A coalition of community organizations is pushing for legislation to give voters the option to lift Illinois’ ban on rent control and stabilization. 

Illinois has had a blanket ban on rent control and stabilization since 1997, when the state legislature passed the Rent Control Preemption Act.  

House Bill 3687 would do two things. First, it would allow municipalities to opt-in to lifting the rent stabilization ban through a referendum. Second, it would expand Cook County’s Residential Tenant Landlord Ordinance statewide.   

The measure is backed by the Lift the Ban Coalition, which is composed of several community organizations, including the Chicago Teachers Union, Chicago Housing Initiative and SEIU Local 1.  

The referendum to lift the ban could be added to the ballot through Illinois’ standard referendum process. It would simply ask voters if they support lifting the rent stabilization ban for residential and commercial properties in their community.   

If voters approve, it would be up to each community to determine how they move forward with rent stabilizations. For example, rent stabilization could be tied to inflation indicators such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), with increases in rent matching increases in inflation.  

“It's meant to be very flexible, because housing markets are going to look different in different places,” said Diego Morales, campaign coordinator for the Lift the Ban Coalition. “The cool thing about the referendum piece is that you can have it as local as you want. You can have it as local as a neighborhood, a handful of precincts, a township [or] a county.”  

Morales said ultimately this is intended to be a “people-driven process,” with community members either pushing their local officials to pursue the referendum or acquiring the necessary petition signatures themselves.   

Morales said support for lifting the ban had mostly come from Chicago-area organizations, but downstate groups and lawmakers have begun to express support for the measure.   

Morales clarified that rent stabilization does not prevent a landlord from raising rents. It instead aims to prevent price gouging by restricting the percentage rents can be raised by. That’s different from rent control, which can include a complete rent freeze.  

Many states have recently passed laws that enact statewide rent stabilization or allow municipalities to make their own policies. Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a law in March capping rent increases statewide to 7 percent plus inflation or 10 percent, whichever is lower. California has had a similar law since 2020, capping rent increases at 5 percent plus inflation or 10 percent, whichever is lower. The California law allows municipalities to enact stricter policies.  

New York, New Jersey and Maine are among the states which allow municipalities to enact their own policies. New York City’s policy, for example, limits rent stabilization to buildings built before 1974 with six or more units. Nearly half of all rental apartments in New York City are rent stabilized.   

Morales said the coalition originally proposed a measure lifting the ban statewide but changed it to find compromise.  

The second portion of the bill, expanding Cook County’s Residential Tenant Landlord Ordinance, codifies certain renters' rights and landlord protections.  

Illinois currently has some statewide laws regarding the issue. That includes requiring landlords to abide by a legal process to evict a tenant, making necessary repairs to a unit and keeping the unit “fit to live in.” Landlord protections include requiring residents to pay for any damages beyond usual wear and tear and requiring written notice before vacating a unit.  

The Residential Tenant Landlord Ordinance goes a step further, providing more in-depth guidelines for issues such as late rent payments and establishing timelines for when repairs should reasonably be made. Morales said outside of Cook County, many municipalities and counties in Illinois do not have such ordinances.  

There would be some exceptions for both sections of HB 3637, such as exempting owner-occupied units with six units or less. Morales said the goal of the legislation is not to target these “mom and pop landlords,” but instead prevent larger companies from buying a building and raising rents beyond what is considered reasonable.   

New construction would also be exempt, as there wouldn’t be a rent history to base the increase limitation on.  

With rent prices rising nationwide, Morales said the coalition believes there is support for lifting the ban. He referenced a 2019 advisory referendum that was on the ballot in Chicago’s 1st, 26th, 45th and 50th wards asking voters if they would support lifting the ban. Just over 71 percent of voters said they approved lifting the ban.   

Morales said they do not believe the law would drive new developments away from the state, saying investors would still be able to profit.  

“I would ask, is 10 percent not a fair return, not a fair profit for people to make?” he said. “Compare that to the stock market, compare that to treasury bonds, compare that to anywhere else that investors go to park their money. And it's actually incredibly high still.”   

The average stock market return is around 10 percent annually, according to Experian, with treasury bonds typically yielding a lower return.   

Morales said the coalition’s main concern is preventing residents from being priced out of buildings.   

“For us, the most important thing is that regular people, working class families, can afford where they live,” he said.  “That they can have affordable rents that they can't get taken advantage of, that they have the ability to move somewhere and [know] that if they love somewhere… they can raise their kids there.”