Kanye West Makes More Permitting Trouble in Chicago

Kanye West is renovating his childhood home on the South Side of Chicago, but hasn't always had the permits to do the work until after the fact.

1 minute read

May 19, 2020, 6:00 AM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Chicago, Illinois

The small white house pictured to the left was Kanye's home for eight years before it fell into foreclosure and disrepair. | Google Streetview

"Kanye West has run into trouble with the city as he renovates the South Side home he grew up in nearly four decades ago," reports Tracy Swartz.

"The city issued a stop-work order in February after it said it found plaster had been removed without a building permit," according to the article. "Work has resumed, though plans for the house are unclear."

It's not the first time Kanye has run afoul of the permitting and approvals process. In 2019, building regulators forced the demolition of several prototypes for utopian housing designed and built by Kanye without permits in Calabasas, California. The Chicago controversy has more humble origins, however. The house where Kanye spent eight years of his youth had fallen into disrepair and foreclosure before Kanye's company bought the property in 2018.

Friday, May 15, 2020 in Chicago Tribune

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