Okay,
there we go.
Hello?
Okay.
City of Chicago.
The Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights will now come to order.
There are rules and regulations. Today,
we have two items on the agenda,
one which is a resolution brought forward by me calling for a subject matter
hearing. Votes may be taken for this matter.
We'll begin with a roll call to establish a quorum.
What we have online? Okay.
Alderwoman Dowell.
Alderwoman Gutierrez.
Alderperson Knudsen.
Alderperson Rodriguez.
Alderperson Fuentes.
Alderperson Taliaferro. Alderwoman Cruz.
Alderman Cardona.
Alderwoman Rodriguez Sanchez.
Alderman Casada.
Alderwoman Manal Hoppenworth.
Alderwoman Hadden.
Vice Chair Taylor,
and myself.
There are seven members present. We have a quorum.
Alderpersons Knudsen, Rodriguez
is here, sorry. Alderperson Knudsen, Hadden, Taylor,
and Manal Hoppenworth have requested a virtual option for committee hearing
attendance in accordance with Rule 59 of the City Council Rules of Order.
Can I get a motion to allow them to attend this hearing virtually?
So moved by Chairman Taliaferro. Hearing no objections, so ordered.
At this time, we'll begin the public comment period.
The period is limited to 30 minutes.
Out of respect for everyone's time, each speaker is limited to three minutes.
Remote speakers will comment first, followed by those in person.
As of 10:30 AM, Tuesday, March 24th, 2026,
zero callers have requested to speak today, so we will move on to in-person
speakers. Our first speaker will be Zoe Lee.
Our next speaker-- Kidding, sorry.
Having fun.
Little bit of fun.
Zoe, please start.
All right. Yep. All right.
First of all, y'all know
400,000 people didn't vote for Toni Preckwinkle.
So the cheating is going to stop.
Straight.
Okay, I'm going to tell you, I will sleep outside the White
House until the feds come here. I'm not playing with y'all.
Y'all are not going to steal this election at all.
The current Democratic Party progressive wing, half of y'all that's in
here, is fighting for illegal immigrant criminals to stay in the
United States. They're pushing for funding for transgender
surgeries for children, affordable housing, education, and
healthcare for illegal immigrants.
They're even running on abolishing ICE.
Yep.
And let's not forget Executive Order
14010, creating a comprehensive
regional framework to address the causes of migration, signed
by Joe Biden on February 2nd, 2021.
This so-called comprehensive framework opened the door to
millions of illegal aliens entering the country with little accountability
or enforcement. It's time to ask: how does any of this
make sense for American citizens?
At some point, people have to decide whether these policies are
sustainable, because right now, they're being pushed at the expense of the
country. And it is.
I don't know what fantasy world y'all in,
but these people livelihoods. Sheridan Gorman, she's from
Upstate New York.
I'm from Upstate New York. I'm from Albany, New York. She's from Yorktown.
She's at Loyola University. I was raised
CatholicThat's a Catholic church.
18 years old, going to look at the northern
lights that y'all fail to put in y'all media
because y'all want to make it seem like it was sketchy.
No, she went to go see the northern lights with her friends.
And then you have someone in y'all gang, Maria Hadden,
who says wrong time, wrong place,
and that she startled him,
but she was shot in the back.
Y'all
think that this communist
agenda that y'all trying to take over and be
revolutionaries with the cartel and all that.
Nah. We have the strongest military in the
world.
If we can fight over there,
we can definitely fight right here.
We're not going. As a freedman
on the 13, 14, 15th Amendment, we're not going.
As a Black American, we're not going.
But as a freedman, because Black is dead.
So as a freedman, that's in the US Constitution,
you will not win. You guys are sick, and you
guys are using these lo-
Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Jeffrey Watts.
All right.
Our following speaker
is Mr. George Blakemore.
Crime against humanity.
Enslaved people in America was the Black man,
and he went to the UN,
and it was Ghana pushing this issue.
Enslaved Black men-
Oh, just-
... captured said that the United States of America and
Israel was the one that voted against it.
Enslaved people brought over here
against their will to see another people pop up,
illegal,
and come up and get good service, contracting job
that Black people can't. And the egregious act is we got
two Black aldermen here, all of them, the Black faces
in high places, voted for these people.
Voted for them to get something that our
ancestors didn't get.
In change, you looking at me, Caliph Fara,
there's something wrong with you.
There's something wrong with all these Black elected officials in high
places selling their people out. The ancestors
hate you.
But when you know better, you do better.
So you can see that it's nobody here.
It's an empty seat.
Even the illegals are not here.
There's something wrong here. It's a communist
party. It's a one-party system.
And then you have the audacity to try to silence people
and get the police, y'all bullies, to throw her out.
"Oh, Mr. Blakemore, I'm going to let him in to May the 19th,
to August the 18th,"
without signing a complaint on this lady.
