Housing Roundtable Sets 2007 Advocacy Agenda

Member organizations of the Illinois Housing Roundtable, including the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, met on October 5 to discuss several legislative initiatives for 2007.

The Shriver Center, Housing Action Illinois (HAI), and the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing (LCBH) are planning legislation to prevent sheriffs from executing a judgment for eviction if the temperature is too low. In Illinois, if the temperature drops below 32 degrees, turning off tenants’ electricity or gas without giving 24 hours’ notice is already prohibited, but people may be thrown out of their homes regardless of the temperature. With new provisions in Illinois law, tenants may be spared some hardship during severe winter weather.

The Shriver Center, HAI, and LCBH are coordinating an initiative to find alternatives to evicting seniors from their apartments. In their proposed Eviction Prevention Program, based upon a successful model in Washington, D.C., landlords would voluntarily refer an elderly tenant at risk of eviction. Participants would receive legal and social services that promote lease compliance and maintain independent living, thereby reducing the rate of senior homelessness.

In 2006 the Shriver Center, HAI, and LCBH helped pass Illinois’s Safe Homes Act, allowing victims of domestic violence and sexual violence to change their locks or break their leases or both in order to protect their physical safety under certain circumstances. Amendments would strengthen this legislation by, for example, allowing victims and landlords in certain limited situations to prevent an abuser or leaseholder from gaining access to the property.

HAI, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, and Business and Professional People for the Public Interest introduced a promising initiative to reform Illinois’s real estate transfer tax (RETT) to create millions of dollars in new funding for affordable housing and the environment. The proposal would increase the RETT on high-end properties and produce an estimated $121 million for an affordable housing trust, while decreasing the tax on 95 percent of state transactions. Illinois’s RETT is among the lowest in the country and is split evenly between affordable housing and environmental trust funds. Legislators are already interested in the measure, which should create a total of $184 million in funding for the two trusts.

HAI is advocating an increase in funds for the Emergency Food and Shelter Grant Program, which is vital in moving people from homelessness to housing but has suffered sharp budget cuts in recent years. The program benefits overnight and transitional shelters and helps underwrite supportive services, such as transport assistance, case management, and counseling for the homeless. In the 2003 fiscal year $9.7 million was allocated to the program, but funding dropped to $8.8 million in the 2007 fiscal year. HAI is seeking $11.5 million in funding for the 2008 fiscal year.

In the 1999 Olmstead decision the U.S. Supreme Court required all states to develop plans to give disabled and senior citizens the option to utilize community-based services rather than receive institutional care. Illinois has yet to comply with the requirement, prompting the introduction of the Illinois Olmstead Implementation Act. The Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living (INCIL) and Campaign for Real Choice in Illinois will work to pass this legislation.

Roundtable members will seek increased funding for supportive housing, additional supportive housing for women recovering from drugs and alcohol, improved implementation of the Residential Real Property Disclosure Act, and the creation of children’s savings accounts to promote asset development.

For more information, visit www.housingmatters.net.