as shared by our friends at Housing Action Illinois...Call Your Commissioner TODAY
On Wednesday, May 8, 2013 the Cook County Board of Commissioners will vote on whether to expand existing Source of Income (SOI) Protection in the county Fair Housing Ordinance to include Housing Choice Vouchers as a protected class.
Please call, your commissioner's office and encourage them to vote yes in favor of SOI protection that includes Housing Choice Vouchers.
Background
The Cook County Human Rights Ordinance (CCHRO) currently protects individuals from discrimination on the basis of a person’s source of income (i.e., child support, social security). The CCHRO, however, specifically exempts from protection persons with “Section 8” Housing Choice Vouchers. Presently housing providers can and do deny qualified households solely because they have a Housing Choice Voucher. The proposed ordinance amendment would include persons with Housing Choice Vouchers in the existing protections against SOI discrimination . This protection already exists in the City of Chicago, so would just expand it to the suburbs.
The opponents of Source of Income protection are grossly mischaracterizing what would be required. This amendment DOES NOT force landlords to accept all housing vouchers, rather it requires that all tenants be given a chance to be screened for a prospective unit equally. It would outlaw outright denial of access to a rental unit because a person has a voucher, it would outlaw charging larger security deposit just because the tenant has a voucher, and it encourages landlords to screen all of their potential tenants in a uniform manner.
More than fifty organizations have endorsed the proposal. Leaders in the campaign include Access Living, Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Metropolitan Tenants Organization and Open Communities.
For more information, please contact Brendan Saunders from Open Communities at 847-501-4352 x. 402 or brendan@opencommunities.org.
What You Can Do
Call your Cook County Commissioner TODAY, or Wednesday before 9 a.m., and ask them to vote YES in support of the Human Relations Committee Report from July 24, 2013 at this week's County Board meeting. Commissioners Garcia, Steele and Suffredin were the original supporters of the proposal. We particularly need calls to members noted with a "*".
1st, Earlean Collins, 312-603-4566*
2nd, Robert Steele, 312-603-0319
3rd, Jerry Butler, 312-603-6319*
4th, Stanley Moore, 312-603-2065*
5th, Deborah Sims, 312-603-6381*
6th, Joan Murphy, 312-603-4216
7th, Jesus Garcia, 312-603-5443
8th, Edwin Reyes, 312-603-6386*
9th, Peter Silvestri, 312-603-4393
10th, Bridget Gainer, 312-603-4210*
11th, John Daley, 312-603-4400
12th, John Fritchey, 312-603-6380*
13th, Larry Suffredin, 312-603-6383
14th, Gregg Goslin, 312-603-4932
15th, Timothy Schneider, 312-603-6388
16th, Jeffery Tobolski, 312-603-6384
17th, Liz Gorman, 312-603-4215
If you live in Cook County and don't know who your commissioner is you can find out at http://www.cookcountyclerk.com/elections/voterprofile/Pages/default.aspx.
If you make a call, please let us know you did and what response you received.
For more information contact Bob Palmer, Housing Action Illinois, 312-939-6074 x. 206 or bob@housingactionil.org.
For Housing Action Illinois homepage: CLICK HERE
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