There's something evil here. It's
something funky here. It's something
un-American here. Or maybe it is America,
because she was the one who brought our people over
and enslaved us here.
The ancestors hate some of you.
They hate some of us. Love your nappy hair,
your big nose, your thick lips, and your black booty hole.
Fall in love with you.
That's what you got to do. God has given you everything you need.
All you have to do is use what God have given you.
You are God's chosen one.
You're the alpha and the omega. You're the beginning of the end.
You weren't taught better. If you knew better, you would do better.
And you know what you can kiss when Mr. Blakemore sit down?
Use your imagination.
Use your imagination what you can kiss.
Now,
have a good day.
You have a good day too, Mr. Blakemore. Next speaker is Ms.
Jessica Jackson.
Well,
I'm back after the suspension, after I've been banned.
That's crazy, right?
That's crazy that I would be banned from here and that all y'all would sit
there and let it happen, because I came in here talking
about my property that my mother left
for her children.
This morning before I came here, I went downstairs and I pulled the
deed to my property,
and to see my mother's name with her children's name on
this
deed.Yeah.
And to know that you all could be so corrupt and so
crooked that you all would try to steal what's rightfully mine
and keep me off this mic from talking about it, when I'm sitting here with a
whole Cook County Sheriff sticker with a
fraudulent case number on it. But you're going to keep
me from talking about my property because some lousy,
no good for nothing Jason Irvin wants to make sure that
nothing was said from this mic about his no good for nothing, sorry
wife, that was running for a office that he know doggone well she
wasn't going to win.
We going to flip Chicago red,
and we're going to come through here, and we're going to get these seats.
The mere fact that all of you sat in here and allowed that property tax
increase to hit the South Side and West Side like that, up to
133%, while the North Side had a mere 5%
and the suburbs had 10% to 11%. You all targeted us,
and you all, 50 of you, sat here and voted for that to happen.
We coming for them seats.
You all sat here and let them ban me
knowing I hadn't broken no law,
and you send this clown
to participate?
My son wouldn't have never sunk that low.
To abuse no women, some Black women, to help some
clowns
for a job.
N***a, you crazy. Anyway,
we getting them seats. We getting them. We getting them.
Again, for the alderman that helped me, you know who you are.
Don't want to say you because you know how retaliatory Mayor Brandon
Johnson is,
but we coming for them seats. Y'all don't sit back and do me wrong and think
that ain't nothing going to happen. See, that's the problem.
Y'all think that all we do is talk at this mic.
You better go see what Chicago Flip Red really on and see how we filing
charges and complaints on y'all all day long, and y'all clogging
up the system with fraudulent cases like the one...
Thank you, Ms. Jackson. Our next speaker is Dr. Sandy Norman.
Well, first, I honor God in these chambers.
I do want to honor you, Chairman, and I do want to honor, I know
she's on the phone, but Alderman Pat Dowell for extending me the opportunity to
speak. I do want to say,
as you guys know, I'm here a lot. I'm here
because of the city of Chicago, my love for my city, and my love for the
communities that I serve. And so, as a violence
interrupter, I could not come here on today, and
we have a meeting about immigration, and not mention the young
lady, Sheridan
Gorman, who was murdered and killed.
And so I have to say to this committee,
I know that we all should have compassion for
people, but I have to say that I cannot ignore, as a violence
interrupter, that a young lady was just murdered and killed, and she
was killed by someone that was illegal.
I watched the news. I watched the media.
I do want to say that I was
blessed that the alderman got on television and acknowledged the fact
that someone in her neighborhood was killed, but the comments that she
did make about the young lady being at the wrong place at the wrong time,
I definitely did not agree with that because she was at the right place at the
wrong time. But when you do have illegal immigrants that are
committing crimes, that is something that we should not tolerate.
I travel the country. I'm all over, whether it's Mexico,
Dubai, and I can't go into another nation and
commit crimes, and there are no consequences, and I get a
slap on my wrist because I'm an American citizen.
And so as much as we want to champion rights for our people,
we have to take into consideration when our people are wrong,
that there have to be changes. And I'm here to say that as a violence
interrupter, when I saw that young lady murdered and killed like
that, that touched my heart. And it's not about just
being a color, but this is a young lady that was going to school.
You have people like Isis Alganti, young women that are being
killed, and so there have to be some changes made.
As much as people want to champion laws for migrants,
we got to make some changes because no one should be allowed to
commit crime, murder, rape, killings, and then we
protect them. That's unacceptable, and if you're
human, that is something that no one should tolerate.
And as I said today, I travel the world.
I cannot go in any country and do the things that we are
allowed to really do in the United States of America.
And so I wanted to bring this out because it's just time.
We can't keep bringing up Harold Washington.
