The rise of populism has shaken the politics of many states, including Illinois, and landlords here may begin to feel the effects.
The new governor, J.B. Pritzker, hails from one of Chicago’s richest families, but the billionaire businessman was lifted into office by a liberal wave in one of the nation’s bluest states, and in the era of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 1990s-style centrism that once dominated the Democratic Party is out of step.
If Pritzker needs a way to prove his liberal bona fides, he could sign a legislative measure that would dump Illinois’ 20-year ban on rent control, an action he said during campaigning that he supported. The question would then be his attitude toward a new, and far more sweeping, proposal that would not only establish rent control, but transform the relationship between tenants and property owners.
“We’re going to fight both measures, and we’re going to beat both,” Chicago Association of Realtors Senior Director of Government Affairs Brian Bernardoni said.
The first bill, sponsored by state Rep. Will Guzzardi, a Chicago Democrat, is just one line of text that repeals the 1997 Rent Control Preemption Act, a law that bans municipalities from imposing restrictions on rental rates. It was first introduced a year ago and sent back to the rules committee, but he just reintroduced the measure, now known as House Bill 255, and is seeking co-sponsors.
“The economic situation of renters has become a lot harder, and the families I represent are facing real crises as they try to make the rent each month,” Guzzardi said.
The Logan Square neighborhood is part of his district, and it is now considered one of the hottest rental markets in the city. Construction crews are at work all over the neighborhood, often building new luxury housing too costly for most residents, he said.
“If a landlord has a three-bedroom apartment, and wants to nearly double it to $2K, there are currently no checks to stop this. It’s happening every day in Logan Square.”
The second proposed law was introduced last February by state Sen. Mattie Hunter, another Chicago Democrat.
In response, Senate President John Cullerton authorized a series of public forums around the state hosted by a bipartisan Senate committee on housing, which listened to hours of testimony from hundreds of advocates, landlords, tenants and business owners.
The original proposal was reworked over the past year. The plan to administer rent control through boards in each of the state’s counties was scrapped and replaced with six regional organizations, each with seven elected members who would implement, monitor and enforce rent control.
The new bill will also include a rule that landlords can only evict someone for good cause, such as nonpayment of rent, other breaches of a lease, or if an owner wants to take a unit off the market, among other reasons.
A version of this bill will soon be introduced in the House by state Rep. Mary Flowers, according to Rod Wilson, executive director of the Lugenia Burns Hope Center on the South Side, a nonprofit and part of the activist groups Lift the Ban Coalition and Campaign for Rent Stabilization in Illinois.
A Senate bill will also be introduced that mirrors Guzzardi’s effort, he said, and after a final report is produced by Hunter’s special committee, the more comprehensive bill will be reintroduced.
Whether any of this can actually pass the legislature and reach the governor’s desk is difficult to judge. Affordable housing advocates can remind the new governor about what he said last year on the campaign trail when asked about the various rent control proposals kicking around the legislature.
“Gov. Pritzker, while campaigning in both the primary and the general election, said in public forums that he supported repealing the Rent Control Preemption Act,” the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing Senior Attorney Frank Avellone said.
He is less sure about securing approval for the far-reaching proposal that emerged from last year’s public forums, and said that vision may be a multi-year effort.
Only California, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and the District of Columbia have rent control laws, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council. Massachusetts voters discarded rent control in 1994, but a similar effort in California failed in 2008.
Pritzker’s office did not return messages seeking comment on the rent control proposals.
“He’s got a lot on his plate right now, such as trying to get a new budget together, but if it gets to his desk, I believe he’ll sign it,” Guzzardi said.
Bernardoni wouldn’t offer an opinion on the legislation’s chances, but he refuses to be complacent. There are dozens of rookie lawmakers this year, he pointed out, and the federal investigations that recently engulfed powerful politicians like 14th Ward Alderman Edward Burke and 25th Ward Alderman Danny Solis, and perhaps touched Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, have further unsettled the political world, making it difficult to offer confident predictions.
“Two years ago, who would have thought Rahm Emanuel would just walk away from the mayor’s office, or that Ed Burke would disappear from the political scene?”
Avellone also finds the recent political change surprising, but exhilarating as well.
“Two years ago, there was no discussion of rent control at all, and now it’s on everyone’s radar screen,” he said.
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