Chicago Politics

Protecting Renters Ordinance Rally 8.16.26

Description

Mayor Brandon Johnson attends the Protecting Renters Ordinance Rally.

Transcript

0:00 Half of Chicago residents are renters, and here in Edgewater in the 48th Ward, not only are a majority of residents renters, a majority of residents here are spending more than 30% of their monthly income on housing, and that ain't right. People can't afford rent, or people are living in apartments in serious disrepair. Raise your hands if something's going wrong in your apartment and your landlord isn't fixing it. Boo.

0:32 As a social worker, I have seen landlords brag about ignoring our existing tenant laws, even refusing to accept rental assistance to keep their tenants housed. And I have even seen landlords brag that they could, quote unquote, get more money from tenants who are survivors of domestic violence. And that ain't right. The last time city council passed legislation to protect tenants was more than 40 years ago. We are in the middle of an acute housing crisis and our existing retail landlord and tenant ordinance is insufficient to protect tenants from abusive or negligent landlords.

1:13 I say this as someone who had my old landlord attempt to put me through an illegal eviction. And while I did prevail and while I was able to get a settlement and get my case dismissed and sealed, that was only possible because I already had a friend who was a housing attorney. Social connections and luck in this really brutal system are not a substitute for policy reforms. We need to pass the Protecting Renters Ordinance this fall because renters cannot wait because the rent is due every single month.

1:50 So today you're going to hear from elected officials, directly impacted tenants, about why we need PRO before we go out and we talk to neighbors here in this community about why we need PRO. So I want to bring up our first speaker who has been a longtime advocate for tenants, first as an advocate for Lift the Ban on Rent Control. and now as the 25th Ward Alderman and Chair of City Council's Committee on Housing. Please welcome Alderman Byron Sigcho Lopez.

2:26 Thank you. Thank you, Kamara. Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody, for coming. How are you feeling today? How are you feeling about making housing a human right here in the city of Chicago? Thank you so much for all your efforts. First, I want to thank all the organizations, the Metropolitan Ten Organizations, One Northside, DSA. It's going to take a large and powerful coalition to overcome decades and decades of disinvestment.

2:58 Decades and decades when corporations, developers, and big landlords, slum landlords, will mistreat their tenants for profit. But long in Chicago, we understood that when we fight, we win. And when we organize, tenant rights are front and center because they are the majority of the city of Chicago. And also because we know that this has always been a fight that belongs to all of us, all working people.

3:29 We cannot allow the realtor association, the realtors association, the big developers, the corporations to pitch people against each other to let us confuse about the right to housing as a fundamental basic right. The pitching is more homeowners against tenants for profit. So they continue to make money, profit at the center, and the inhumanity and cruelty of evictions. Evictions are a violent action.

4:01 When families are evicted, when children lose the ability to be nearby their schools, when veterans, when seniors, when the most vulnerable are evicted and we have more people on house, we've got to wonder, what can we do to stop that? And that's when we answer, we can organize and pass legislation like PRO. So today, I'll tell you what PRO will do. PRO will start normalizing that we have in the city of Chicago

4:32 over 60,000 people in our house in every given year. Think about that. And the laws that for decades have remained the same. The last time we have updated the rental protection ordinance was 40 years ago. 40 years ago. Many things have changed. But one thing hasn't changed. Corporations and big developers don't want to pay the first share. That hasn't changed. But we must. So that's why we need to stop. Big landlords to continue to charge junk fees on tenants.

5:05 Fees that should never be legal. That in other cities, in any major city, they've already been banned. That's what we're going to do when we pass pro. Stop these junk fees for being overboding the tenants. We're also going to create a rental registry fee. $20 is not going to break the Realtors Association. $20 is not going to do that. But we know what it's going to do. It's going to make sure that these slumlords don't hide behind LLCs. Look at the limited liability companies, how they hide. We saw tenants have had to deal with inhumanity or living in infested rat apartments and the health consequences of that. Never again.

5:46 We see that creating a Bureau of Rental Housing Services will ensure tenant rights and enforce that we educate both tenants and small homeowners alike against the only minority that is creating the chaos, these big corporations and big landlords that are pitching us against each other. We will create this Bureau to make sure that we talk about rental rights and educate both homeowners and tenants alike. We also need to have a tenant bill of rights because it's been, again, decades

6:19 before we have a common sense law that puts housing as a human right. We also got to make sure that we have a pilot. We already have a pilot that is working, the right to counsel. It already works. We just want to codify it so that now we don't have to have different rules for different people. Everybody has the right to do process. Everybody has the right to process. And finally, let me share with you one of the controversies that is already a reality in every major city, just cause.

6:54 We understand the difficulties of tenants and small homeowners. But what we are not going to allow is the big developers and Islam landlords and corporations to hide behind that, not to allow us to codify what we already have seen. We see responsible small homeowners giving cash for keys. We already know that that's happening. We need to codify it because you know what happens when we don't? We see, you remember the single room occupancy units? Remember SROs? Remember what happened on the RAM?