"Oh, he was champion sanctuary city," the Republican
alderman. We're living in 2026, and those that have the
ability to make the changes, we're calling on you to do
that. And so I'm here today, as I said, I have to work, but this
was important to me that someone was killed in my
city.
Thank you to all of our speakers today.
I would like to note that this committee received zero
written public comments. There being no more speakers, the public
comment period is now concluded.
Alderwoman
Cruise has requested a virtual option for committee hearing attendance in
accordance with Rule 59 of the City Council Rules of Order.
Can I get a motion to allow her to attend this hearing
virtually?So moved by
Alderwoman Gutierrez, and marking you as well for quorum.
Hearing no objections, so ordered. Thank you very much.
So we have two items on the agenda.
The first item is the approval of the October Rule 45 report.
Can I get a motion to approve it?
So moved by Alderwoman Rodriguez Sanchez. Hearing no objection, so ordered.
Before we begin the second item, I just want to
address some things especially that have been coming up in this committee hearing.
So I have the privilege of serving the 40th Ward, which is on the north side of
town and not terribly far from Loyola Park,
where Sheridan Gorman's life was taken
brutally.
I have two kids,
so thinking about somebody that young, 18 years old, being out
there and being killed,
no one's making excuses for it. Accountability is accountability.
Anyone committing those kind of acts should be held to the full extent of the law.
That being said,
that does not automatically mean anybody that shares an identity is a criminal.
And we have enough history in this country of people by virtue of their identity
being lumped in because one individual commits a crime.
We should not work on replicating those kind of systems because it
others people, and it criminalizes humans who haven't done anything.
For
knowledge sake,
the way the system works here, someone is arrested, they're tried by the court
system,
and if they are found guilty, they are then
either incarcerated or deported, depending on the level of crime.
If it is a murder, it is already law that a person will be deported for committing
that kind of crime. I just want to level set that because I don't think
anyone is looking to justify anyone committing that kind of
act. Accountability is accountability across the board.
So we do look forward to justice being served,
and we all feel sorry for anybody who loses someone, especially someone so
at the beginning of their life, thinking about what they could have contributed to
all of us and the family members they are.
So I just wanted to make sure to say that on the record.
So
the second item
is
R2024-0012421.
A resolution I introduced, which is a call for a subject matter hearing on
barriers to housing faced by immigrant, migrant, and refugee communities in the
city of Chicago.
Why I felt it was important to have this conversation is for a number of reasons.
There are plenty of folks here
that are now Chicagoans
that are looking for places to work,
trying to make sure they're sustaining their families, and that requires a level of
shelter. And there are impediments to getting any kind
of housing, even if you have the means to pay rent for those who are
undocumented here in the city.
Why it is important that we should all be aware of those challenges and work to
overcome them is, what would happen to anybody who's not able
to find housing?
You then have to figure out how to survive out here.
And as we all have seen, not just in the city, not just in certain neighborhoods,
nationally, the increase exponentially of homelessness
only moves in one direction if people aren't able to find housing, even if they
have the means to pay it.
So having a conversation about people can find housing actually helps
everybody out. It means more people are paying rent.
It means more people can take that rent to then pay their taxes, which helps create
some of the resources that are necessary for those who are unhoused.
And if those systems aren't corrected and people can't find that housing,
you're going to see more encampments.
And because we don't live in a society that creates enough housing for those who
need it, especially those who don't have any means to pay, those who have substance
use disorder, those who have behavioral health disorders, those who
have a variety of issues, those who have a medical bill that keep them from being
able to pay rent.
If we don't create the systems and the housing necessary to house folks, you're
going to see more of it happen.
So in the interest of making sure that the city is moving forward, that we are
taking care of unhoused neighbors,
any unhoused neighbor, we want to make sure we have this conversation rather
than exacerbating an already growing challenge.
So today, we have some fantastic organizations with us
who are the subject matter experts, as they are the ones on the ground directly
assisting our immigrant, migrant, and refugee communities in accessing and keeping
housing. So we invited them here to share any data and
testimony on the issue, as well as recommendations they have
for council members to take corrective
and supportive action.
Before they begin their presentations, we'd like for them to state their name,
title, organizations.
Or could do our presentation. Sorry, yeah, Chairwoman?
Yes, this is the subject matter here.
I'm going to present what the committee has been doing.
Correct.
Yes. So we'll be doing the presentation, then have the different
organizations present on some of those challenges,
and it will be up for a vote at the end.
So first, I will do a presentation related to the work that the committee has been
doing since our last meeting.
So we'll talk through first our legislative and policy priorities.
So,
since the last committee hearing, our committee, myself and others, have
introduced legislation. This is currently in committee.
We'll be having conversation with the colleagues to move it forward, but I wanted
to name them so folks are aware.
We have ordinance 0019959. I'll just go through the second
part of the number because all the other ones are going to be ordinance 202,
whatever year, right?First one's requiring weekly reporting on
any and all city interactions related to federal immigration enforcement that we
hope to get your support on. We don't really get the regular information necessary
to understand the scale, the detail, and be able to make sure that things are being
held accountable, so we introduced that.
