Aldermen advanced Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposal to overhaul tenants’ rights Wednesday, while opponents prepare to move ahead with their own version.
Split factions in the City Council’s Housing Committee traded jabs while debating the controversial legislation aimed at giving renters more power and placing restrictions on landlords, before aldermen voted 12 to 9 to send the mayor’s package to the full City Council.
But with a final vote scheduled for next week and a competing ordinance set for committee consideration Thursday, the fight between City Hall progressives and Johnson’s critics over some of the most consequential legislation considered this year is far from over.
The measure’s backers acknowledged their rivals’ apprehension throughout the meeting, but argued rising rents and tenant mistreatment are urgent issues that must be addressed.
“People can have a lot of questions, but the reality is that this has worked in other jurisdictions, and we have the blueprint to do it,” said Ald. Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, 33rd. “I hope that we are going to stand with the tenants.”
At question was a new version of Johnson’s so-called Protecting Renters Ordinance. The mayor made a key concession earlier this week, dropping a rule that would have forced landlords to cite specific reasons when evicting tenants or not renewing their leases — or pay them as much as $10,000 in relocation fees.
Johnson’s amended measure would still create a new “tenants bill of rights” and ban an array of “junk fees” issued by landlords. It also would create a new Bureau of Rental Housing Services to enforce rental rules, establish a rental registry aimed at identifying hidden landlords with widespread complaints and secure city-funded legal representation for low-income tenants facing eviction.
The policies have polarized aldermen, sparking Johnson opponents to craft their own counterproposal expected to face a Zoning Committee vote Thursday.
The sharp political lines created by the measure could be seen in the committee Wednesday. Aldermen supporting the mayor’s measure bunched together in the chamber’s second row of plush maroon seats. Their opponents sat one row down as the two sides carried out a debate in which all appeared to have long ago made up their minds.
Some critics of the plan argued it does not do enough to fix key problems, like slumlords ignoring pre-existing city law. Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, slammed it as a “feel-good ordinance.”
“Because it doesn’t really address the issues that we really see out in our communities,” she said.
But supporters highlighted their efforts to meet skeptics in the middle, including by lessening fees on small landlords and abandoning the just-cause eviction and renewal rules.
Ald. Jessie Fuentes, 26th, argued the rental registry created by Johnson’s measure is particularly needed. Earlier this year, a young boy living with a roach infestation in her Northwest Side ward was hospitalized for two months because the insects laid eggs in his ear, she said.
More Top Picks Best Standing Desk Converters For Home
“We cannot get a hold of the landlord because he’s hidden behind multiple LLCs,” Fuentes said. “I have tenants that are living with immense mold. Young people with asthma. They pay their rent, and the landlords expect their rent, and yet we have a hard time getting these folks out to ensure that their tenants can live in dignified conditions.”
Supporters of Johnson’s ordinance have argued only the mayor’s registry is strong enough to identify a property’s real owners, as opposed to shell companies aimed at hiding who is responsible for a building.
Johnson’s policy chief, Jung Yoon, told the committee the legislation would help tenants get faster responses to issues, access legal representation in evictions and finally add clarity as the number of unresponsive shell-company landlords surges. Meanwhile, it would level the playing field for smaller landlords competing with large property owners who cut corners, she argued.
The rental registry fee — ranging from $20 to $60 per unit and cheaper for smaller landlords — would generate $22 million a year to fund the new services, she said.
But Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, warned the city won’t actually get that money, because many property owners will simply not pay.
“It’s going to fall back on the taxpayers, and we’re going to bloat our budget even further,” he said.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, told his colleagues they must stop casting those opposed to the mayor’s legislation as anti-renter. He repeated his call on Johnson to slow down in his effort to pass the ordinance, even as he planned to move his counterproposal ahead Thursday.
“If we are going to play politics and try to put myself and my colleagues in a position that, if we don’t support PRO, that somehow we are against the renters, that’s not what this is about,” he said. “It should be about making sure that we have a balance.”
After the vote, Villegas said he has enough support to pass his own proposal through committee and the full City Council. He said he will move ahead to force the administration to come to the table.
“Then, if the mayor vetoes it, then he vetoes it,” Villegas said.