7:25 Thousands of units that we lost. The minute that we put similar legislation like just cause, we protect those units. Because this is longlords and corporations know that before they buy those buildings, They have a responsibility with their tenants To make sure that they have a place to stay Families, seniors, veterans Those are the people that we're fighting And that's what we need, every single one of you Because we already see the lies Of the media and the propaganda Of the Realtors Association Making this the end of the world Like they said in New York

7:56 That they're going to move out of here That they're going to leave You know who is moving into the city of Chicago by the thousands? Millionaires Millionaires that don't pay their first share And that's what we need brought today I ask you brothers, sisters and siblings organize door to door we got to flip this council those older persons who are looking the other way and allowing the realtors to give us a bill that fair bill that they're putting it was written by the realtors association that is an insult to tenants who demand updated in codes

8:26 after 40 years that's what I'm proud to start here with DSA it's proud with every single one of you with my colleagues, it's going to take a movement it's going to take all of us It happened in New York and it's happened already in Chicago. The fight of the people to make housing as a human right started already. And we need you today. Are we going to make PRO happening today in the city of Chicago? Then let's mobilize. I'm looking forward to doorknock with every single one of you. I'm looking forward to fight for housing as a human right. And now I'm fighting to make sure that we leave the brand on rent control.

8:59 We're going to get to the state. But today, we need to pass pro and defeat this shameful fair ordinance created by the Realtors Association. We know the lies, and we know the truth. Thank you so much, comrades. Let's fight. Let's organize. Si se puede. Let's fight pros now. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much, Byron. The speaker is a tenant who worked with the Metropolitan Tenants Organization to form her very own Tenants Union.

9:32 The Tenant Union fought for more than a year to get their leases after their building had a motion to vacate, which would have made every single resident homeless. Reyna will speak to the importance of organizing and prose Tenant Bill of Rights. Give it up for Reyna. Everybody, thank you all for coming out today and supporting a cause.

10:02 My name is Raina Collins. I am representative of the Cheney Braggs building. We have been residents for about two-ish years, given a little extra change. I actually moved in right around the time I was pregnant with my son, very pregnant at the time. And the owners had vacated the premises, left negligent standing, not too much going on there. We as residents, considering that most of us are actually family of one another, They've been there much longer than I. Most of my familiar residents have actually been staying there upward of 20 plus years.

10:36 And we came together naturally as a community, a family to help pull things together in a time in between. I will say there were times when the lights had gone out in the hallways, which is a main common area for everybody to maneuver, navigate, enter and exit the building. And unfortunately, there were no emergency or storm lights set in place in the process. Us as the tenants were going out, purchasing lights, plugging lamps in, leaving them in the hallways. We had LED stick lights at the top, battery-operated lights. We were doing what we had to do to survive, not only to be comfortable, but just to be safe in the same space.

11:10 This building has a digital passcode that goes into the entrance of the main lobby area, and unfortunately, the code wasn't working for the same period of time. There was no contact to management, no property management, no owner to discuss this with. I don't know if anyone's familiar with Stony Island and the kind of street that is in Chicago, Illinois. Very busy area of the city, no matter what cross street you're at. We had a lot of public interactions, a lot of people coming and going, people who are not tenants or residents,

11:41 people who are familiar with the building just being open to the public. We are also very close in between two high schools, so like even younger traffic. We were playing bodyguards and security for our very own premises, just for a property where we were still technically also paying rent to said owner. But at the same time, I was also very pregnant at this time. So even though my efforts were more in spirit than physical, we had to delegate trash disposal as well. Building upwards of 20 tenants, we were piling up on our own trash.

12:14 the scent was egregious the actual visible eyesore on stony island very obvious there were people i was seven eight months pregnant i couldn't do as much people loading trash bags juice meat trash bags into their cars we were finding other canisters to fill and take other places this is all labor effort money from actual tenants who are once again paying rent to said owner shame excuse my volume but uh all this being said fortunately we were able to band together

12:46 and create a union just prior to meeting in court where we were receiving some pushback from said judge on the case at the time who was kind of using our case as an entertainment spectacle considering it was largely family based and it almost seemed as though the case was going based on his mood versus concern for the actual citizen which correct me if i'm wrong but we the people So very frustrating. But once we did unionize and pull together our resources with Southside Together and Metropolitan, we were able to reach out to some city officials, some stronger, higher voices and better positions of power.

13:25 where we were able to pull on their resources along with our own efforts. And together we started making some actual agreeable changes. It's really important for everybody to be on the same page, because not only does that get us to a place of progress faster, but it ensures the same securities for everyone. And the concern is for everyone to have somewhere to live. And so outside of that, when we did unionize, we started seeing some better progress in court. We now have leases. We have all been able to at least get the offer of signing leases or things of that nature, along with just being able to speak and reach out to the mayor and Alderman Yancey as well.

14:03 But, yes, we also pulled together to do a press conference, which I feel was a key and pivotal part of the case, because prior to that, like I said, it was kind of going based on the judge's mood versus actual policies and principles. And so with the necessary attention and lack of distractions, I believe we actually started making progress in our battle for our rights. But all that being said, things probably would have ended very differently and very poorly for all the tenants, including myself and my extremely young son,

14:35 had we had not been able to pull together and pull on those resources and make our voice even stronger and louder in the community for what we were really acting for. But thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for the Tenants Bill of Rights. And you've already been hearing all of the agreements. It's just things that landlords do and landlords are sweating right now.

