Aldermen Push Rival Rental Ordinance to Gut Johnson's Tenant Protections as Budget Fight Rages On

Chicago aldermen who helped sink Mayor Brandon Johnson's budget last winter are now taking aim at one of his other major initiatives, introducing a rival ordinance that would strip out core tenant protections from his proposed renters' rights package. The dueling proposals head toward a City Council committee debate as the mayor and the same coalition of aldermen separately trade blame over a projected $98 million midyear budget shortfall.

Sixteen of the 31 members of the council's budget accountability coalition introduced their Fair and Accountable Illinois Rental Ordinance, known as FAIR, in direct response to Johnson's Protecting Renters Ordinance, which he unveiled last month. Johnson has described his plan as the first major overhaul of the city's housing rules since Mayor Harold Washington's administration in the mid-1980s. It would create a Tenant Bill of Rights, require landlords to show "just cause" before evicting tenants or refusing to renew a lease, set up a citywide rental registry, and provide relocation assistance to tenants displaced through no fault of their own.

The FAIR Ordinance would remove the just cause requirement and the relocation fees entirely, while carving out broader exemptions for small landlords. Ald. Nicole Lee (11th) said at a press conference that she's worried about "mom-and-pop" landlords who she says supply naturally occurring affordable housing and can't absorb the costs Johnson's ordinance would impose. Under Johnson's plan, landlords would owe a relocation fee of five months' rent or $5,000, whichever is greater, when a tenant has to move because of owner occupancy, major repairs, demolition, or a unit sale. That fee climbs to as much as $10,000, or 10 months' rent, if a landlord can be shown to have hiked rent in one unit far more than in another. The FAIR Ordinance would cut those fees to $3,000 or three months' rent for nonprofits and for owner-occupied buildings with six units or fewer.

Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) said dropping the relocation fees and the just cause clause strikes what he called "an excellent balance" between protecting tenants and not choking off new housing construction. Lee raised a similar point, saying developers she has spoken with are already bracing for rents to rise sharply if they must set aside thousands of dollars per unit for potential relocation payouts.

The two ordinances also diverge on fees renters pay just to move in. Johnson's proposal bans so-called junk fees, including move-in charges without a documented cost, caps security deposits at one month's rent, and limits application fees to $20. The FAIR Ordinance would allow a $50 application fee cap and permit most other fees as long as landlords disclose them in writing, itemize them, and tie them to an actual cost.

Johnson pushed back hard on the rival measure, accusing its sponsors of copying most of his ordinance while cutting out the protections that matter most. "The key measures that would ultimately protect renters, I'm not seeing that in their proposal," he said. "Now, what they did do, though, is they took 98 percent of essentially of what I proposed, copied and pasted, but took out key components of what will protect renters, and I'm going to protect renters by any means necessary."

The rental fight is playing out alongside a separate dispute over city finances. Johnson's administration disclosed a projected $98 million midyear budget shortfall in its latest budget update, and the mayor has pointed to the same coalition of aldermen as part of the problem. At a ribbon cutting in Bronzeville, Johnson blamed aldermen for rejecting his proposed corporate head tax during last year's budget negotiations, saying the council chose the interests of "big conglomerate corporations" over workers. He argued the council's alternative revenue plan has failed to bring in the money it promised.

Finance Committee Chairwoman Pat Dowell rejected that framing, saying the council's revenue ideas were already built into the budget the city passed and that the administration has been slow to carry them out. "We've come up with solutions, and they're baked into the budget. We need the administration to implement the budget," Dowell said, adding that some proposals "they've taken their sweet time" on.

The budget gap has raised the possibility of layoffs this fall, and the administration has signaled police could be included if the city needs deeper savings. Fraternal Order of Police president John Catanzara Jr. called that idea dangerous given the time of year. "We're in the middle of the most violent part of the year, historically speaking," he said, adding that pulling officers off the street "couldn't be a dumber idea for anybody to even utter those words out loud." Dowell said layoffs aren't the only path forward and floated an employee buyout program that she said the administration hasn't evaluated, calling talk of layoffs "scare tactics."

Johnson has continued to press for new taxes on wealthy residents and large corporations, telling reporters the council's alternative approach "failed" and that aldermen need to return with a plan that puts more money on the table from those with the means to pay it.

With both fights unfolding at once and a city election year ahead, the same coalition of aldermen now opposes Johnson on renters' rights and on how to close the budget gap. The rental ordinances are expected to come before a City Council committee for debate in the coming weeks, where aldermen will have to decide whether to advance Johnson's version, the coalition's FAIR Ordinance, or some blend of the two before either reaches a full council vote.