Next, 0023367, calling for comprehensive
data on any and all interactions between city employees and federal agents
regarding immigration enforcement from January
20th, 2025 to 30 days after the order's passage.
As we have seen, and I've said this a number of times to you all right here in the
committee, we had the incident on June 4th, where in
that incident, CPD,
a commanding officer, was to some level coordinating with the federal
agents who were there looking to take people who were just checking in
legally.
It took a little bit of pressure, and I'm appreciative of the colleagues and people
of the committee that helped us move it forward, but that was one incident out of
many that have happened since. We want to get the same information and make
sure that we know what accountability looks like, that we know what right looks
like, and that we can better inform what guidelines need to be for
CPD or any city employee when these incidents happen.
It is not the assumption that the city employees are looking to operate in
manners that aren't legal based on the Welcome City ordinance, but more to inform
what right looks like so they have better understanding of how to operate.
Next, 0023360, calling for an
analysis on which city contractors profit from federal immigration enforcement.
When we think about where our tax dollars are going,
having that level of accountability is important.
Next,
0023359, amending the responsibilities
of the powers and duties of the Executive Director of the Office of Emergency
Management and Communications to include reviewing the city system for
communicating emergency information to the public related to hazardous
conditions created by federal immigration enforcement activities.
So to kind of make it a little more plainspoken,
OEMC has different tools to be able to communicate
activity.
For example, group text message, mass text message to let
people know when there are emergency incidents.
We believe being able to articulate when there are incidents that cause certain
levels of disruption across the city would be helpful,
especially
in what could be potentially crowd management or situations that could look like
what happened in Minneapolis. Making sure that we can get the word out to folks so
they can steer clear is important to keep people safe, and so that's something
we're looking to get support on as well.
And then lastly,
0023361 provides towing relief for vehicles that were
impacted by immigration enforcement.
So if a vehicle is towed and someone is abducted,
typically family members have to then figure out how to navigate after.
So looking at what other cities have done in order to make sure that
city services are taking into consideration the values
of a city and not adding more burden upon families that are now missing
family members, that is also something we're moving forward.
So
we will reiterate, and I think we'll do this every committee hearing, that there is
an immigration enforcement violations form.
What this is, if anyone sees
any interactions with city employees, whether it's CPD or other
departments, that could be considered coordination, to be able to
report it to the city of Chicago for further investigation.
So our committee has created a form for neighbors across the city to be able to
fill out and let us know.
That URL is welcometochicago.org.
Soon as you go on the website, on the main page, you'll be able to fill out
information related to what department might have had what
interaction. We then take that information and send that
to the proper investigative authorities.
So it works similarly to putting in a 311 request and then taking that to a
relevant department. Similarly, the form works that way if you fill it
out. All right?
We also publicly share what those reports are.
Generally, give people a sense of how many of those we've received, what
departments they're going to, and a breakdown.
We've had 11 reports as of March 23rd.
Seven regarding CPD, one regarding Parks District,
one Department of Finance, and two
DHS. All complaints have been forwarded to the appropriate investigative agencies.
You can find a full list of the reports at
fortiethward.org/ievreport.
Now we'll talk through some upcoming events.
So as we have been doing for I guess a number of years now, we're doing upcoming
immigration workshops. So we host the workshops to provide information and
resources on immigration issues impacting Chicagoans.
We have two coming up that we want to let you all know, and the public as well.
On April 7th, we have one that'll cover emergency family
planning.
Obviously, in the situations that are happening where the federal government is
actively tearing families apart, making sure folks are prepared for any
circumstance is important. So April 7th, we have an
immigration workshop covering that.
And then on April 16th,
we have a travel ban workshop. And so that is something to get more
information. I anticipate, given the new information related
to the federal administration having ICE occupying airports,
that would be covered in some regard at that one as well.
So you can visit
fortiethward.org/cirrevents
for upcoming events. These are largely virtual, so you
can log in to get information at each of the
workshops. We then have a train the trainer workshop.
So
we see all the work that's happening.
We try to make sure that we're scaling up given the nature of the issue.
So the next train the trainer workshop will be covering short-term
guardianship. So that's learning how to train community members on how to name a
short-term guardian to care for children in case of detention or
deportation.That is the
country we're currently living in.
April 15th, there will be an English training.
April 17th, there'll be a Spanish training.
We are also working on increasing the language access.
The city itself could do better. We're looking to find other
partners as we cover different languages to make sure every
population that is in jeopardy is covered and has support.
We also do monthly immigration briefings.
So we do those for service providers, these are the organizations doing the work,
to go over most recent immigration updates, including federal, state, and city
policy, litigation updates, and immigration enforcement trends.
