Politics

Rival Renters’ Rights Ordinance Advances, Setting Up City Council Showdown

A second Chicago City Council panel advanced a proposal to rewrite the city’s 40-year-old renters’ rights ordinance, sending a rival proposal to the full City Council and setting up a showdown between two competing versions.

The Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards voted 12-6 Thursday to advance a revised measure that was crafted by critics of Mayor Brandon Johnson on the City Council and is supported by landlord groups and the city’s business community.

Less than 24 hours prior, the Committee on Housing and Real Estate voted 12-9 to advance Johnson’s proposal, which is designed to shift the balance of power toward renters from landlords, who have profited from the sky-high demand for apartments in Chicago, allowing them to impose new fees and steep rent increases.

That means 12 of the City Council’s 50 alderpeople have voted for the mayor’s proposal and 12 have voted for the rival proposal, an indication of how fiercely contested this issue has become.

Both the mayor and his critics acknowledge that the city is facing a severe shortage of housing for working-class Chicagoans and agree that elected officials must do more to make living in the city more affordable.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th Ward), the lead sponsor of the rival proposal, said the city must tackle those issues by encouraging growth, not making it harder or more expensive for landlords to operate in Chicago.

“We need more housing,” Villegas said. “That’s the root cause of housing unaffordability.”

The average rent in Chicago jumped to $1,956 a month at the end of 2025, rising 9.5% since 2023, the biggest increase of any major city in the country, according to real estate data provider CoStar.

Approximately 622,000 Chicagoans lease their homes, and 40% spend more than a third of their take-home pay on rent, according to city officials.

Both proposals now head to the full City Council for a final vote on Wednesday. However, just two alderpeople can block a vote on either proposal at that meeting, according to the City Council’s rules.

Johnson claimed credit for putting the debate over the city’s rules governing landlords and tenants at the heart of the 2027 mayoral and aldermanic contests. It is likely the last chance before the election for Johnson and his allies to pass new legislation demanded by the progressive organizations that fueled their rise to power.

“We’re encouraged there is a clear appetite to finally update Chicago’s renter protections, and we look forward to continuing to work with members to get this right for working Chicagoans,” Johnson said in a statement, adding that the rival proposal “falls well short of delivering the relief working Chicagoans need” and would “leave renters without the safeguards and peace of mind they deserve.”

Michael Mini, the executive vice president of the Chicagoland Apartment Association, said the rival proposal “avoids some of the unnecessary costs and regulatory burdens” included in the mayor’s proposal, which “would make housing more expensive and drive up rent across the city.”

The mayor’s critics on the City Council said Johnson’s proposal would actually cost renters more by giving landlords no choice but to raise rents to cover the new fees and expense of having to navigate an expanded bureaucracy.

Both proposals would require the owner of every rental property in the city to identify themselves to city officials and establish a new mechanism to enforce the city’s ordinance governing rental properties and leases.

The rival proposal would create a new Office of Rental Housing within the city’s Department of Buildings, and charge that department with enforcing the law.

Villegas said a yet-to-be introduced measure would fund those efforts by doubling the annual fee paid by mortgage holders when they foreclose on a property from $700 to $1,400. That would generate $8 million annually, Villegas said.

Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th Ward) called the current proposal an “unfunded mandate” and said the new funding should have been vetted by city officials and included in the proposal brought to a vote Thursday.

Department of Buildings Commissioner Marlene Hopkins told the Zoning Committee her department had neither the capacity nor the expertise to enforce the city’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance.

Department of Housing Commissioner Lisette Castañeda told alderpeople her department was best equipped to handle enforcement of the ordinance, but would need to add employees to handle the workload.

Currently, no city agency or department has the capacity or the authority to enforce the ordinance, forcing both landlords and tenants to ask judges to resolve disputes, Castañeda said.

Initially, Villegas — the chair of the Zoning Committee — rejected a request from Ald. Anthony Quezada (35th Ward) to have Hopkins and Castañeda answer alderpeople's questions before relenting.

“We’re not trying to play hide the ball,” Villegas said, before expressing deep frustration that the Johnson administration had not helped him craft and evaluate the proposal designed to prevent the mayor’s policy from becoming law.

By contrast, the mayor’s proposal would create a tenant bill of rights and establish a Bureau of Rental Housing Services within the Department of Housing funded by new fees on landlords.

The mayor’s proposal would require most landlords to pay $20 and $60 per unit to fund the new bureau, which would step up enforcement efforts against landlords accused of violating city ordinance and help tenants facing eviction navigate the legal system. 

That is expected to raise $22 million and fund the new 28-employee bureau, which will include 12 new positions, said Jung Yoon, the mayor’s director of policy. It would take three years for the measure to be fully implemented, Yoon said.

It would also make a city pilot program that offers legal help to tenants permanent. Officials said that program has generated $13.6 million in benefits since 2022 and cost just $4 million.

The rival proposal would not make that legal assistance program permanent.

Jonah Karsh, of the Metropolitan Tenants Organization, which helped craft the mayor’s proposal, blasted the rival proposal for rolling back protections for renters now included in current law, including a provision that could require a tenant to pay the legal fees of their landlord if they unsuccessfully sue to prevent an eviction or enforce their lease.

Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st Ward) said that provision, and failing to provide tenants with legal fees, would have a “chilling effect” on the ability of tenants to take bad landlords to court. 

While the mayor’s proposal would ban move-in fees, as well as so-called “junk fees,” the rival proposal would allow landlords to charge a fee to tenants before they move in, while capping the amount of any security deposit at no more than a month and a half of rent, according to the proposal.

The rival proposal would also expand the number of rental units in Chicago that are exempt from city regulations by allowing those who own as many as 12 rental units across Chicago, even if the owner does not live in one of the units, to operate without city oversight.

The current law does not apply to owner-occupied buildings with six or fewer units. The mayor’s proposal would expand the law to include those units, while waiving the per-unit fee for the owners of buildings with fewer than six units if one is occupied by the building’s owner, officials said. 

The rival proposal was revised to include changes made in 2020 to require landlords to give tenants who have lived in the same unit for more than six months more notice before being evicted and to require landlords to allow tenants to pay back missed rental payments and court fees up until the eviction order is finalized by a judge.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]

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