The Shriver Center's Housing Advocacy

The Shriver Center's housing attorneys advocate to preserve low-income housing and protect residents of public and subsidized housing throughout Illinois. We play a pivotal role in overseeing and documenting the Chicago Housing Authority's (CHA's) Plan for Transformation, defending low-income renters through impact litigation, advancing innovating housing policies at the state and local levels, and providing professional support to housing advocates nationwide. The Shriver Center advances fair housing and serves as an integral player in the national housing rights arena.

We advocate to improve the rights of public housing residents and to ensure that they are the ultimate beneficiaries of the Plan for Transformation. Through negotiation and litigation, the Shriver Center is holding the CHA fully accountable to the low-income residents it was created to serve. Drawing from our expertise in welfare reform, we presently advocate with the CHA to ensure that they fairly design and flexibly implement proposed work requirements and other screening criteria in the new mixed-income communities. We also offer legal assistance and support to current and former residents at Henry Horner Homes, once the most notorious public housing development in the nation, during the redevelopment process. The Shriver Center is also monitoring new CHA relocation programs stemming from the settlement of Wallace v. CHA, a lawsuit we filed challenging the CHA's relocation of families from public housing to the Housing Choic Voucher (Section 8) program during the Plan for Transformation.

Our advocacy extends beyond public housing as well. We negotiate and, when necessary, litigate to preserve federally subsidized private market housing and to protect the rights of families living in these developments. In May of 2005, we filed Chicago ACORN v. HUD, a class action lawsuit intended to preserve the housing of over 1,200 families who live in one of the largest affordable housing developments in the state, if not the nation. The Shriver Center also works toward leveling the playing field between low-income tenants and landlords to ensure that all tenants in Illinois can access safe, decent, and affordable housing. Our Director of Housing Litigation, William Wilen, co-authored the Chicago Residential Landlord Tenant Ordianance (RLTO), which arms tenants across the city with strong rights. Now we advocate to provide many of the RTLO's protections to families around the State of Illinois. For example, we were instrumental in passage of the Right to Repair Act in 2004, allowing tenants around the state to make minor repairs to their homes and deduct the cost from their rent if landlords refuse to make timely repairs.

Presently, we are also among the lead advocates for the statewide source of income protection campaign in Illinois. This important legislation would amend the Illinois Human Rights Act, adding "source of income" as a protected class in residential rental real estate transactions. This legislation would enable more persons with disabilities, seniors, people of color, and female-headed families with children to avoid discrimination and access private-market housing that they can afford, regardless of the legal source of their income.

To add value to the advocacy work being conducted in Illinois, we work strategically with national and state policy organizations throughout the country and provide support to housing advocates nationally. Presently, the Shriver Center is convening a national working group for advocates concerned with public housing screening criteria. The housing team also writes regularly for the monthly Poverty Action Report and for the Clearinghouse Review, as well as publishing our own Inside Housing biannually. The Shriver Center's website serves as a resource on housing law and advocacy strategies. We are also part of a coalition that manages HousingMatters.net, an e-advocacy website aimed at mobilizing Illinois residents on important affordable housing issues, empowering them to make their voices heard.