So, we just got word about some potential changes in HUD
policy related to housing. I imagine that would be covered in this
briefing, along with other changes that may occur between now and then.
So the next briefing is on April 14th at 1:00 PM.
You can register at
bit.ly/CIRbriefing.
That is what we've done so far as a committee. Any questions related to that?
All right.
So
as we get this set up,
please let me know when we're ready to get that presentation for you.
So as a reminder, as it's getting set up, before you begin your presentations, if
you could state your name, title, and organization for the record, I would greatly
appreciate it. I will first hand it over to Lisset
Carretero from the Resurrection Project.
Good morning, everyone. Lisset Carretero with the Resurrection Project.
I am the director of financial wellness.
For the last 15 years, I've been committed to serving families in avoiding
foreclosure, appealing their property taxes,
preparing towards the journey of homeownership, and really guiding
families to being able to transfer that wealth to the next
generation. But in today's timing, we're thinking
about transferring property because of families that are not able to stay.
And so really what we've done throughout the years, part of the information that I
wanted to share with you all today is we've been doing housing work for the last
35 years. A lot of the work that we've done, you probably know us a little bit more
on the immigration aspect of support that we've done with families.
But wanted to give you all a landscape of the housing work that we've done in the
last year and how the current enforcement has really impacted and
pivoted a lot of the work that we had to do and learn throughout this process to be
able to protect, and educate a lot of the families that come through our doors.
So in this last year, part of the homeownership drive, what I'm really showcasing
here is
the deteriorated confidence of families walking through
homeownership. We had major dips.
So in 2024, just sharing a little bit of what we
saw throughout that year, which was typical.
We typically see anywhere between 500 families looking to prepare
for homeownership each year. During the times where we had ICE
enforcement heavily present is where we had the hugest
dips of confidence coming into families.
So really that just shows a little bit of where people that are trying to
get into homeownership, trying to contribute to pay taxes,
this really has limited that opportunity for a lot of the families.
We generally serve about 80% Latino families.
40% of those tend to be undocumented families.
In this past year, that confidence has completely gone down to at least 20%
of families looking to move forward.
People are scared, and really who we saw more scared are current
homeowners. Existing homeowners not necessarily knowing exactly what
to do. So our essential pivot was to provide
protection of asset educational awareness.
Really what we saw were families trying to identify what options
they had available to protect their home.
We all know power of attorney on a financial aspect, but really there's other
vehicles that families can have access to.
What we really focused on was letting people know the value of their
home. We serve long-term families that have been
living here, tax-paying families that have
earned equity throughout the years that they've lived here.
So really for us, the job was to be able to provide options, and
being able to understand what that means.
And what we heard were families looking to transition, families
being approached by investors, and really wanting to understand what to
do with their money. So I really completely understand in those
aspects how these things can really try to trickle.
But really the biggest support and the biggest need we started seeing towards the
end of the year was renter rights. When it comes to discrimination,
the state of Illinois does have a protection where it comes to the Immigrant Tenant
Protection Act. That was really the focus that we drove, and we saw
large demand of families that were scared.
We really highlighted the
settlement case that occurred back in March of 2025, where there was a
lawsuit against a landlord that did intimidate
and harass a family and tried to call ICE on
them. So really the focus that we've done is against
discrimination, and really the call to action for us that we do is to be able
to file that formal complaint. So part of the recommendations that
we believe that could help. I think offering stability during a
time of uncertainty is really the approach we should be doing.
An eviction moratorium of allowing people to develop a housing stability
plan if someone is detained by enforcement is something we would want to be
considered.
Support to file discrimination complaints.
We have community navigators that do this work to help families
navigate application systems and processes.
We really do see a need to file and support people file those
discriminations.
And in that aspect, creating a support unanimous tip line to be able
to do such investigations. And really, I think one of
the last is the language access mandate.
When filing a complaint, I went on the website yesterday, it's fully just
English online. There is technical assistance that we see as a
support as well to be able to do such things and to be able to
capture data to help support families.
So, with that, I will leave you with my comments
Thank you very much. Before I open it up for comments, I have a
couple questions.
One, I appreciate the recommendations.
You mentioned the enacting eviction moratoriums, and I know I've seen it
in different cities. Do you have
any record or awareness of how many cities have enacted
eviction moratoriums and where?
I am not aware right now at this moment of any other cities.
Okay. If it's possible to follow up through the chair, we'd like to see to get a
sense of what's been done, what the impacts have been as we're having
a conversation about possibilities.
And then you mentioned the language access.
On your end, do you have a breakdown of the languages that are being
used most and the different populations that would be served?
Spanish being our main language of support, but also
Chinese and Arabic.
Okay. Yeah, I think the more information we get, we've been talking to the
Office of Immigrant, Migrant, and Refugee Rights, really since the beginning of the
term to try to improve language access. It's been a bit of a challenge.
