UPDATED (with video) 5:17 a.m. 8/13/26

Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – A sewer backup ruined Tierra Lee’s home in April of 2025, and she and her children have been living in hotels ever since. Two weeks after the problem came to light at a Springfield city council meeting, Lee updated the council. After a day out of town, Lee said she and her children came home to a “nightmare.”

“There was a black, tarry, thick substance that looked like it exploded out of my basement toilet onto my walls,” she said. “There was a mucky, smelly, water substance covering my downstairs floor. My downstairs walls were covered. My toilets and my walls were covered. Contaminated water traveled not only out of my bathroom downstairs, but it also affected my kitchen and sinks upstairs in my home.”

In addition to those problems, Lee said one of her children is autistic and reliant on routine. The year-plus out of the family home has disrupted that, and now the children are about to start the school year.

The city has said a third-party contractor is to blame for the mess, and that company’s insurance company has not come through, other than to pay the motel bills. Lee said the family only has until Friday morning in the motel, and the city’s community relations director, Ethan Posey, said he has contacted Heartland Housed director Josh Sabo to help.

By the time the evening was over, with Lee crying that neither the city nor the contractor cares about her family, aldermen told her the whole city is behind her. 

Click play to the video, cued to Lee’s comments.