Richard Magnone 
Covid-19 Legislation stallsThis was a hard-fought battle. The tenants’ rights advocates are blaming the money paid to state representatives by the real estate industry, but just as likely was in-fighting between City and suburban legislators about how much relief money would go to Chicagoans versus others throughout the state. The end result is that
Rep. Delia Ramirez has filed another amendment to the proposed SB3066 “COVID-19 Emergency and Economic Recovery Renter and Homeowner Protection Act”. I am hearing that this was done to resolve some of the complaints about the law. I am also hearing that this is likely to go to a vote tonight.
What’s Wrong Here?Obviously, there is quite a bit of activity going on today (5/22/20) regarding SB3066. This law has it all – rent cancellation, government control of landlords, eviction moratorium, and eviction sealing. This is going to HURT housing providers. What if the State of Illinois passed a law allowing people to just take what they want from the 7-11 store because of Covid-19 hardship? That’s what they are proposing here. Government sponsored theft.
Let’s take a look at some of the key points:
Somehow, Representative Delia Ramirez has filed an amendment (HFA2) to a SENATE bill known as SB3066. We had been waiting for Senator Robert Peters to file this. So, what happened? Yesterday’s hearing on the house bill probably didn’t go so well, so they’ve amended a senate bill and are looking to try again in the … Read more
UPDATE: THIS LINKED CALL TO ACTION IS MORE IMPORTANT ON 5/22/20 This morning (5/21/20) at 10am, the State House of Representatives Executive Committee is going to be voting on the very anti-landlord House Bill 5574 Amendment 1 sponsored by Rep. Delia C. Ramirez that will CANCEL the obligation of tenants to pay rent due to … Read more
Covid-19 Change or Just a Change?UPDATE: A version of this law has passed the City Council. Today, May 20, 2020, Mayor Lightfoot has introduced a measure to radically change, dare I say, hundreds of years of common law and forty years of Chicago law with respect to the termination of a lease and/or a tenancy. These rules may be INSPIRED by Covid-19, but there is no indication that they will be repealed or removed once the threat of the Coronavirus is just a memory. The proposed ordinance will change the amount of advance notice landlords need to give to tenants to terminate a lease or tenancy and to introduce new requirements that landlords provide relocation assistance (a nice thing to call a payment) to tenants. Let’s take a dive into the proposed law.
Big week for new legislation at City Hall?We’ve heard that in addition to the Covid-inspired rent forgiveness statute proposed by Rep. Ramirez (and a similar provision likely to be proposed in the Illinois Senate), it is likely that there will be a bit more movement in the City Council this week. One of the complaints of city aldermen about the Chicago Housing Solidarity Pledge is that the pledge is… voluntary. We can’t just have landlords being nice all on their own, can we? Instead,
Anti-landlord property rights grab finally filedI blogged two weeks ago about the COVID-19 Emergency and Economic Recovery Renter and Homeowner Protection Act, a law that, much to the chagrin of Mayor Lightfoot I am sure, gives very little grace to landlords. The law, allegedly drafted by folks from the Lawyer’s Committee for Better Housing, a tenant advocacy group, was filed by Representative Delia Ramirez not as a standalone bill, but instead, as an amendment to House Bill 5574. Before the amendment, House Bill 5574 was an amendment introduced by Rep. Ramirez to the Illinois Housing Authorities Act regarding a tenant’s criminal background history. I’m not a state legislator, so I wonder, why in the world would a totally unrelated bill for sweeping changes to the landlord-tenant law of Illinois be filed as an amendment to a totally unrelated law?
Here we go againRound up the usual suspects. Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago) and Delia Ramirez (D-Chicago), backed by national progressive think tanks and policy institutes like the Shriver Center (which has been a major force in pushing anti-landlord housing policy changes nationwide), are coming out hot. They’re ready to take advantage of this pandemic to re-shape the world in their progressive image in the form of the Illinois Emergency and Economic Recovery Renter and Homeowner Protection Act. This is the thanks that landlords get for “giving grace” to tenants at a time of crisis.
