ILLUSTRATION BY MELL MONTEZUMA
OPINION
M
oratoria on evictions put in place by local, state, and federal authorities in the early weeks of the pandemic recognized an obvious truth: amid a public health crisis, having stable housing is vital to protect people’s health. Despite that, we’ve seen familiar stories play out in the last year, perpetuating the painful reality that many of Chicago’s enduring inequalities are founded upon one fundamental force: residential segregation. With Black and Latinx communities home to significant concentrations of essential workers, these communities also saw the greatest numbers of COVID infections and deaths. But if eviction protections saved many from losing their homes due to loss of income, childcare needs, or from the fallout of a COVID-related illness or death, we may soon see more than 20,000 evictions in the month after the moratorium is lifted, according to predictions from the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing (LCBH). Although state-level rental assistance is expected to reach thousands of residents, housing insecurity goes deeper than the pandemic. We need policies to do more than cover up wounds that were deepened but not created by the pandemic; we need them to secure housing as a fundamental right for all.
One such policy is Just Cause for Eviction, which our coalition, the Chicago Housing Justice League (CHJL), has been advocating for since 2019. [The Weekly previously covered the Just Cause ordinance in an op-ed by Bobby Vanecko in April 2020.] The policy currently governs over 10 million rental units nationwide, including four states and more than twenty cities, and in all federally-subsidized affordable housing units. Just Cause’s fundamental principle is simple: renters deserve the right to remain stably housed. Today, renters who are current on rent and are good neighbors are vulnerable to sudden displacement, whether due to eviction, non-renewal, or lease termination. Before the pandemic, LCBH estimated that 10,000 Chicago households typically faced these outcomes each year, creating instability and lifelong harm, particularly for children. Despite the eviction moratoria, some landlords have filed eviction cases, and some have illegally locked their tenants out, during the pandemic. Unless Just Cause is passed, tenants will be at risk of these unscrupulous practices well after COVID-19 has subsided. Just Cause ends the practice of nofault, no-cause evictions by establishing seven exclusive just grounds for ending the landlord-tenant relationship. On
Op-Ed: It’s About Time for a Just Cause Ordinance
With more than 20,000 Chicago evictions predicted after the moratorium is lifted, we need a policy that protects renters. BY ANNIE HOWARD
20 SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY
¬ AUGUST 19, 2021