15:05 They're not having a great time and they try to defend themselves whenever they face criticism by saying, well, we are housing providers. Boo. Let's be very clear. The people who build the buildings are the housing providers. The workers who maintain the buildings are the ones that are creating safe and stable housing. Again, we know that workers and tenants deserve more than the political system that we are in right now.

15:36 And throughout history, socialists have been the ones really fighting for a better democratic and equitable system for our politics and for our economy that really centers and empowers the entire working class. And as a reminder, if you have to work and survive, it doesn't matter what your job is, it doesn't matter your tax bracket, you are part of the working class. And as part of the working class, we hope that you get connected with Chicago DSA.

16:08 Chicago DSA is the largest socialist organization in the city. I'm proud to be a member. And Nationwide, the Democratic Socialists of America is the largest socialist organization in the entirety of United States history. So I am very proud to introduce a colleague and a comrade, Sean Duffy, one of the co-chairs of Chicago DSA.

16:38 when i say renter you say power renter renter good morning brothers and sisters friends and neighbors a few years ago i was renting an apartment in here in chicago and my hot water stopped working and here in chicago your landlord has 24 hours to fix your hot water before it becomes a problem. Because according to section 5-12-110, subsection F of the Chicago Municipal

17:10 Code, if your landlord doesn't fix your hot water after 24 hours, you can deduct the cost of temporary housing, like a hotel room, from your rent. I know that because after a whole week of not having hot water, my landlord still had not fixed my hot water. And so I had to politely remind them of my rights and their responsibilities. You know what they did? They argued with me. They said, no, we have 14 days. We have 14 days to fix your hot water.

17:46 14 days without hot water. It wasn't until I cited section 5-12-110, subsection F of the Chicago Municipal Code, until suddenly, miraculously, my hot water got fixed. Crazy how that works. And I was lucky. I was lucky because they could have just kept playing chicken with me.

18:17 Because how many tenants, how many renters out there even know that they have these rights? How many can afford to just pay for temporary housing out of pocket? How many feel empowered to fight their landlord when they're working 40 plus hours a week, when they're trying to raise a family? Landlords and renters are not on an even playing field. The worst thing a tenant can do to a landlord is damage their property.

18:49 The worst thing a landlord can do to a tenant is destroy their life. And so when I hear the opposition to the pro, the corporate landlords, the developers, the real estate lobby, when I hear them say, we all need to come to the table and come together to find common solutions. No, we don't. we're not a group of friends trying to figure out where to go for dinner you're the exploiter we are the exploited that's what this is and what the pro is going to do

19:25 is it's going to start to level that playing field it's going to put an end to these junk fees that makes moving even more expensive it's going to make it easier for the city and for renters to fight landlords and hold them accountable when they're breaking the law I'm sorry. It's going to require just cause for eviction so that landlords can't just deplace tenants on a whim. It's going to shift the balance of power, and that's why they're so scared.

19:56 That's why these big interests are so scared, and they should be scared. Because there's nothing scarier when the working class gets organized and fights for its own interest. because when workers get organized and fight together, what seems impossible becomes possible, and then it becomes reality. Nothing is won without struggle, and in the words of the late Chairman Fred Hampton, if we dare to struggle, we dare to win. That's why I need everyone here to make a commitment today,

20:30 a commitment to organize to pass the Protecting Renters Ordinance because it's not going to be given to us from above. It's going to be won through struggle from below. If you are an organizer here from Chicago DSA helping run the canvas later, I want you to raise your hand. Talk to one of those people and say, I want to run a pro canvas in my neighborhood, in my ward, through my organization because it's only through mass organizing that we're going to run the city we deserve. And every fight on the horizon, this fight, whether it's this fight,

21:04 the fight for a just moral city budget, whether it's a fight for control of city hall, we have to make all these fights about one thing. Which side are you on? Are you with workers or billionaires, people or corporations, big landlords or tenants, the oppressor or the oppressed? And so when someone comes up to you and asks you to sign a petition that you're on the ballot this February, ask, which side are you on? And when the political class, the media says, we can't have the pro, that's too much, you're asking for too much, ask, which side are you on?

21:46 When an alderman has a ward night, do they have a ward night? Organize to talk to your alderman and ask, which side are you on? Let's win this. Thanks, everyone. Housing Christ here in Edgewater. We've got a housing Christ in Lakeview. We've got a housing crisis in Pilsen. We have a housing crisis everywhere in the city because landlords are exploiting tenants everywhere in the city.

22:19 But fortunately, we've got some amazing leaders on the northwest side who have been fighting against against displacement and against bad landlords for years and years. And one of those amazing elected officials is the 35th Ward Alderman, Anthony Cazada. Thank you so much. Good morning, brothers, sisters and siblings. My name is Anthony Joel Cazada, and I'm proudly the Alderman of Chicago's 35th Ward, representing portions of Irving Park, Avondale, Logan Square and Hermosa.

