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Over the past several weeks, the General Assembly has considered
various bills on the subject, including emergency rental
assistance, lifting the state ban on rent control, and
subsidizing future affordable housing construction in the state.
Advocates for affordable housing in Illinois, including Rep.
Delia Ramirez, a Democrat representing the 4th House District in
Chicago, say the pandemic has shed new light on an ongoing
affordable housing crisis and sparked a new sense of urgency to
support tenants and landlords struggling to afford rent and
upkeep their properties.
“I've gotten calls from colleagues of mine and offices from all
over the state asking what do we do if this pandemic has only
made this crisis worse than ever,” Ramirez said.
According to data from the National Council for State Housing
Agencies, more than 540,000 Illinois households could not pay
rent as of September 2020, and the backlog of owed rent in the
state as of January of this year totaled more than $1.2 billion.
Michael Mini, executive vice president of the Chicago Apartment
Association, said the pandemic has been difficult for property
owners and landlords as well.
“When the pandemic first hit, our members went into action and
started reaching out to residents and did what they could to
work with them on trying to keep them in their housing,” Mini
said. “It's been very challenging for residents and apartment
owners and managers, no doubt about it.”
Ramirez agreed.
“We have landlords who don't know how they're going to pay the
utilities, their mortgages, and we have tenants who are going to
work when they shouldn't when they have symptoms and should stay
home, but they don't think they can afford to stay home because
they'll be in the streets,” she said.
Since the outset of the pandemic last year, Ramirez has been
working on a bill now known as the COVID-19 Federal Emergency
Rental Assistance Program Act. The bill has been reintroduced
this legislative session as House Bill 2877.
While the bill as introduced originally would have implemented a
statewide eviction moratorium until next year, it now aims to
direct an estimated $1.4 billion in federal emergency rental
assistance to support tenants most at risk for eviction and
small landlords in need of the most assistance.
“For us in this bill, prioritizing people that owe the most will
really help stabilize them and prevent people being evicted or
put on the street as a result of funds being exhausted,” Ramirez
said.
Another major provision of the bill includes sealing eviction
records for individuals who may have been evicted as a result of
pandemic-related economic hardship until March of next year,
which Ramirez said would be key to “cleaning slate” for tenants
and allowing them to find housing in the future.
“With any eviction record or bankruptcy, those are records that
follow you for seven years,” Ramirez said. “The bill will ensure
that people are able to move and not have an eviction filing on
the record and keeping them from accessing housing.”
Michelle Gilbert, a housing attorney and director of the Chicago
COVID-19 Eviction Prevention Project, said sealing eviction
records until next year is an important step for protecting
low-income renters and homeowners for the remainder of the
pandemic.
“Even with the moratorium, there are cases that are being filed
every day,” Gilbert said. “The eviction filing, even when the
tenants win or get the case dismissed, isn't sealed. It impacts
their ability to get housing long term.”
Ramirez, who is the chief sponsor of the legislation, saw her
bill pass the Illinois House on March 18. The bill is now under
consideration in the Senate with Sen. Omar Aquino, D-Chicago,
serving as the lead sponsor.
This will be the second time the bill has been sent to the
Senate, which did not call it for a vote at the conclusion of
the lame duck session in January. Since then, Ramirez said she
has worked with stakeholders in the banking and real estate
industries on various concerns with the bill.
“We were able to resolve that in this new session, which I think
makes it easier for the bill to move now in the Senate,” Ramirez
said. “I think the big question for us is how soon.”
Regarding the initial concerns from property managers, Mini said
the latest changes have caused the banking and real estate
industries to take a neutral stance on the bill.
“It's been amended quite a bit from when it was initially
brought up at the end of session last year,” Mini said. “We
still have concerns about the sealing of eviction records, but I
think we've gotten to a place where if it's limited to
addressing those that were affected by the pandemic, that's
something that we can live with.”
Ramirez said she remains “hopeful” the legislation could be
called for debate in the Senate as early as next week, and that
she expects the governor’s office to view the bill as a
priority.
During the course of the pandemic, Gov. JB Pritzker has issued
successive monthly moratoriums on evictions due to financial
hardship beginning in March of last year, with the most recent
moratorium being issued on April 2.
“Our understanding with the governor's office is that they also
see this as a priority bill that has certain specifics around
the program of the disbursement of money that needs to be signed
into law as soon as possible so that (the Illinois Housing
Development Authority) can begin releasing the funds,” Ramirez
said.
The governor’s office did not return a request for comment on
the bill.
Bob Palmer, policy director for Housing Action Illinois, said
the steps taken by Ramirez’s legislation, combined with the
existing moratoriums at the state and federal level, are
necessary to keep people in their homes for the time being.
“Our hope is if we can maintain the eviction moratorium, and the
protections for homeowners that exist at the federal level are
somewhat expanded by Representative Ramirez's bill long enough
to get those most of those dollars out, we can avoid having a
significant eviction and foreclosure crisis as the result of
pandemic,” Palmer said.
Palmer agreed the COVID-19 pandemic has helped draw an
additional spotlight on housing issues in the state, but said
more action is needed to close the gap in affordable housing in
the state.
“These issues don't address the pre-existing shortage of
affordable housing that happened before the pandemic,” Palmer
said.
According to data from the National Low Income Housing
Coalition, Illinois is facing a shortage of approximately
268,000 housing units for renters at or below the poverty line,
and there are only 39 available units for every 100 renters at
“extremely low income” levels, designated as earning less than
50 percent of their area median income.
Palmer said that in Illinois, more than two-thirds of extremely
low-income renters are paying more than 50 percent of their
annual income toward housing costs.
“That doesn't leave you much at the end of the month for other
costs of living, and if you have that job loss or your hours are
cut back, there's a good chance you're just not going to be able
to afford the rent,” Palmer said.
Another bill recently introduced by Ramirez and co-sponsored by
Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, is House Bill 3123, also known as the
Build Illinois Homes Tax Credit.
That measure would use federal dollars to offer a state tax
credit to developers who build affordable housing developments
or include affordable housing as part of projects.
Proponents of the bill said it would aim to create an additional
3,500 affordable housing units in the state per year.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for us to incentivize
investment in affordable housing both in urban communities and
rural communities,” Demmer said during a House Revenue and
Finance Committee Hearing on Thursday, April 1. “I think all
across the state, this bill has benefits.”
While questions and uncertainty remain over the status of
affordable housing in Illinois, housing advocates across the
state plan to continue their work addressing disparities in
housing availability and supporting tenants and landlords.
“Now we need to look at what do you do to provide additional
subsidy support? How do you preserve the affordable housing you
already have? And how do you bring additional relief to
homeowners and small landlords? I think that's really what we're
thinking about right now,” Ramirez said.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
news service covering state government and distributed to more
than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the
Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick
Foundation.
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