Support SB 2264 (Senator Karina Villa)
Safe communities don't discriminate, and housing is a basic human right. Addressing
crime concerns by depriving people of their homes is both ineffective and unjustified.
Many local governments have enacted so-called “crime-free housing and nuisance property” ordinances (CFNOs) with the misguided belief that they are effective at fighting crime and keeping communities safer.
Rather, CFNOs result in unfair penalties and evictions of tenants based on alleged criminal or nuisance activity, leading to instability and homelessness, which compromises public safety.
CFNOs frequently exclude people of color from housing and endanger our community's most vulnerable members.
This includes survivors of domestic violence and people with disabilities, whose calls for emergency services or the police can lead to eviction rather than the assistance needed. These ordinances often violate fair housing and other civil rights laws.
The Community Safety through Stable Homes Act, once implemented, will prevent discrimination, help people contact police without fear, and focus on better responses to crime while also keeping families in their homes.
SB 2264 protects civil rights and prevents homelessness in the following ways:
- Restricts local ordinances that would result in the eviction or a lease non-renewal for a tenant, except in the case of convictions for murder, a Class X felony, or Class 1 felony that occurred on the property.
- When a local ordinance does result in an eviction, it can only be filed against the person convicted of a crime, not the entire household.
- Juvenile court records cannot be used by a local government to require eviction.
- No survivor of domestic violence, person with a disability or any other person in a residential property would be penalized or evicted for calling the police or other emergency services.
- To be consistent with protections for people with arrests in the Illinois Human Rights Act, evictions based solely on arrests would be prohibited.*
- There would be a requirement that local governments with CFNOs have a Crime Free Housing Coordinator that would have to provide tenants subject to eviction a 30 day notice and provide an opportunity to be heard by a neutral hearing officer.
- The coordinator, in addition to helping tenants identify alternative housing and legal aid, would have to lead a fair housing impact analysis for the jurisdiction with annual reporting requirements.
- No penalties would be allowed against property owners for not complying with ordinances that conflict with state law.
- Creates a private right of action for violations of the law.