22:56 As we've said multiple times today, Chicago is in the middle of a housing affordability crisis. Rents are rising, working families are struggling to stay in their homes, and too many people are living in constant fear that they will be displaced from the communities that they call home. At a moment like this, we should be strengthening tenant protections, not rolling them back. I'm a lifelong renter. The majority of my constituents are renters, and a majority of Chicagoans are renters. PRO was built by tenants, directly impacted residents, organizers, and housing policy experts who understand what renters are facing every single day.

23:38 And that's why I'm proud to support PRO. PRO gives tenants real protections and real tools to enforce their rights. It will finally deliver just cause for eviction. It strengthens protections against illegal lockouts. It creates a right to counsel for tenants facing evictions. It establishes a rental registry and gives the city the enforcement tools necessary to make these protections meaningful and impactful. And let's be clear about something. Protecting tenants and building more housing are not competing goals.

24:11 We absolutely need to build more housing in Chicago. We need more affordable housing. We need more deeply affordable housing. We need public housing. We need supportive, permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness. We need policies that bring down housing costs and make it possible for working people to live in the neighborhoods that they have called home and that they have built together. But we should never accept, we should never accept the idea that the way to build... build more housing is to make renters more vulnerable. We can do both. We can build more

24:46 housing and protect the people who already live here. We can address the housing shortage while making sure that a family that has paid its rent, followed the rules, and put down roots in a community is not suddenly pushed out for no fault of their own. The people facing rising rents today cannot wait for some future housing market to fix their problems. They need stability now. They need protection now. They need to know that city government is on their side and not on the side of profit racketeers trying to make profits off of our housing conditions.

25:20 And that is what PRO is about. So today, as we knock on doors, talk to our neighbors and organize across the city, let's send a clear message to City Hall and to my colleagues. We will not roll back tenant protections. We will not accept displacement as the price of living in Chicago. And we will build more housing, and we will protect the people who call Chicago home. And we will keep organizing until Chicago passes pro. Thank you, and venceremos.

25:55 For tenants' rights and for the preservation and expansion of affordable housing has been fought by generations of Chicago, because generations of landlords have been exploiting tenants in Chicago. And one of the organizations with the longest legacy of housing advocacy, particularly here on the far north side, from helping preserve our remaining SRO buildings to helping educate tenants about their rights, is One North Side. You can never miss their orange shirt.

26:28 Please welcome Vanessa Palaccio from One North Side. Come on. Okay. All right. Hi to everyone. I'm kind of nervous right now. I never speak like in front of many people. I just want you guys to know all the nightmares that we had in the building. I have two beautiful persons behind me to also suffer from a bad landlord in the same building.

27:01 Okay, so my name is Vanessa Palacio. I live across the street, and I'm here to tell you the nightmare that two months tenancy on the 5934 North Winthrop Avenue. We found the unit online. Rent was $19.95 a month, which was expensive for one bathroom, but the space was really good, so we decided to take it. The cost of moving in was huge. It was two months rent and $7.500 moving fee.

27:33 This means that we had to pay by the time $4,750 before we even got the keys. On the day we moved in, we found the apartment was unfinished, with the management company SVM installing the applications that day.

28:15 The work left the unit covered in heavy dust, which gave me an asthma attack, and put me in the urgent care, causing my partner to have several electric reactions. That summer started, and the things got really bad. Our central RC was broken, blowing hot air, which we reported to SBN on May 19. They said they're going to send a maintenance guy who actually do nothing.

28:55 A full month later, in June, SVN sent an electrician who told us the apartment was improperly wired and did not have enough power to run the AT. Our neighbor Erica also had no central AC. SBN gave her a windows unit, but when she turned them on, she lost the power for one week. Apparently, she called, she got to the breaker box, she got the smells of burning rubber.

29:27 The fire department came out to our building. Both apartments were running on a single 20 A&P circuit, circuit and she was told SVM had not electrician permission or anything. any file on it we asked sbn to for maintenance they promised to fix our central ac but they never show up meanwhile we were melting in temperatures reaching out 90 degrees inside our unit on the first of july finally is they installed acs on my unit the that even it i

30:05 turned them on and we also lost our power. SBN said they don't respond at all. They sent an electrician until July 3rd. When the electrician come, he told us the wiring was dangerous so he cannot do anything to fix it. We are desperate at this point. We were reaching out to every contact that we have in SBN. We got no response. We were without power from July the 1st to July 17th.

30:38 No gas, no hot water, no electricity in a 90-degree apartment. July 14th was the hottest date of the year. But this time we were like desperate so we ended up to write a letter to SBN to break our at least. So we couldn't leave this nightmare building even though we had paid July rent. We heard nothing bad from them. We ended up moving in in the middle of the wildfire smoke,

31:09 which was hard. So we decided to stop and continue the next day. When we got there, we found out that the gate of the building was backlogged. We knew that it was illegal, locked out, but we were so tired and exhausted that we decided to leave the things and end up this nightmare. Since we moved out, we found SBN never had any work permits for the building, and now they claim $4,000 in back rents. There are many neighbors who have similar horror stories, like this person who is next to me, and a small business also.

