Housing Chair Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25) is pictured at a City Council meeting on April 7, 2025. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council Committee on Housing and Real Estate on Wednesday could take a vote on a newly revised version of the mayor’s legislative package overhauling the Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance (RLTO). 

The housing committee will meet at noon in council chambers. 

Alderpeople could take a vote on the latest substitute version of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Protecting Renters Ordinance (PRO) that removes its most controversial provisions. 

Earlier this month, the mayor’s office floated a revised version of PRO that would have exempted small landlords — owners of six-flats or smaller who live in one of their units — from a provision requiring landlords in some instances to pay thousands of dollars to help tenants move if the landlord chooses not to renew a lease, a reduction in relocation assistance minimums for all landlords and a one-year grace period before a tenant’s right to be compensated would kick in. 

Related: Johnson amends PRO legislation to exempt small landlords from Just Cause provisions, reduce relocation assistance overall 

But a new version shared with The Daily Line removes the relocation assistance completely and removes the so-called “Just Cause for Evictions” provisions requiring landlords to provide tenants with a specific, valid reason for not renewing a lease. 

PRO would still spell out a formal tenants’ bill of rights, establish a centralized bureau to receive and handle complaints against landlords, set up a citywide registry of rental units with ownership and historical complaint information, limit the types of fees landlords may charge tenants and make the pilot program that provides tenants with free legal counsel in eviction cases permanent. 

The latest substitute also preserves other provisions from the previous substitute, such as a provision stating that a tenant who pays for temporary housing due to lack of hot or running water, plumbing, power or gas may forgo rent during that temporary stay; clarifying that a tenant may deduct the cost of repairs from rent or withhold rent but may not do both for the same situation; and requiring a landlord to provide a tenant with notice if they change how they charge for utilities. 

A rival ordinance, dubbed the Fair Accountability In Rentals ordinance, sits in the zoning committee and is on Thursday’s zoning meeting agenda. 

Related: FAIR ordinance introduced to rival mayor’s housing legislation, cutting registration and relocation fees 

Other committee items  

The housing committee is also set to consider two mayoral appointments to the Chicago Housing Authority Board of Commissioners. The appointees include RaMona Westbrook, the founder and president of Brook Architecture, and John Bartlett, former executive director of the Metropolitan Tenants Organization. Both of their terms would last until July 2031. 

Alderpeople will also consider a proposed lease agreement (O2026-0027400) with NeighborSpace, Inc. that would allow the nonprofit to use the vacant city-owned property at 5900-10 N. Lincoln Ave. in the 50th Ward for a community garden. 

The committee will also consider an ordinance (O2026-0027320) to authorize the disbursement of more than $16.7 million in city financing to the developers of the Regenerator housing project at 6206 S. Racine Ave. in the 16th Ward. The 48-unit housing and health center development was approved as an adaptive reuse of the closed Woods Elementary School, and work is ongoing.  

The proposed financing consists of a $7.7 million city loan made from multi-family program funding and a more than $8.9 million grant made from Chicago Recovery Plan funds. 

Finally, the housing committee will take another vote on the proposed sale of city-owned land to a developer under the Missing Middle Housing Initiative, which allows eligible developers of owner-occupied two-to-six-flats and townhomes to receive construction cost assistance of up to $150,000 per unit. The initiative is funded by the city’s $1.25 billion Housing and Economic Development Bond package. 

The committee will reconsider the proposed sale (O2026-0026365) of four lots at 4013, 4019, 4031 and 4033 W. Jackson Blvd. in the 28th Ward to TRUDelta, LLC. Though the item passed the committee in July, it was held instead of receiving a council vote in order to be reworked. In line with the provisions of Missing Middle, the lots would be sold for $1 each.