I think it was budgetary, but it's also policy.
So wanting to get a sense of which ones are most necessary early on
is important to us. So,
those are the questions I have. I'll open it up to any of the committee members.
No? All right. Well, thank you very much.
And like I said, we'll follow up with you as far as the answer to those.
So thank you. Okay.
Next, I'll now invite
Gabby Laredo
from Wellington United Church of Christ Sanctuary Working Group to speak.
Does that work?
They're on virtually.
Hi, everyone. Greetings. My name is Gabriela Laredo Garcia.
I work with the Sanctuary Working Group.
I am the current housing coordinator.
Thank you so much for your time for today.
Just a little bit about the Sanctuary Working Group.
It's a solidarity organization, and we have about
35 organizations under our umbrella that
we collaborate with and that are part of our membership.
We have started working
with migrants and refugees for a very long time.
A lot of our founding members have done
advocacy work since the '80s, '70s,
but we started servicing
as an organization
in 2020 with housing efforts.
So I just want to go over some of the challenges that we have
faced as dealing day to day working
with people.
So through our direct work, we are seeing deeply concerning inconsistent
patterns.
We are seeing landlords threaten tenants, including explicit
threats to call immigration enforcement if tenants do not leave or
comply with unlawful demands. We have seen this with multiple
families across the board.
Unfortunately,
we have seen this more active
within the last couple of months, given all the changes
in policies.
From this,
with the change of government, we are also seeing price gouging
where rent is increased beyond reasonable market rates because landlords assume
tenants have limited options.
We are seeing landlords demand multiple months of rent up front,
sometimes three to six months more, placing
housing completely out of reach for many families.
We are also seeing an increase in housing scams where individuals
are asked to pay deposits for units that either
do not exist or are not actually available.
Families are losing critical savings in these situations, leaving them even
more vulnerable.
There has been a lot of exploitation and unsafe
conditions beyond access. The
conditions many tenants are forced to live in are
unacceptable. We have worked with families whose utilities have been shut off by
landlords in
efforts to force them out. We have seen landlords
refuse to make essential repairs, leaving families in unsafe and
unhealthy conditions without heat, with mold,
or with ongoing structural issues.
Some of-- An example that we have is with the
families in the South Shore apartments that were raided
a couple of months back.
We worked with some of those families, and the
management company and the owners had been trying to
evict them or push them out, and we definitely did see some
collaboration there.
So that's just a huge example of how we have
seen
landlords and companies use the current political
climate towards their
benefit to push people out. There are
cases where landlords attempt to extract free labor, asking
tenants to perform work in exchange for rent
reductions that are never honored.
We also see landlords criminalizing or micromanaging tenants,
creating hostile environments where families feel constantly
monitored, threatened, or risk of eviction.
And these are not isolated incidents.
There are repeated patterns across different communities.
Barriers to entering the housing market.
For many immigrants, refugees, the barriers begin before they even
apply.
Many individuals do not have identification required to even open a
bank account, making it very difficult to meet basic application
requirements.As we know, they often
lack established credit history,
yet expected to meet strict
credit score thresholds.
They face unrealistic income requirements, such as
earning three times a monthly rent,
even when they are actively working.
On top of this, there are multiple application fees, moving fees, administrative
costs,
which create additional financial strain.
As we know, the impact of federal policies and enforcements.
Due to federal policy changes, many individuals have lost
access to work permits or experienced delays, limiting their
ability to earn stable income.
Families are experiencing the tension of loved ones,
creating emotional distress and financial hardship.
At the same time, fear around immigration enforcement continues to
grow. This fear also prevents a lot of people from
reporting unsafe conditions or seeking help when they need
it the most.
And as we know, the shelter system is also under
significant pressure. Shelters have been
overcrowded,
with many individuals waiting extended periods for placement.
We have already seen a lot of shelters being closed and consolidated.
Also growing
concerns about enforcement actions impacting or targeting vulnerable
populations.
Reports of ICE targeting shelters as
well.
So the human impact of all these factors combined are extremely
fragile reality. Families are living in overcrowded
conditions,
moving frequently and avoiding reporting unsafe
situations out of fear and
retaliation.
Many are forced to accept exploitative conditions simply
to have a place to stay.
So that is
buildings that
are just not
maintained.
Mold,
flooding,
just inhabitable places,
because landlords are aware of their
status,
and so they really take advantage of that.
And what we are doing as an organization,
we have responded through a structured and community-centered housing program.
We have three primary focus areas.
One is we have a private host network where community
members open their homes to support migrants as they transition
towards stability. So as they're gaining
saving to be able to afford an apartment,
building credit,
waiting on their work permits.
Our second partnership
is with faith-based communities.
So a faith-based
initiative is an organization that's also part of us,
where some faith-based
housing are able to host people for amounts of time
until they can get back on their feet.