31:47 My story and my neighbor's story are shocking, but far too common. That's why we need protecting renters' ordinaries. BRO will have helped me and my partner in so many ways. Rental housing services will help us navigate departments of buildings and department of housing and crisis of being without electricity for two weeks during a heat wave. PRO also helps to protect me and my neighbors for not being charged $750 just for a moving fee that we actually, we use it for a month.

32:28 Finally, across the city, landlords have behind management companies. They are abusing tenants every day. We don't know for sure who owns the building. landlords should not be allowed to stay anonymous anymore and put tenants' health and safety on risk. Tenants deserve to know who owns their homes and who to go to accountability and justice. Thank you.

33:15 Organizations and many other, and Belden, Sawyer Tenants Association, and many other organizations across the city to fight for pro because we know that workers deserve more. And we even published a program called Workers Deserve More, and we are fighting for housing for all. Housing is a human right. Social housing, strictly regulate investment properties, establish universal rent control, and guarantee right to counsel for all tenants.

33:49 Many of the things in PRO are part of our platform as socialists, And I am proud to introduce Chicago DSA co-chair Deanna to share more. Thank you. All right. Hello, everybody. We live in a city and a country where the cost of everything is constantly rising. Whether it's groceries or rent, we are paying more and more while our wages are staying frozen,

34:20 putting immense pressure on working people like you and like me. rent takes up an ever-increasing portion of our income you are advised no more than a third already a ridiculous number but more and more renters are paying upwards of half of their income to their landlords Meanwhile, the capitalists, the bosses, the landlords are recording record profits and exercising more and more control over our daily lives.

34:50 There is much to say for a pro, but I want to emphasize the importance of a just cause requirement for eviction. To your landlord, your apartment is an asset. It is a way to make money. It is bought and sold. there is no meaning to it to you it is a home it is where you live your life it is where you recuperate after a long day's work it is where you make memories with your friends your family your spouses your children it is where you find community in your neighborhood it is everything

35:25 home is a core component of your life the pro ordinance guarantees you a right to remain in your home as long as you wish, as long as you pay rent. Currently, a landlord at the end of your lease can evict you for no cause at all. They have to give no reason to kick you out of your home, to take your children out of their schools and away from their friends. This is unconscionable. It cannot remain. This is an important right, but rights are only worth as

35:58 much as you can exercise them. Tenants are overburdened. Landlords have lawyers on retainer to bury you in paperwork. PRO also establishes an office to help tenants acquire legal assistance to defend their rights. But all over the city, all over the country, the landlords are organizing to prevent this ordinance from passing, not because they cannot afford it, but because they cannot stand the idea of you having rights over their property. They are organizing to spend huge

36:37 sums of money, money that you worked for and that they took from you to maintain their right to evict you from your home for no reason at all. DSA is fighting for the pro because we believe you deserve more, but also because this battle fits into a larger one being waged across our city, across our country, and across the world. There are two sides in that battle. They are not Democrats and Republicans. They are not Americans versus other countries. It is the working class

37:07 versus the bosses. It is the teachers. It is the teachers, the baristas, office workers, farm workers, lawyers, doctors, and factory workers on one side, and the billionaires, The oligarchs, the capitalists, and the landlords on the other. Their side is already highly organized. They spend hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions of dollars, every year on propaganda, on news reports, on politicians, to deny you what you are owed.

37:44 And to convince you that this is the natural order of things, that their theft of your wages is fair and natural. And to convince you that we have billions for warplanes to fly overhead, to kill children and our brothers and sisters across the world, to combat this, we must also be organized. Alone, we are powerless against their vast resources. But we must remember, without your labor, your compliance, they have nothing.

38:15 And all over the country, all over the world, more people are waking up to that reality every single day. The history of all existing society is that of class struggle. It was the lords versus the serfs, the master versus the slaves, the oppressor versus the oppressed. Today, that struggle is the workers against the capitalists, it is the landlords against the renters. To win that struggle, we must fight, because when we fight, we win.

38:53 This is a battle that we must fight on all fronts. It is passing the pro. It is funding our public schools. It is electing socialists to office in every inch of the country. It is organizing in your workplace. It is speaking to your neighbors. It is getting organized into tenant unions. So today, we are here to collect signatures, to put pressure on local alders, to choose people over the bosses, over the landlords. Tomorrow, we need you to talk to your neighbors.

39:25 and find a space in your community to join this fight for a revolutionary transformation of our society, away from exploitation and theft and towards a socialist future where housing is a human right and not a heavy burden on your financial well-being. Thank you. As you have heard, tenants' unions are winning.

39:56 They are winning lease extensions. They are winning the right to remain in their buildings. They are winning financial assistance. If you are just one tenant, your landlord can do a lot. But if your entire building, if your entire block of renters is organized, you can do a great deal. So I want to welcome David Amato from Belden-Sawyer Tenants Association to the mic. Oh, you guys. Socialist Beach Party. It's a very serious beach party, but it's a good one.

