By SAMANTHA SMYLIE
Staff writer

Organizers with the #LiftTheBan Coalition challenged Rep. Curtis Tarver II (25th) about his vote to not lift the ban on rent control throughout the state at a public town hall on Dec. 12.

Residents and several members of the #LiftTheBan Coalition came to the Fair Housing Town Hall hosted by Reps. Curtis Tarver II (25th) and Kam Buckner (26th) at the South Side YMCA. During the town hall, representatives from the Illinois Department of Human Rights and Human Rights Commission talked about Illinois’ fair housing protections, the process of a fair housing investigation and recent legislations passed amending the Illinois Human Rights Act to include arrest records protections in real estate transactions.

After the presentation was over, Helena Duncan, a member of the coalition and constituent of the 25th district, stood up and said: “How far it will go to have a housing process that is not discriminatory if the housing itself is not affordable? If you have an arrest on your record and you end up getting housing and then that housing is 75%, 50% or 40% some astronomical amount of your income?”

Duncan continued, “With that in mind, why, Rep. Tarver, did you campaign promising that you would support the bill to lift the ban on rent control and then once you got into the office you did the exact opposite and you voted to kill the bill? I want to know why.”

Before responding to Duncan’s question, Tarver asked her to schedule an appointment to speak with him at his office. As the exchange got heated, Tarver accused her of hijacking the event.

As Duncan continued to pressure him to answer her question, he said, “I understand your position, I heard it on social media for the last six or seven months. I think what’s important to note is that when you put information out there most of it is not true. For example, 70 or 80 odd percent of the precincts in the 25th district did not vote in favor of lifting the ban on rent control. You know how we know that? Because it is 89. You polled less than 7 in a very specific area. Those less than 7% of the precincts in total are who you are referring to.”

Duncan pushed back against Tarver, saying that she did not bring that up but wanted to know why he voted against the bill, he responded, “My stance on rent control is very clear at this point. How you feel about a conversation two years ago versus a conversation in April versus a conversation 10 minutes ago?”

On March 27, Tarver was one of four votes on the Commercial Law Subcommittee against HB0255 — a house bill to repeal the 1997 Rent Control Preemption Act. While campaigning in 2018 for the 25th District seat, Tarver did support lifting the ban on rent control as reported by the Herald. In response to Tarver’s vote, the coalition have done a few direct actions such as protesting in front of his office in April to show their discontent with his vote.

When asked by Duncan if he’ll change his position, he said, “I’m not going to change my position.”

“I think it’s pretty obvious that this isn’t working. Hundreds of thousands of Black and Brown Chicagoans are discriminated by getting kicked out of Chicago over the last ten years,” said Brian Bennett, a member of the coalition. “I think that [the Illinois Department of Human Rights and the Commission] are doing your best to stop that and I really appreciate that.”

“It feels like we need more than that. If you can’t live somewhere because you can’t afford to live there and all of those people who have low incomes who can’t afford to live there are Black and Brown, how is that not racial discrimination? How can you not support a policy from stopping that from happening?” continued Bennett.

Tarver asked Bennett if he was proposing a policy, Bennett said, “Yes, there is a policy proposal which is to limit how much rents go up every year. We know that in America when you raise the price of things it’s Black, Brown and LGBTQ Americans who can’t live there.”

Duncan added, “and Seniors on fixed incomes.”

Both Bennett and Duncan accused Tarver of taking money for his campaign from property management company and real estate lobbyists to which he responded, “Check the D2’s. That’s public information.”

Duncan and other #LifttheBan organizers then scheduled a meeting with Tarver for Dec. 13 at 6 p.m.

The Herald reached out to Tarver for a comment, but he has not responded.

s.smylie@hpherald.com