Reflection #1
I believe that I have a solid plan for my research and project this semester. I will focus primarily on renter’s rights specifically in the Cahokia area. Renter’s rights in Cahokia are very relevant to the current situation in Cahokia because a big portion of the residents in Cahokia Heights do not own their homes. Homes in Cahokia are often damaged from water related issues and as a lessee (someone who rents a home) you should be aware of your responsibilities when it comes to maintaining your home as well as the owner’s responsibilities.
First, I planned on conducting my own background research on Illinois renter’s rights law codes so I could be well versed in my topic. I collected a handful of sources that I found credible and scanned them for what I think the most important codes are to know for a lessee. I found the sources that came from the Illinois Attorney General’s office to be the most helpful. The websites provided information on renter’s rights and responsibilities, landlords’ rights and responsibilities, security deposits, rent increases, lease termination, discrimination, the eviction process, and eviction defenses. The five codes that I will choose to highlight for my final presentation will most likely be:
- A landlord is required to keep the rental unit in compliance with state and local health and housing codes
- A landlord must make all necessary repairs to a home
- the Illinois Retaliatory Eviction Act prohibits your landlord from evicting you for complaining to any governmental authority
- if your landlord fails to pay a bill for which they are responsible, you may pay the bill and deduct the payment from your rent.
- A landlord must file a lawsuit to properly evict you; they cannot make you move by turning off utilities or removing private property.
These five codes/laws were chosen because I feel that Cahokia home lessees can be more likely to encounter these issues with renting homes while living in an area where flooding and water damage to homes are so common. Because Cahokia is generally a lower income area and the current issues pertaining to water systems there, landlords could feel like they can get away with illegal actions against tenants.
My next step will most likely be to develop and send out surveys to Cahokia lessees and potentially even people who rent out their homes in Cahokia. I want to ask questions about their experiences of renting a home in Cahokia and if they have ever had issues with the renters’ codes previously stated. I also hope that I am able to conduct at least one oral history interview this semester. The oral history interview I conducted with Arianna from the Cahokia Public Library last semester was very helpful in getting a deep insight of what is going on in the area and I feel another interview would be useful for this project as well. The biggest obstacle that I can see for this project is just getting participants for surveys and interviews. I’ve previously seen that it can be difficult to get participants for studies, especially when there isn’t really much that can be offered to benefit them.
Reflection #2
I began the semester with what I thought was a solid implementation plan for my research. The topic of renter’s rights in Cahokia still looks strong and at least to me seems very relevant for the area and the situation that is present. Coming into the semester I felt strong and confident about the goals that I set for my research and as of right now those goals have changed slightly but are about the same. Initially I set a goal of having seven to twelve survey responses and at least four lengthy interviews to gather data and information from.
Two weeks or so ago I published a Qualtrics survey that asks respondents about their experiences renting homes in Cahokia Heights. I intended to make the survey brief enough to not take too much time and effort out of someone’s day but also have enough questions to gather somewhat qualitative data. I believe the survey consisted of 10 questions, with most of them being yes and nos. There were about three questions that were open responses but weren’t required. I implemented the open response questions to possibly gain some more information, but none of my respondents decided to share them. I am heading to the Cahokia Public Library soon with ten more physical copies of the survey so hopefully I can get a couple more respondents so I can meet my goal.
My second data goal of having four interviews is looking more far-fetched as every day of the semester goes by. As of right now we are halfway through the semester, and I have yet to interview someone. When I was originally making my implementation plan, the idea of the data and information that could be collected from four different interviews was perfect in my mind, especially because the last interview I did went so well. However, I did not consider the amount of time and effort it takes to locate people who are willing to be interviewed, planning an interview between the two parties’ schedules, and the time it takes transcribing a lengthy interview. My last interview took a chunky amount of time to fully transcribe because I invested so much into the conversation that it became more of a podcast.
I hope to see this project useful to not just residents of Cahokia but also any other towns with similar conditions. The thing that I enjoyed doing the most this semester was surprisingly creating the survey. The process of creating different types of questions and placing them in a certain order to collect the intended data that I wanted was very intriguing and is something I want to do more of in the future. However, I do not enjoy finding people to ask these questions as much as I enjoy asking. I see this project going smoothly throughout the next half of the semester as I wrap up the data collection stage of my research project. I’ve learned that conducting real research is not as simple as it initially seems. There are so many different ways to gaining information beyond a google search on a topic.
Reflection #3
I am about to go to the Cahokia Public Library to give out physical copies of my survey and hopefully I get to talk to more residents in Cahokia Heights to pick their brains about the area and hopefully get some more insights on what it is like renting property in Cahokia.