40:33 Good morning. My name is David Amato. I am a member of DSA. I am a rank-and-file member of Plumber's Local 130, and I am a member of the Belden-Sawyer Tenant Association. BSTA is a citywide tenant union that any Chicagoland tenant is eligible to join, so please consider joining. BSTA formed under very common conditions on the northwest side. Greedy, nasty investors are buying up buildings left and right and forcing families out of their

41:04 homes on a massive scale. In our building where we started, an elderly gay couple, bartenders, a plumber, warehouse workers, restaurant workers, and a retired union electrician who had lived in the building for 30 years were among the displaced. It is a pattern that has been happening in the city for decades and it is only accelerating in the era of financialized algorithm-based real estate transactions. Typically when a landlord attacks a tenant, the individual tenant seeks individual help from a lawyer or an organization to fix their individual problem. But we recognize

41:38 that what was happening in our building was not an isolated incident, but a class-based attack by rich people against working people. And so when we were attacked, we reached for the most classic working-class tool of all, the union. We refused to cooperate with our own displacement, and we eventually began what was, at the time, the longest sustained rent strike in the city of Chicago since the 1980s. In the end, we weren't able to stay in our building because the law as

42:11 written always favors the landlord, but we vowed to keep fighting. The rent strike is the most revered tool in the tenant arsenal, and it is a tool that we wholeheartedly endorse. But the law shapes the terrain in which tenants fight, and therefore it is in the interest of tenant unions to comment on the law. Any corrective to the imbalance of power between tenant and landlord is welcomed by BSTA, and that is why BSTA supports the Protecting Renters Ordinance. PRO would expand tenant rights in a number of ways that you've heard about today,

42:45 but the one I also want to talk about most is just cause for eviction, otherwise known as otherwise known as the right to renew Just Cause says that if you follow your lease and if you pay your rent, your lease will be renewed If your landlord doesn't want to renew your lease they have to have a very narrow reason and they have to pay you because they are depriving you of your housing which is a human right Every single tenant in Chicago should have the protections of Just Cause

43:15 Not surprisingly, the real estate and landlord lobbies have lost their minds over this ordinance They have spent the last two months viciously attacking the PRO and spreading lies about Just Cause in particular. They claim that Just Cause will raise rents and cripple residential construction, but the most current research available shows that cities with Just Cause saw a negligible impact on rent and actually saw residential construction increase. What really happens in cities with Just Cause is that evictions plummet.

43:47 In Chicago, 10,000 no-fault evictions occur every year. Just Cause would slash that number and protect thousands of families from the chaotic and traumatic experience of being forced to move by a landlord. Unfortunately, facts don't matter to our opponents. The landlord lobby has invoked the mom-and-pop landlord in order to deflect attention away from corporate landlords. Small landlords would see very little change under this law, but corporate landlords whose business model is predicated on mass displacement and price gouging would be reined in, and the landlord lobby cannot have that.

44:29 They have found common cause with a wing of city council whose entire political program revolves around preventing Brandon Johnson from doing the job we elected him to do. These aldermen, not these aldermen, but the ones I'm talking about, would rather their tenant constituents suffer than the mayor succeed. And I wish I was exaggerating, but that's what's going on. Not only that, but these aldermen who take thousands of dollars from the landlord lobby every year rolled out an abomination of an ordinance called FAIR,

45:04 which would not only halt the progress of PRO, but would actually roll back decades-old tenant rights. Shame. Shame. It is a direct assault on tenants, and it must be stopped. But let's get back to just cause. Listen, just cause is not radical or new. Other jurisdictions, including Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, all of Louisiana, and all of New Jersey, just to name a few, have just cause. New Jersey has had just cause since the 1970s.

45:37 Yeah. So what we have here is a group of aldermen saying, hey, we're Democrats, but we're not crazy. This isn't some centrally planned communist economy, like New Jersey. This isn't some Marxist-Leninist worker's paradise, like Louisiana. Just Cause may have been fine for comrade Chris Christie, but it's not going to work here, okay? We are the Chicago City Council, and we are drawing a line.

46:07 You got to hand it to these guys, they have principles. I don't know what they are, but they have them. Luckily, not everyone on city council is like that, and three older persons who actually have some sense and some spine are here speaking today. And this law, introduced by this mayor, deserves their support and ours. This law was written by the smartest people on tenant rights and tenant law in the city of Chicago,

46:39 and definitely some of the smartest minds in the whole country. People who have dedicated their whole careers to our rights, brilliant people. And Brandon Johnson had the chutzpah to introduce this law, knowing that the wolves of the real estate and landlord lobbies and their mouthpieces on city council would be ready to pounce on him. The protecting renters is a good law, and God damn it, Brandon Johnson deserves credit for having the bravery to introduce it.

47:10 Chicago is a 54% renter city. The numbers are on our side. I am confident that if we knuckle down in the coming weeks, educate the public about this law, and call out the landlords and the corporate wing of city council on their lies whenever we can, as loudly as we can, this law will pass, and by this time next year we will have PRO and we will have just cause in the city of Chicago. I mentioned I'm a plumber, and in the coming weeks, I want everyone here and everyone in this crowd to think like a union plumber,

47:45 by which I mean to be as ruthless as our opponents when it comes to defending your neighbors, your union, your fellow worker, your fellow tenant, and your community. Thank you very much for having BSTA here today. It has been an honor to speak with you. All power to all workers, all power to all tenants, the union forever. So get ready to canvas. But before we end our program, as a social worker, I know that access to safe, stable, affordable housing is not something you can separate from physical health or mental health and well-being.

