This week, Governor Pritzker signed SB1817 which amends the Illinois Human Rights Act and adds “Immigration Status” as a protected class under State of Illinois fair housing laws. The law becomes effective on January 1, 2024. This law answers a question we get all the time – “do I have to rent to someone who is not a citizen?”
Prior to this amendment, the law was somewhat unclear. The Illinois Immigrant Tenant Protection Act prohibits landlords from evicting a tenant based on citizenship/immigration status, but whether or not a landlord could decline a tenant because of immigration status was a gray area at best. Illinois Landlords were still prohibited from discriminating based upon protected classes such as national origin, race, color, and ancestry.
The law defines “Immigration Status” as “a person’s actual or perceived citizenship or immigration status”. That means landlords cannot, among other things, refuse to rent to an applicant based upon their immigration status, cannot charge extra because of immigration status, or cannot indicate a property is unavailable for rent because of immigration status.