As a small landlord in the city of Chicago who owns three buildings, I offer a perspective as the Chicago City Council is considering the mayor’s proposal on additional tenant protections. To be successful as a landlord, one must have tenants who value their living space enough in terms of condition and price to be driven to make the monthly payments. It makes sense that tenant loyalty is built on the foundation of affordability and value. As a result, I have sought to not seek the highest possible rent, but instead one that allows for the payment of necessary costs and that gives the renter a strong motivation to live in the space.
Unfortunately, the state of Illinois in 1970 changed its Constitution to make public workers’ pensions a contract that can’t be diminished. As the property taxes have soared to pay for all this, affordability is being seriously negated by the very government under which we reside.
Currently, I am the plaintiff in an eviction case. The tenant is an educated person who interviewed well and grew up in an upper middle class background by all appearances. This case has been in court for a number of weeks. I was under the impression that the court would rule in my favor. But unfortunately, there are more requirements to fulfill, and now, the next hearing is scheduled for late August.
Julie Dworkin in her Aug. 6 op-ed strongly supports Mayor Brandon Johnson’s new tenant protections (“New protections for tenants in changing rental landscape are good policy”). The cold facts are that landlords are being seriously damaged in this current environment of escalating costs and increased requirements. It would be a profound mistake by the City Council to pass the mayor’s proposed rental ordinance.
— Daniel Dillon, Chicago
Tenants need protections
As the housing market has strained Chicago homebuyers, renters need additional protections as well. Rising mortgage rates, higher property costs and fewer available affordable units have put renters on their heels.
Also, the city recently acknowledged the lack of affordable accessible housing for people with disabilities and agreed to identify, build or rehab 2,800 units to meet accessibility standards. A fight is brewing in City Hall over dueling ordinances for renters’ rights.
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The first proposal — Protecting Renters Ordinance (PRO) — introduced and backed by Mayor Brandon Johnson along with community advocates, would greatly improve the rights of those most vulnerable. It was drafted with tenant input and by a diverse coalition of community supporters. It is a sweeping update of the 40-year-old Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance. It includes just cause for eviction; a citywide rental registry; a dedicated city agency for renters; and continued support for tenants facing eviction. The draft ordinance would require landlords to provide a valid reason before evicting a tenant or declining to renew their lease. In some cases, landlords would also be required to provide relocation assistance.
The second offering — the Fair and Accountable Illinois Rental Ordinance, using the misnomer FAIR — cuts back on the limitations the other ordinance would put on junk fees that renters pay in addition to rent, and it expands the definition of small landlords who are exempt from the ordinance’s tenant protections, thereby protecting fewer renters. This proposal would not only remove renter protections for more people but introduce more inequality into the system, especially for those who are already vulnerable, including immigrants, people with disabilities and those transitioning from the legal system.
People with disabilities are more likely to rent than own because they are more likely to have lower income. Changes to renters’ rights therefore disproportionately affect disabled people. People with disabilities and other marginalized residents also frequently struggle to locate units. It is expensive and can be hard to locate a unit that meets a disabled person’s needs. PRO’s residential rental registry would support these residents by including landlord-provided unit identification and contact information. Further, it could help the nonprofits that serve them to locate housing.
Both proposals are undergoing review and debate among the city’s policymakers, who are getting an earful from the various interest groups. We need to come together on all sides to modernize 40-year-old housing law, prevent displacement and establish clear tenant rights.
— Iliana Rivera Haven, housing community organizer, Access Living
Transphobia in sports
Thank you to Julia Poe for providing insight into the debate about transgender athletes (“Transgender debate makes me think about my friends,” Aug. 13). Since this group is only 1% of those participating in sports, most people do not know or understand this community.
I am amazed at the amount of time spent on this and also the hate generated. Although the number of transgender athletes is so low, the hate they receive is disproportionately giant.
— Ann Marie Jagiella, Orland Park
Important voice in the din
I want to thank and commend Julia Poe for her important column appearing on the front page of the sports section. This view has not been heard in the dizzying din of the emotional outburst and fearmongering of the side show and irrelevant conversation about transwomen in sports inexplicably occurring in the context of the WNBA.
In these difficult and incendiary times, perspectives such as Poe’s are often silenced and forced to remain in the shadows. I thank Poe for her bravery in sharing this crucial and often-unheard viewpoint due to the polarization in our current dialogue.
And thank you to the Tribune for publishing Poe’s column.
— Janine L Hoft, Chicago
Humane point of view
As a long-ago newspaper sports guy, I’m impressed with basketball writer Julia Poe’s deeply personal, well-written views about the controversial issue of transgender women and kids in sports. In sharing her humanity as a gay woman with transwomen friends who plays pickup basketball with them, she revealed her concern that many of those players withdrew from their small minority in organized sports at a young age, feeling unsafe to be exposed as different.
The argument about competition against girl athletes is a reasonable one, though apparently very limited in number of events and any advantages. Poe believes from her own experience that opponents — hateful types with power and others — don’t just want to protect girls; they also want transgender people, who just seek happiness feeling who they really are, to get out of our country’s life.
She makes a lot of important points.
— Ed Stone, Northbrook
White Sox’s ‘inspired’ play
We Cleveland Guardians fans never anticipated the “inspired” play of the White Sox this season. My relatives in Chicago claim it was just my imagination, but I swear I thought I saw a benevolent glow hovering over certain Sox players at different times in two games of the recent weekend series.
And for the life of me, it looked like Pope Leo XIV wearing a Sox cap!
— Stephen Gladstone, Cleveland, Ohio
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