48:33 And our next speaker knows that really, really well. This is something that she's cared about for a very long time. She is the 33rd Ward Alderwoman. She has been a champion for treatment, not trauma and creating public non-police mental health crisis response and creating the social structures and policies that people need to not be in crisis. I am incredibly honored to bring up a colleague and a comrade, Alderwoman Rosana Rodriguez-Sanchez.

49:14 Hello, everybody. Thank you for being here today. I am honored to be here, even though we are under the shadow of the genocide machine here, wrapped up in the sounds of war. I don't have a lot to add to what has been said But I do want to talk to you about my own experience as a renter In 2014, I found With my partner, an apartment in Albany Park that I absolutely loved. It was affordable. It was great. I got pregnant around that time. And my partner and I were talking like, what should we do? We want to stay in Albany Park because we really love it here. And rents were increasing.

50:04 um so the kitchen was just god awful like it was like oh my god I didn't want to get in that kitchen and I picture my life as a new mother being in the kitchen a lot and so our landlord was not going to fix the kitchen so we did um and we talked to him about like deducting the materials from the from the rent and he was okay with that so we ended up doing like a a really nice sort of like stage design kitchen and it worked and it was so much better and

50:37 beautiful and when it was time to renew our contracts we were really excited to stay there because we had worked so hard on it and our landlord raised our rent after we made his apartment so much better he raised he told us that he was going to raise our rent three hundred dollars and we um were shocked um and we ended up looking for another place to live we moved into a smaller apartment nearby and I went back to Puerto Rico to give birth to my child and while I was in

51:13 Puerto Rico about to give birth uh the landlord called and said I sold the building um I I am not sure what's going to happen but I just thought that you should know and when I came back all my neighbors were gone they were redoing all of the apartments mind you he knew that he was going to sell the building he knew that he was that the new owner was going to flip that building and he didn't tell us I had been there for probably five months I came back with a newborn and an empty building my neighbors were not there anymore and there was construction every day from you know

51:49 the beginning of the day to the end. And we had to move again. When he said, if you want, you can move into one of the units that have been finished. I was paying $1,000 in that apartment. And I asked how much and he said $1,700. And I said, I can't live here. So it had it. I now as an older person, I sit in my office and every ward night I have people that come to me for

52:25 support with evictions, for support because they have an unresponsive landlord and a moldy building. And a lot of these people are the people that are the most marginalized, people who are undocumented, single mothers, people who are really struggling in their lives. And they are scared that if they complain, they are going to lose their housing. They're going to lose the housing for their children. This is a crisis. And I want to say that my colleagues in city council, this corporate caucus that you all know,

52:56 these people call themselves moderate. Moderate on their fascism. Moderate on their fascism? You're right-wing. I'm sorry, but you are right-wing. And trying to dress up an ordinance that actually takes rights away from tenants and call it fair? that is a slap in the face to the people of chicago so i'm gonna tell you something the way in which we were able to get care the way in which we were able to get 14 vans to be able to

53:29 respond to mental health crisis in chicago the way that we were able to reopen mental health clinics that have been closed forever was canvassing and was telling people door to door we need this and we need this ordinance we need pro we need to protect renters we need to make sure that we have a fair um uh even field for our tenants to be able uh to preserve their housing so i want to say that going to the doors for treatment not trauma was one of the best things

54:02 that we ever did because it had really important results everybody on the stage in every mayoral debate had to say it and our mayor brandon johnson took it ran with it and we got results and now we have an actual response with the right tools to manage dysregulation and to manage mental health crisis so going to the doors is the most important thing that we can do right now and i hope that all of you are going to be doing that work alongside all of us. Thank you so much.

54:40 You have already heard about, I want to bring our final speaker to the stage, Mayor Brandon Johnson. Well, thank you so much. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Eleanor, for that introduction. I was just coming from church and I was worried I was going to be the best dressed today, but apparently not. I mean, that's pretty impressive, right? Come on. And I am so incredibly proud to be with you all today, standing alongside so many dedicated organizers and champions for the working people of our beloved city.

55:19 And from communities across the city, reflecting the incredible diversity and strength of our movement, we have come together today to do something that is not just common sense, but it is a worthwhile fight. And together we are building on decades of tireless advocacy by tenant organizers and for housing justice. We are answering to the need for dignity in our homes, stability in our neighborhoods, and meaningful relief for Chicago's renters. I'm honored, of course, to be in this fight alongside three incredible alders that are here today.

55:52 Alders Quesada, Rodriguez-Sanchez, and Sigcho Lopez. Let's show them some love, you all. I thank them for their contributions and their collective work on the behalf of Chicago's renters. It is a distinct honor to stand with some of the most dynamic, talented, committed organizers. As an organizer myself, I know that change doesn't happen overnight. It happens because people show up, they do the work, and they refuse to give up. And I'm especially inspired by the leadership of Vanessa of One Northside.

