service during COVID

mortgage payments for up to a year if they’ve experienced hardship as a result of COVID-19. Tese programs forbid landlords of buildings with fve or more units from charging late fees or evicting tenants who can’t pay rent during the forbearance period. Landlords with FHA, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac loans must also provide tenants with fexible repayment plans and inform tenants of the new protections.

Te programs aim to keep tenants in their homes while preventing property owners from going into foreclosure. Entering into forbearance will not hurt the property owner’s credit, nor will they be charged late fees or interest on the loan during the forbearance period.

Program eligibility, tenant protections, and deadlines depend on each lender and are subject to change, so consumer protection lawyer Kathleen Robson, who has worked with Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, suggests the best course of action is for “people to call their lenders and request the forbearance.”

Minimizing the harm of eviction flings

In January’s lame duck session of the Illinois General Assembly, a COVID-19 housing bill stalled that would have (among other types of relief) limited public accessibility of certain eviction records, including any evictions fled during the pandemic, in addition to extending the statewide eviction ban and closing some loopholes in the existing ban. State Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Chicago) sponsored Illinois Senate Bill 3066, known as the COVID-19 Federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program Act, and vows to introduce it again in February when legislators reconvene.

“People shouldn’t have an eviction record that harms them for the next ten years because they couldn’t pay rent during COVID,” Ramirez said. “I’m really worried that while we fght for [a rent freeze], people are going to have a record that will make it difcult for any landlord to want to rent to them.”

Landlords fle evictions at much higher rates in Black communities than in other parts of the city. Black women are especially vulnerable. In some cases, an eviction fling can stay in a renter’s credit history even after the case is dismissed or ruled in the renter’s favor. According to data from LCBH and Housing Action Illinois, a policy group working to expand the state’s supply of afordable housing, more than 15,000 people each year end up with a public eviction record despite having no eviction order or other judgment against them.

Ramirez’s bill received bipartisan support in the House, but failed to make it to the Senate foor for a vote. She encourages Chicago residents who want to support the bill to call their state senator and representative and demand they back it.

“Tis bill is a health protection, it’s removing barriers to housing, it’s a criminal justice bill,” Ramirez said. “We desperately need to make sure that it passes. Tis could potentially mean over a million people will be impacted if it doesn’t.” ¬

Access the full series online, learn more and get involved at citybureau.org.

Justin Agrelo is a City Bureau reporting resident from the Northwest Side. His reporting focuses on the impacts of COVID-19 on housing in Chicago. Tis is his frst piece for the Weekly.

“People need to be joining coalitions together in order to show that there is a wide and deep constituency of renters.”

ILLUSTRATION BY RAZIEL PUMA FOR CITY BUREAU