Chicago-area mother of 8 says flooded rental left family homeless for 10 days
Mother of 8 left homeless after storm flooding, says she's fighting for answers
A Flossmoor mother says she and her eight children have spent 10 days bouncing between hotels after a tornado-related flood damaged their rental home and left her fighting over insurance and her $5,000 security deposit.
FLOSSMOOR, Ill. - For 10 days, Timmeka Mahomes says she and her eight children have been living out of bags, moving from hotel to hotel after flooding inside their Flossmoor rental home left the family with nowhere to go.
It stems from a confirmed EF-1 tornado that hit Flossmoor on August 11, with it came rain and the power outages that forced the sump to go. Mahomes says the combo sent water rushing into the basement of the Flossmoor home.
"I can't go home. It's pulling up to hotel after hotel after hotel," Mahomes said. "One day we rode around until 11:45 at night with my kids. All hotels were booked. I had to take them to a motel. I sat up all night."
Her children range in age from 4 to 22, and Mahomes says keeping a family that large sheltered has meant paying for multiple rooms at a time.
"My kids go to school. We have to get two and three hotel rooms to cover my family," she said. "Story of my life, living in a hotel."
A home meant to give her children stability
The backstory:
Mahomes moved into the rental home at 1437 Lynwood Court on June 1st.
She says choosing the Flossmoor area was intentional. As a mother raising teenage sons, Mahomes wanted her children in a community and school district where she believed they could thrive.
"I have sons, and where I was staying you can't raise teenage boys, so I did whatever I had to do to make sure they go to HF," Mahomes said, referring to Homewood-Flossmoor High School.
But Mahomes says she experienced issues at the property even before the flooding.
Then, the water came.
Inside the home, FOX Chicago saw standing water in the basement and belongings Mahomes says were destroyed.
"We lost everything," she said.
When asked if she and her children are now homeless, Mahomes answered, "Yes."
Renter's insurance won't cover the loss, Mahomes says
Mahomes says she had renter's insurance but learned after the flooding that her policy would not cover the damage under these circumstances.
"The rental insurance told me it doesn't cover sewer," Mahomes said. "Something in the house, like a pipe, would have to burst. They're not covering anything."
With eight children to shelter and hotel expenses adding up, Mahomes says she turned to the owner of the home and asked for her security deposit back so she could begin looking for another place to live.
"I reached out to him asking, can I just have my security deposit back, and I have him recorded saying he's not giving anything back," she said.
Messages show back-and-forth over flooded basement
The other side:
Public property records show Reggie Allen is the owner of the Lynwood Court property. Mahomes says Allen is the person she has been communicating with about the home.
Mahomes shared messages with FOX 32 that show a back-and-forth about addressing the water and drying out the basement.
"This is the first time he told me he was coming," Mahomes said while showing FOX 32 the messages.
But Mahomes says the problem remained unresolved as the days passed and her family continued moving from one hotel to another.
FOX Chicago called Allen to get his side of the story.
Allen declined to comment, told FOX 32 there was "no need" to call him back and said the water was being pumped out that day.
10 days and still no home
What's next:
For Mahomes, pumping out the water does not erase what she says her family has endured.
Ten days after being displaced, she says she is still trying to find somewhere for eight children to sleep each night while keeping them in school and maintaining some sense of normalcy.
Some nights, she says, that has meant two or three hotel rooms. On another, it meant driving around with her children until nearly midnight because hotels were booked.
Mahomes says she stayed awake all night once she finally found a motel room for her family.
Now, the mother who says she moved to Flossmoor searching for stability for her children is fighting to find it again.
"He can't get away with this," Mahomes said. "And I'm going to fight."
The Source: The information in this report came from Mahomes’ account of the flooding and her family’s displacement, Fox Chicago interviews and reporting, public property records messages Mahomes shared with FOX 32, and Allen’s response.