As the March gubernatorial primary approaches, two candidates have now expressed support for repealing Illinois’s Rent Control Preemption Act—a 1997 law that prohibits municipalities from enacting any form of regulation on residential or commercial rent prices. This week state senator Daniel Biss and wealthy businessman J.B. Pritzker spoke in support of a house bill that would lift the ban and allow local governments to grapple with the issue of rent control. Biss has also committed to introducing a companion bill in the senate early in the upcoming legislative session.
But Biss acknowledges that repealing the law will be an uphill battle “because of the power of the real estate lobby in the state capital.”
“When we look at 50 years of rent control in New York, what we see is that realtors and developers and property owners are still making money,” says Jawanza Malone, executive director of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization and a leader of the Lift the Ban coalition, which has been organizing the public campaign against the 1997 law. “There’s an opportunity for them to be making a profit but the difference is them making a profit doesn’t result in making homelessness.” He adds that rent regulation would reduce volatility in the rental market and provide smaller landlords with steadier tenants.
