Last week several hundred people packed a state senate hearing room and spilled out into the overflow seating for the latest chapter in the local fight for rent regulation. The hearing, chaired by state senator Mattie Hunter of Chicago, was one of a series soliciting responses to a bill that would not only repeal Illinois’s Rent Control Preemption Act but actually establish rent control within the state for the first time since the early 1970s.
These tax benefits and access to repair funds are a major reason why a small cadre of mom-and-pop landlords in Little Village have mobilized in support of Hunter’s bill.
To be sure, most of the landlords—big and small—who testified at last week’s hearing didn’t share Alexander’s and Velazquez’s perspectives. Many seemed not to think that the bill’s financial carve-outs for small landlords were sufficient and expressed concern about not being able to cover their expenses. Some small landlords and investors expressed some sympathy for tenants facing spiking rents, but real estate industry representatives from powerful groups like Illinois Realtors and the Chicagoland Apartment Association chafed at the idea that landlords should have to compromise their property rights to prioritize a longtime tenant when they could get higher rent from someone else interested in their unit.
