As I mentioned a few days back, there was a meeting in downtown Chicago of the Illinois Special Senate Committee on Housing to discuss rent control legislation. So what happened? Predictable things happened. Community organizers and tenants’ rights advocates filled the room with folks with yellow signs demanding rent control. Landlord and real estate agent activists spoke about the perils of rent control. You can read all about it in an article published in Crain’s Chicago Business.
Landlords should pay special attention to the verbiage tenants are using as they fight this very real fight. They are talking about gentrification. They are talking about “rent stabilization”. To help bolster their case, tenants’ rights advocates (and legislators) have inserted some tax credits into the bill for qualifying properties so that they can claim that they are helping small landlords. The proposed senate bill also requires landlords to set up a reserve fund to make repairs in the building. So, I’ll say it. This (rent control) is a taking. This is wealth redistribution.
Landlords in Chicago are overregulated as it is. The rent control proposed would be a huge burden on landlords statewide. Landlord will lose control. They will have no control over what they do with their rents and no control over the price of their renewals. This is not good for Illinois.