JUST HOUSING AMENDMENT

Cook County, Illinois has put in place an ordinance April 25, 2019 that went into affect January 1st, 2020 and to be enforced February 1st, 2020. The Ordinance revises the human rights ordinance by providing protection to individuals with a criminal past, while also providing an equal chance at securing housing.

The act itself was created to prohibit the following:

  • Prohibit housing discrimination based on an individual’s covered criminal history
  • Require landlords to perform an individualized assessment of an otherwise qualified individual’s criminal conviction history prior to denying them an application for housing

We understand the criminal history issue but what is the individualized assessment? The individualized assessment is a questionnaire that considers all relevant factors from an individual’s conviction in the previous three years.

The following are just a couple of examples a landlord can consider when evaluating a tenant:

  • Evidence of rehabilitation;
  • The age of the individual at the time the criminal offense occurred;
  • The number of criminal convictions;
  • The nature and severity of the criminal offense and how recently it occurred.

The Just Housing Ordinance now requires a two step process when screening tenants:

  1. The first step deals with prequalification, the landlord must verify that the tenant passes the income, rental history, and other requirements of the application. (Criminal background checks cannot be performed during this first step)
  2. The second step requires that the landlord prequalify the applicant based on all criteria except those related to criminal history or deny the application based on failure to satisfy the qualification criteria. After the landlord has prequalified the candidate, then and only then can the landlord conduct a criminal background check.

Penalties for violating the Just Housing Amendment may include complainant’s compensatory damages and attorney fees and Commission fines. If you should have any questions in regards to this ordinance please feel free to contact us via our website @ https://intelligentsetv.com or give us a call at 708-534-3994.

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