They provide space, resources, and direct support.
And then our third branch of our housing program is our
apartment search support. We actively assist individuals
and families in navigating the housing market.
So we do a lot of hands-on navigation support where we actually go
and do the touring with them and ask the questions that they should be
asking and preparing them.
We also let
the families know about their rights, tenant rights.
We also have developed some relationships with
landlords and management
companies who...
We have fostered these relationships through our organization, and so
they are more flexible on someone's
application
or renting to these vulnerable
population.
We also offer language access services and educate
individuals on their tenants right, empowering them to advocate for
themselves as well. We assist with reporting discrimination
and unsafe housing conditions,
and connect them with advocacy partners.
Some of our partners as well that we have under us do a lot
of housing
work as well
throughout Illinois.
We have worked and continue to work on developing relationship with landlords and
property managers,
just to create more housing
accessible opportunities for people.
But I want to be clear
that our community organizations cannot solve the systematic issues
alone. So my recommendations are recommendations for the
city.
Based on what we are seeing, we urge the city to take on the following
actions.
Strengthening enforcement of tenant protections, including against
discrimination, harassment, and illegal evictions.
Expanding language access, which was previously
also brought up.
Address financial barriers,
including security deposit assistance, eliminating excessive up-front rent
demands.
So under our
membership,
we are able to help people with security deposits or rental
assistance. We have seenDouble the
amount asked in this last year, and it continues to go
up just because of everything that is going on in our
city.
So we are not able to meet every
financial ask, and so we are hoping that the city
has something specific for people who are not able to
go through other
networks, other panels, to be able to ask for financial
assistance.
Reform tenant screening practices,
especially rigid credit and income requirements, which is
both already
something that
people who are able to work consistently and
citizens or residents already have an issue
meeting, but specifically that's more challenging
for refugees and immigrants. Increase
oversight and accountability for landlords.
Even if we
inform people of their rights and everything, there is a process, it
takes time. There needs to be follow-ups
on these
reports that are being made.
Invest in affordable housing, particularly for underserved
communities and neighborhoods.
Strengthening protections against retaliation and intimidation,
including
threats tied to immigration status.
And just improve the shelter-to-housing transitions so
individuals are not exiting into homelessness.
The housing challenges we're discussing today are not just policy issues, they are
human issues.
These are about whether families can live without fear, whether
children can grow up in a safe and stable homes.
Whether people who come to the city seeking opportunity are
met with fairness or exploitation.
We have the responsibility and opportunity to do better, and I thank you for your
time and welcome any questions that you may
have.
Thank you very much.
Before I open it up to committee
members, I just had a couple questions. One, I appreciate the recommendations.
I think
as a follow-up, if possible, what I'd like to identify
is out of the recommendations, how many of them affect folks who are also
not undocumented? I think there's a good path to figure out folks who are
being discriminated against, regardless of whether they're
undocumented or not.
Mm-hmm.
And seeing if the same recommendations would apply in a way that allows us to move
forward something that's more holistic. Does that make sense?
Yes, definitely. I think many of them
affect all Chicagoans, regardless of
status. A lot of the
financial barriers, right? That's across the board.
The expanding of language access across the board, even if they're first
generation, second generation.
Reform tenant screening practices.
As you know,
the price hiking has been a continuous thing in the city for a long
time.
Even
the accessibility to be able to obtain an apartment
is so hard. That's why we have such a
high unhoused rate and why the shelters are
overcrowded.
Increase of oversight and accountability for the landlords is
across the board for everyone,
especially
in the South Side
neighborhoods. And we see that a lot
where people are only able to
afford rent in specific neighborhoods.
And so, there's just a lot that goes into it, and it goes across the board,
regardless of status.
Perfect. Thank you for that. I think another follow-up I have, because I think it's
something we've been internally discussing-
Mm-hmm
... is identifying which landlords and housing providers are doing
it in a way that is helpful, right?
Mm-hmm.
Because I think some of the folks that we've spoken to that are landlords
or housing providers don't necessarily know what right looks like, and they have
concerns about bringing folks on who don't have established credit, right?
Mm-hmm.
So trying to figure out
which providers in your experience, right?
Because you're interfacing to some extent between tenants
and landlords to identify-
Mm-hmm
... what works best from a landlord's point of view, because I think having that
conversation and bring everyone to the table allows us to establish
protocols, right? So for example, I've been thinking, and we have to talk to the
clerk's office.
Would a city key be a way to kind of-
Mm-hmm
... have people feel like, "Oh, there's some level of identification I feel a
little more comfortable with." So I think,
whether you can answer right now, but I imagine it's something more through the
chair, given the amount of work that you all do.
Mm-hmm.
Those kind of recommendation for housing providers and looking at it from the angle
would be helpful.
Mm-hmm.
So I don't know if you've got either recommendations there or if you'd be able to
get information to us at a later date.
Yeah, I can do both. I could talk a little bit about some of the things
that have worked. So through other
member organizations, Refugee One,
today they're actually hosting
an event where BMO is helping families
open bank accounts. And so they're a little bit more
flexible with what identification you need.
As you know, some
people do not have consulates here, so it's really hard for them to
get
proper identification. For example, Venezuela.
So we have been using the city keys.
We have been
using-Recommendations from
organizations, building those partnerships really has given us
that groundwork to have landlords and
companies have faith in us. And so
oftentimes, we are the middleman really trying to make these
partnerships work with them.
Sometimes the schools too will provide
information about their child.
We would like even birth
certificate, because we have done
bills that they have.
So really,
I think it's about having those conversations with the landlords and just
building those relationships of trust that have really helped.
As an organization, we have also helped with security
deposits. And so once the landlords see that
they're connected to an organization, that will help them, right?
Because a lot of times people who are facing housing insecurity or housing issues,
it's not the only issues that they're facing, they're facing multiple things.
And so we also tie them to organization for case management, and so they
know that they're working with someone.
They also have a point of contact.
But yeah, I can definitely get more information along those lines about some of the
ways that we have been able to overcome some of those barriers.
Yeah, I appreciate that because I think it creates a bit of a documented
footprint.
Mm-hmm.
So if you're a landlord trying to identify who a person is who's seeking to find
housing-
Mm-hmm
... having those kind of connections, different organizations,
for lack of a better term, tracking systems of who you're talking to.
Mm-hmm.
To your point, if you've got kids in the school system, those are other things that
let people know-
Mm-hmm
... you're in the community, you're a part of it, and you're not just looking to
take advantage. Which I don't think a lot of people are, but I think housing
providers fear, right? And so I think-
Mm-hmm
... also as a follow-up,
I know you mentioned you kind of
partner with, I think, 35 different organizations you mentioned.
Mm-hmm.
So kind of a list of those organizations, and I guess equivalent
counterparts. Because I would imagine if you're a housing provider,
to know those
different organizations are-
Mm-hmm
... would then be helpful as kind of like not exactly a cosigner-
Mm-hmm
... but to know, okay, they're actually partnering, and they may have, to your
point, security deposit help-
Mm-hmm
... or other things as well. So, yeah, I really appreciate the work being done.
I think the more information we have-
Mm-hmm
... the more we can identify how either we become partners or how we
can be intermediaries between some of the housing
providers and the folks looking to find housing. So thank you for that.
I'll now open it up to any committee members who may have questions.
All righty.
Thank you very much. Thank you, both of you, for all the
work you do and for taking the time to present.
As all presentations and questions have now concluded, I want to thank our subject
matter experts for joining us today.
Can I have a motion to vote on the resolution?
Alderperson Fuentes so moves.
Mr. Chairman?
Yes.
We don't have a quorum
in the room to vote on this.
Fair enough.
And as we don't,
I guess we will hold the item till we have quorum.
Copies of the supplemental materials will be sent to you, and all materials will be
hosted on the website, welcometochicago.org.
With no further business before the committee, may I have a motion to
adjourn?
Before you adjourn,
to vote a resolution on this modem, if I asked you at the beginning if
this was a subject matter hearing, you said yes.
So some of the items in the
resolution, such as increased investments in
existing or new programs, this task
force or working group, were not part of the
discussion. So I don't feel like this has been a full
subject matter hearing.
Yeah. As it reads, it doesn't create a task force or
anything. It's about the subject matter, which includes potentially those things.
So if you look at the final whereas, or the be it further resolved, I'll read it
onto the record. "Be it further resolved that the City Council calls for a
subject matter hearing to further explore the barriers to housing faced by
immigrant, migrant, and refugee communities in Chicago.
Inviting experts, advocacy groups, and community members to provide
insights and recommendations for effective investigative measures, potentially
including, but not limited to, legislative and executive
actions directing city departments to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the
housing needs and challenges faced by immigrant, migrant, and refugee communities
in Chicago, including data collection analysis and community engagement
efforts. Increase investments in existing or new programs, establishment of
a task force or working group to develop recommendations for policy reforms." The
operative wording would be "potentially including," which means it didn't
necessarily have to include it, nor is it mandating it.
Right. And I'm also looking at inviting experts,
advocacy groups, and community members to provide
insights. And I guess for me, that would be
more than the two that we've had here today.
Sure.
Since we're holding the item, what we could do in a subsequent meeting, if you've
got recommendations of some of the other experts, more than happy to bring them in
to have a more fulsome conversation.
Cool.
So thank you very much for that.
So having said that,
with no further business before the committee, may I have a motion to adjourn?
Alderpersons Dal, Fuentes so moved.
Hearing no objections so ordered, this meeting of the Committee on Immigrant and
Refugee Rights is now adjourned.