in recent months past about fixing the issues and having the fines lifted since “I was just trying to help the city with a problem they had [homelessness] and not necessarily bringing a problem that I was trying to cause.”
“The good news is the city’s not seeking a trial until August, which will give you two full months to work with them,” Knapp said. “And just because I set the trial date, doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen if an agreement can be reached before then.”
Collins told WGLT that his plan, now, is that “I’m selling it. I’m done.”
In the meantime, a “‘For Sale”’ sign sits at the lot on 1326 N. Sherman Street, with an online listing showingthe price as $115,000. Property maintenance code stipulates the property cannot be purchased until the lien has been paid or the buyer accepts full responsibility for any compliance violations.
And according to the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office, H.O.P.E. itself is “not in good standing” with the state, according to the secretary of state website. The state dissolved H.O.P.E. in 2020 for failing to file its annual report — paperwork that says who's running the group and what they've been doing — although it later sought reinstatement and submitted the missing annual report, records show. A spokesperson for the secretary of state's office said Friday evening necessary records for this year have not yet been filed and are overdue.
