After aldermen advanced a counterproposal to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s broad renters’ rights overhaul Thursday, the dueling ordinances are on a collision course for final votes.
The ordinance backed by Johnson opponents and favored by landlord and developer groups passed through the City Council Zoning Committee in a 12-6 vote.
The outcome sets up a peculiar situation in a deeply split council with thin vote margins: two ambitious pieces of conflicting legislation seeking to address overwhelmingly important and complicated housing rules, teed up simultaneously after months of scrutiny.
Still, despite another day of contentious debate and needling questions, some aldermen welcomed the competition. Consensus is forming and the council could soon unite to reshape rental laws for the first time in decades, they argued.
“It’s starting to feel like the ordinances are getting to a point where they are similar enough, where if this was a truly functional body, we could iron out some of these issues and vote near unanimity on something that really helps Chicagoans in a week or two,” said Ald. Timmy Knudsen, 43rd.
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Both measures could head to the full council Wednesday, though the rival sides appear poised to use legislative maneuvers to force delays, making mid-October votes more likely.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas, 36th, started the hearing Thursday by trying to play down the council’s divides. Both he and the aldermen who back the Johnson ordinance advanced by the Housing Committee on Wednesday have the same goals, he said: “Protecting renters, increasing housing and making our city more affordable.”
But while he maintained his so-called Fair and Accountable Illinois Rental Ordinance boosts renters’ rights by outlawing many so-called junk fees and creating stricter rules on bad landlords, Villegas argued his legislation wouldn’t scare off the investors and developers critically needed to build more housing and make rent cheaper.
“We’ve got to get to the root cause of the affordability issue. We need to build, build, build,” he said. “Lack of supply has been the main driver of why we’ve continued to see rents increase.”
Ally Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd, argued Chicago must not discourage construction at a time residential development needs its pump primed in the city.
“We can do two things at once, colleagues. We can protect renters, and there is need for greater protection for renters, no argument,” Reilly said. “But while we do that, we can’t unintendedly further chill the housing market here, which is struggling mightily.”
But Johnson released a statement Thursday saying his opponents’ plan “falls well short of delivering the relief working Chicagoans need.”
And backers of the mayor’s so-called Protecting Renters Ordinance argued Villegas’ legislation is watered down, rushed and weakens pre-existing protections for renters.
Several Johnson allies asked Villegas why he decided to place potential culpability for legal fees on tenants who bring complaints against their landlords.
“I think it’s more, again, reasonable, making sure that there is a reasonable approach to this, so that’s where, in discussions with all the stakeholders to try to figure out what a compromise is, this is where we landed,” Villegas said.
Knudsen urged him to consider reverting back to language preventing a landlord’s legal costs from being charged to a tenant behind a losing complaint.
“You don’t want to set up a situation where a renter is nervous to bring a case forward because of the risk here, and legal fees can become extraordinarily high,” he said. “I know it’s not always a David-and-Goliath situation, but sometimes it is.”
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Villegas also faced pushback when he initially refused to let Johnson’s Department of Buildings Commissioner Marlene Hopkins and Department of Housing Commissioner Lissette Castañeda answer questions. He acquiesced, but criticized the mayor’s team for not engaging in negotiations earlier.
Hopkins and Castañeda argued the Villegas plan incorrectly places enforcement powers in the Department of Buildings and should instead tap the Department of Housing.
Several progressive aldermen also jabbed at Villegas’ plans to fund the new ordinance. Villegas said he would use a future ordinance to add a $700 charge for homes on the city’s foreclosure registry, mostly owned by banks, to generate $8 million a year and fund new rental rule enforcement jobs.
That plan, absent in his current legislation, makes it an “unfunded mandate,” argued Ald. Anthony Quezada, 35th. He also slammed the ordinance for not creating long-term funding for the legal representation of low-income Chicagoans facing eviction.
“When a majority of my tenants come to my office who are facing evictions, they are left without the legal support that they need,” Quezada said. “So not only is this piece of legislation unfunded and an unfunded mandate, it does not establish the right to counsel as a permanent city program.”