56:26 Thank you, Vanessa, for your leadership and your courage, your bravery. And didn't David get us fired up with Belden Sawyer tenants? David brought the heat today. because what they are proving, they're proving what's possible when neighbors come together to stand for one another and build stronger communities. And I also want to thank, I'm so grateful to join the Democratic Socialists of America for bringing us together for this incredible event.

57:02 And the strength and the temerity of this coalition is making historic change a true reality in our city. Together we are pushing forward a new agenda in this city And we are redrawing the boundaries of what was previously thought possible. We've changed the conversation to remind Chicagoans that they do not deserve and cannot accept housing that is substandard and rental practices that continue to leave our families struggling and without answers. And we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.

57:34 The landmark RLTO ordinance that was passed 40 years ago under the leadership of Mayor Harold Washington and a broad coalition of black, brown, white, Asian, young, old, that was won with organizers across the city. They built power. They fought for this day. And they knew that a generation would come behind them to take it to the next level. And that generation has finally arrived. and across not just policy-focused, but lines of neighborhood, race, and class.

58:08 They came together then, much as we have come together today, united by the belief that every Chicagoan deserves a safe, stable place to call home. And that belief brings us to where we are today. Housing is not and cannot be seen as a luxury. It is truly a human right, and it is the foundation of which our families and our communities are built. And through this fight we are engaged in, we will continue to push forth the struggle to make housing and tenant protections the righteous call, not just here in Chicago, but across the land.

58:44 And the Protecting Renters Ordinance empowers local government to do just that, while making it easier for renters and tenant units to access the protections afforded under existing city law. And that's why Pearl will establish the Bureau of Rental Housing Services. This will be the first of its kind in Chicago. We are breaking barriers and we're making our message absolutely clear. And this new bureau will be the city's administrative and investigative arm for enforcing tenants' rights.

59:17 And just as importantly, it will make City Hall better for renters. When a tenant is facing unsafe conditions, as you've heard today, a serious housing violation, or a landlord who isn't meeting their obligations, they shouldn't have to figure out which door to knock on or wonder whether anyone is even listening. The Bureau will give renters and... Tenant unions, a clear path to City Hall, making sure that reports of unsafe conditions and violations of tenants' rights get into the hands of the people best suited to respond.

59:51 And because renters shouldn't have to fight City Hall just to get City Hall to work for them. That day of having to fight government in order for government to do its job, that day must come to an end. Tenant unions and fair housing organizers usually all show up every single day to fight for the buildings, communities, and the city that Chicagoans deserve. And you all have been doing your part. And it's long past time for the city of Chicago to finally show up in force to protect our renters.

1:00:24 Because we can hold bad landlords accountable. We can ensure every family has a safe and stable place to call home. And there's no reason we can't put money back into Chicagoans' pockets at the same time. And Chicagoans deserve dignity and agency in the decisions that impact where they call home. And that's why I am so committed to seeing Just Cause for evictions, protections enacted right here in Chicago.

1:00:56 We've seen Just Cause deliver real results and increase stability within neighborhoods and cities across this country. And it's long past time for Chicagoans to have those same protections and the freedom from the fear of losing your home for no fault of your own. I believe our vision, our vision for our homes and our communities, it is truly possible. Our fight to pass the Protecting Renters Ordinance for the sake that many people who have come before us.

1:01:27 This reminds us of why it's important that we defend our rights and our freedoms, and we have to do it with a constant, consistent struggle. It's a sacred struggle, you all. And this summer, we marked the 60th anniversary when Dr. Keene came to Chicago, and his daughter, Dr. Bernice Keene, walked the very steps that her father marched. And he came here with one understanding, that if we can build a broad-based, multi-generational coalition in Chicago to demand that housing becomes a true human right,

1:02:01 he said that if we can do it in Chicago, we can do it anywhere in the world. So guess what, Chicago? It is time that we show up for the rest of the world by passing the Protecting Renters Ordinance right now in this moment. And so alongside tenants and organizers and faith leaders and civil rights activists who refuse to accept a city where a person's race determined where they could live, whether their home was safe or whether their family could thrive, they refuse to accept it then.

1:02:36 We're not going to accept it now. Probe brings that vision into the present. So let's finish the work that generations of Chicago organizers have started. Let's put power back in the hands of renters. let's support tenants unions and let's level the playing field for our city let's build the safest most affordable just city in the entire world let's get to the doors let's get to the people and let's build an economy that works for everyone god bless you all and god bless the greatest freaking city in the world chicago thank you so much for bringing up dr king's

1:03:19 chicago housing campaign one of the things that dr king said um during that time was that we needed a radical reorganization of wealth and power. So we are about to get started with our canvas. I'm going to lead you in a chant. We're going to take a photo. But once you get done today and you take your shower and you sit in front of air conditioning or you sit in front of a fan, make sure that you are part of an organization that is committed to the radical reorganization of wealth and power. Join a tenant's organization. Join

1:03:53 an organization like dsa dsausa.org join uh speak to your neighbors talk to your co-workers uh be part of an organization because we can only win things like pro when we organize together so with that i'm going to lead you in a chant and then we're going to take a group photo uh so everyone repeat after me i

1:04:50 Sing!

Sources and methods: how we get and count this data · report an error