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Beginning Jan. 1, 2024, protections go into place in the
Illinois Human Rights Act for housing regarding immigration
status and discriminatory advertising. The law will add
immigration status as a protected class.
In all, more than 11,000 migrants, most of them from Central and
South America, have arrived in Illinois since August of last
year. Many of the migrants have been bused to Illinois from
Texas after crossing the southern U.S. border illegally.
Research has shown that mass immigration has driven up housing
costs.
U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, has brought attention to mass
immigration’s impact on housing costs.
“Think about what this does for housing prices when you have to
house 10 million people that shouldn't be here, that drives up
the costs of housing when interest rates are already through the
roof,” Vance told Breitbart News.
But Michael Glasser, president of the Illinois-based
Neighborhood Building Owner's Alliance, doesn’t see it as a
problem.
“There’s always been a large number of refugees coming into this
country before this particular crisis, and in the past, the
capacity has been there to absorb these folks, so I’m not so
worried that this will be a single factor that is going to
create a huge increase in rent,” said Glasser to The Center
Square.
The average monthly price for rent in Illinois is $1,795, but is
closer to $2,000 in the Chicago area.
Glasser said a possible way to address the immigrant crisis and
housing issues is to put them to work in the housing industry.
“There’s extreme interest by many of us in the industry in
having labor and skilled labor who can take care of some of our
maintenance and painting and landscaping,” said Glasser.
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