Federally funded program to provide Chicago tenants with legal assistance

Initiative will work closely with Early Resolution Program

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (Getty Images, iStock)
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (Getty Images, iStock)

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is seeking proposals for a three-year pilot program to provide low-income tenants facing eviction with legal assistance.

The city will hire a contractor in the first half of this year to run the $8 million, federally funded program, according to the Chicago Tribune. Details on who will be prioritized for assistance haven’t been determined but the initiative will pay for lawyers to represent tenants in court.

City officials provided the Tribune with a statement saying “that having legal representation dramatically improves the odds of a tenant having a positive outcome after an eviction filing — but that only a small fraction of tenants in fact have access to such representation.”

The announcement comes months after the end of the state’s moratorium on evictions, during which many sought help paying rent. The initiative will work closely with the Early Resolution Program, which provides legal aid, mediation and case management in legal cases but does not offer full legal representation to tenants.

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Michael Zink, a housing attorney active in the small landlord association Neighborhood Building Owners Alliance, a critic of the new initiative, said that while assistance for tenants who can’t afford rent is a good thing, delays in the legal process can cause cases to take months. Tenants don’t pay rent while their case is being heard and that jeopardizes the financial stability of some landlords and puts buildings at risk of foreclosure.

“It’s sort of an antidote to something that’s other than the problem,” Zink told the Tribune. “That’s what I would hope this program would consider, is that many of these housing providers are people of color who may not have the means or even understand what the process is, or to afford an attorney.”

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[Chicago Tribune] – Harrison Connery