The best way to achieve rent stabilization in Chicago is to cap property tax increases and remove all obstacles to expanding available housing. Any gimmick, however disguised to impose rent control, will worsen Chicago’s affordable housing crisis, and that includes the mayor’s sweeping overhaul of city rules governing renting and landlords. That is exactly what the mayor and his drafters have disguised with Johnson’s so-called overhaul. It will only worsen the affordability problem as it drives landlords to give up their property and discourage new multi-family housing investment.
The mayor finds villains and scapegoats to blame for every inherited challenge and every problem he has failed to address. His new target is landlords, whom he blames for higher rents. Never mind the impact on rents and homeownership from property taxes that rise significantly every year including more than $700 million last year alone and the tax burden being shifted dramatically from commercial to residential property.
Some neighborhoods saw massive spikes on residential property, such as West Garfield Park (133% increase) and North Lawndale (99% increase).
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