(The Center Square) – The Chicago City Council may vote on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s modified Protecting Renters Ordinance next Wednesday, but advocates for apartment and building owners are not on board.
The council’s housing and real estate committee passed a modified version of the ordinance by a vote of 12 to 9 on Wednesday.
The measure creates a rental registry with tiered registration fees for housing providers, although subsidized affordable housing and owner-occupied buildings are exempted from the fees.
The ordinance also establishes a new Bureau of Rental Housing Services within the city’s Department of Housing, makes a tenant counsel pilot program permanent, formalizes a tenant bill of rights and bans move-in, move-out and nonrefundable junk fees.
City officials estimate the registration fees will bring in $22.4 million annually to support the new agency, additional inspectors and other costs.
During the public comment period before the meeting, Tracii Randolph said real estate was her family’s way to get out of poverty.
“For anybody that’s trying to make it out of the hood to get better and stand on their own and not depend on the government system, you guys are making it extremely hard, and then we have no choice but to add it to our tenants. We can’t afford it,” Randolph said.
Alderperson Jessie Fuentes supported the ordinance and said 10% of her constituents have a housing problem.
“This year alone, over 300 cases, a third of those cases evictions or a violation of the housing code,” Fuentes said.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announced the ordinance in July, but city officials made several changes after hearing concerns from rental housing providers, several of whom remain opposed.
Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance President Michael Glasser said there is nothing in the ordinance that makes rents more affordable.
“I’m very concerned that this ordinance, by adding a hundred or so new rules and regulations and burdens, is going to be too much for so many of our owners, and the temptation will be to sell,” Glasser said.
Glasser said local owners get weekly calls from New York hedge funds wanting to buy their properties.
Jon Kozlowski of the Chicagoland Apartment Association told the council’s committee on housing and real estate the ordinance that will create more red tape and drive up costs for rental housing providers.
“When operating costs rise, rents rise. Renters feel that impact first and most directly, and you cannot say with a straight face that shuffling fees to rent will help with affordability,” Kozlowski said.
The city council is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