When I previously talked to our community partners about my ideas for my implementation plan, my feedback was positive, but it wasn’t really a lot. They liked the idea of looking into renters’ rights in Cahokia Heights and thought it was very prevalent to the area. I was pointed to an organization called Action St. Louis. They are a grassroots organization that focuses on relief efforts for the homes that were damaged in North St. Louis from the tornado that took place over the summer. This organization could be helpful to me by getting me more familiar with how landlords are generally supposed to handle a situation where outside factors make their property inhabitable.
Arianna from the Cahokia Public Library pointed me towards the Illinois Landlord Tenant Act. This act contains very specific laws that pertain to rental property and the relations between a landlord and a lessee. Some of the codes I felt were too specific for my section of the website, but I will utilize the codes that mention habitable living, liability, and revenge from landlords in my section of the website.
In the past, Arianna from the Cahokia Public Library has helped me a lot in my research because she is knowledgeable about everything going on not just in Cahokia Heights, but it seems like all the metro east. The last time we met I conducted an interview with her that ran for about forty minutes. In this interview she told me about multiple experiences she has had owning property in Cahokia. Before I go back to the library, I am going to listen to the interview again to develop some more questions that I can ask to help further my research.
When talking to people who live in Cahokia Heights, I must keep in mind that talking about the struggles and injustices that have been going on can be a sensitive topic because it is their lives that I am asking questions about. With that in mind I need to keep a filter in my brain that determines if anything I ask could be overbearing. I also need to be able to recognize when someone is attempting to steer away from a topic or conversation in general.
A couple of weeks ago I published a survey about renter rights that is targeted to residents in Cahokia who rent property there. So far, I have gotten five responses and three of those respondents rent a home in Cahokia Heights. Out of those three, two of them said that their homes are not in suitable living condition and their landlord does not respond to them in a timely manner.
I am happy that I have had a couple of participants in the survey and the data I have gotten so far supports my hypothesis about what it could possibly be like renting homes in Cahokia. Whenever I get to the Cahokia Public Library, I hope to get at least three more participants for my survey.
Reflection 4 Data Collection
A couple weeks ago I created a survey with the intention of collecting data on the experience of renting a home in Cahokia Heights, Illinois. This survey is a big aspect of what I am doing this semester with my project relating to renter rights in Cahokia. I’ve spent a lot of time on the internet reading about what living in Cahokia Heights could be like, but a survey would be able to give me more personal information and give me different perspectives on the water crisis.
Before I began drafting my questions for the survey, I did a little bit of my own research on renters’ rights to get myself more familiar with the topic. I polished up my knowledge of what a landlord’s legal responsibilities are and what the lessee’s legal responsibilities and rights are. I believe that renters’ rights in the town of Cahokia Heights are significant because Cahokia Heights generally is a lower income area with a long and documented history of homes being damaged due to flooding and other water-based issues. A lot of residents in Cahokia Heights rent their homes, and it can be difficult to pay rent and property damages that they legally aren’t liable for.
While drafting my questions, I knew to keep in mind that I am trying to convince people with their own busy lives to take time out of their day to fill out my survey. With that in mind, I made sure to keep the survey short and the questions simple. The survey consisted of 10 questions in which the majority of the questions were yes and no questions. I can admit that whenever I receive university emails to participate in a survey and the survey looks too wordy or like more effort that I feel like giving, I close the tab.
I created an online survey through Qualtrics and physical copies of the survey. Physical copies were given out at the Cahokia Public Library. As of right now, I have six responses from Qualtrics, and I have not gotten the chance to pick up the surveys from the library. 4 of the 6 respondents on Qualtrics completed the survey and gave valuable data that satisfied my hypotheses about what a lessee in Cahokia Heights could possibly experience. I expected a little bit of a higher number of participants in my Qualtrics survey, but I am grateful for the number that I do have.
There was some data that surprised me after looking at the responses. 3 out of 4 respondents admitted that in their personal opinion, their homes are not in suitable living conditions. This is surprising because in the question before that I asked if the pictures of their homes that were shown on the online listings were deceiving and showed to appear in better shape than it was. In response to that question, 3 out of 4 responded that the pictures were pretty accurate.
I believe that if I had been able to plan a day at the Cahokia Public Library where people would know that I was there to give out surveys, I would have gotten a little more participation. Another benefit that might’ve come with a day like that is I would have been able to ask questions myself and talk to more people about renting in Cahokia Heights.