Over the past few years a number of housing bills passed the legislature and been signed into law with broad support from housing advocates, including members of the Illinois Housing Roundtable.
COMPREHENSIVE HOUSING PLANNING ACT (2006)
This law requires the State to develop an annual Comprehensive Housing Plan that coordinates and streamlines the allocation of available housing funds. Under the law, the state is required to work to coordinate spending on economic development, transportation and human services in order to better address affordable housing goals. The plan will also prioritize the development of a range of permanent housing for the following underserved populations:
- Families earning below 50% of area median income (AMI), with particular emphasis on families earning below 30% AMI
- Low income seniors
- Low income persons with any form of disability, including, but not limited to, physical, developmental disability, mental illness, co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse disorder, or HIV/AIDSHomeless persons and persons determined to be at risk of homelessness
- Low- and moderate-income persons unable to afford housing near work.
For more information about the Comprehensive Housing Planning Act, visit www.metroplanning.org.
THE RENTAL HOUSING SUPPORT PROGRAM (2005)
The Rental Housing Support Program creates a state-funded rental assistance program that provides subsidies directly to participating landlords who agree to charge affordable rents to low-income tenants at or below 30% of area median income (around $19,000 for a family of four in Illinois). This law is expected to make over $30 million available annually in rental assistance to about 5,000 working poor households. It is the largest new commitment of state affordable housing funding in more than a decade.
This dedicated fund is administered by the Illinois Housing Development Authority (IDHA). It will provide grants to local agencies to create local rental assistance programs. Recipients of the grants will provide subsidies directly to landlords, who in turn will charge affordable rents to low-income tenants. The program is funded by a $10 state surcharge on real estate documents recorded with county recorders.
IHDA is currently engaged in an RFP process to determine which local agencies will be administering local programs. The program is expected to be operational statewide in early 2008.
The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and Housing Action Illinois spearheaded the effort to pass this legislation through the “It Takes a Home to Raise a Child” Campaign.
For more information about the Rental Housing Support Program visit www.chicagohomeless.org or www.housingactionil.org.
THE FEDERALLY ASSISTED HOUSING PRESERVATION ACT (2004)
In 2004, the Chicago Rehab Network led the effort to pass the Federally Assisted Housing Preservation Act. This law requires owners of subsidized housing to give twelve months notice of intent to sell the property (the law previously required six months notice) and would permit tenants to form an association that, with a non-profit corporation or private developer, could purchase the building and preserve it as affordable. If the tenant association does not choose a purchaser or the purchaser cannot meet a set timeline, the owner can sell the building or terminate the subsidies as governed by existing state and federal law.
For more information, visit www.chicagorehab.org.
THE RESIDENTIAL TENANTS' RIGHT TO REPAIR ACT (2004)
If landlords refuses to make a repair that is required by code, lease or law, this statute allows tenants to make the repairs and deduct the cost from their rent. Tenants must give a landlord written notice of a repair need. The landlord then has 14 days to make the repair. The tenant may thentake action to make the necessary repairs.
THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING PLANNING AND APPEAL ACT (2003)
The Affordable Housing Planning and Appeal Act is an effort to address the barriers that prevent the market from creating an adequate supply of affordable housing, especially in job-rich areas. The law requires all municipalities across the state with less than 10 percent affordable housing (including 49 affluent Chicago suburbs) to develop and implement plans to ensure that at least 10 percent of their housing is affordable. It also creates a State Housing Appeals Board that, beginning in 2009, may review — and, in some situations, overturn — local government decisions either to deny proposals to build affordable housing, or to approve affordable housing proposals only with restrictive conditions attached. The appeals process will be available to developers who propose plans with at least 20% affordable housing.
THE ILLINOIS COMPREHENSIVE HOUSING INITIATIVE (2003)
This Executive Order created the Governor’s Affordable Housing Task Force, which is charged with producing a housing plan to address the state’s housing crisis.
THE ILLINOIS HOUSING OPPORTUNITY TAX INCENTIVE ACT (2003)
This law provides tax abatements to private landlords who to rent homes to Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) holders in “opportunity areas” (low-poverty, high tax-base areas in the state).
For more information, visit www.thecommongood.org.
More Information on State Policy Initiatives:
