The Illinois legislature has the opportunity to enact long overdue protections from the harmful effects of so-called “crime-free” housing and nuisance property ordinances.

These ordinances, known as CFNOs, are local laws that encourage landlords to evict or exclude tenants based on their contact with the criminal legal system or calls for police help. The Community Safety through Stable Homes Act, introduced earlier this month by state Rep. La Shawn Ford (H.B. 5314) and state Sen. Karina Villa (S.B. 3680), will provide important protections for Illinois tenants and property owners. The legislation would prevent local governments from imposing penalties based on a tenant’s contact with police. It would also prohibit local policies that encourage or require landlords to use broad criminal background checks or to evict tenants based solely on their contact with the police or alleged criminal or nuisance behavior.

The harms caused by CFNOs are well documented and persistent. These ordinances are drafted very broadly and give wide discretion to the local officials charged with enforcing them — often the police. As a result, they can affect innocent tenants who are not at fault for the alleged criminal or nuisance activity and who may even be attempting to report crime or request police assistance. A family in Granite City, Illinois, for example, faced the possibility of eviction under the city’s CFNO based on the alleged criminal activity of the adult daughter, who did not even live with the family in its home.

For more than a decade, advocacy organizations have targeted harmful CFNOs through litigation, local policy advocacy, community outreach and education. The issue has historically united unlikely coalitions. Advocates for tenants have come together with advocates for the rights of property owners, who risk facing unfair penalties for failing to evict tenants under the ordinances. Civil rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as groups with an economic libertarian focus such as the Institute for Justice, have taken legal action in response to the civil rights threats CFNOs pose. These efforts have generated important successes, but municipalities throughout the country — including more than 100 in Illinois — continue to enforce some form of CFNO.

CFNOs pose unique risks to survivors of domestic violence, who are often targets of enforcement. When domestic abuse survivors call the police for help, local CFNOs may threaten them with eviction. This can dissuade tenants from contacting the police when they are victimized — undermining years of campaigning to help overcome the stigma of, and structural barriers to, reporting abuse.

CFNOs can also harm individuals with disabilities who may need to contact the police more frequently for assistance related to mental health crises or other emergencies. The ordinances also disproportionately harm Black and Latinx communities, exacerbating patterns of residential segregation. A federal fair housing lawsuit challenging a CFNO in Peoria revealed evidence that CFNO enforcement was concentrated in predominantly Black neighborhoods.

CFNOs also harm low-income tenants and communities more broadly by increasing housing insecurity and displacement. Local government officials issue notices to landlords that threaten fines and the revocation of rental licenses based on alleged criminal or nuisance activity. DeKalb, for example, has a CFNO in place that threatens property owners with fines of $1,000 per day of noncompliance. As a result, whether or not eviction is explicitly required, CFNOs often lead to displacement because landlords will avoid the risk of harsh penalties by forcing a tenant to leave. The Community Safety through Stable Homes Act would prevent this pressure on landlords to evict by prohibiting local governments from issuing the threats that lead to eviction and displacement.

The new protections the bill would put in place are essential. A growing body of research reveals the numerous ways in which eviction negatively affects families’ health and well-being. Evictions also have significant financial consequences, which are compounded for families already living in financially precarious situations, and they increase the risk of homelessness.

After examining the serious harms and civil rights threats posed by CFNOs, I have argued that state governments need to be a part of the solution. Responding to these ordinances with a city-by-city approach leaves too many tenants vulnerable. Each challenge may require years of investigation, advocacy and litigation. By the time the issues are addressed in one community, similar problems have arisen in neighboring communities that have passed their own version of a CFNO. One state-level advocate describes the effort to respond to harmful CFNOs on tenants in this way as like playing “Whac-a-Mole.”

States are particularly well situated to employ their broad legislative and enforcement powers to combat the harms caused by CFNOs. California recently enacted a law aimed at doing just that.

Illinois now has the chance to do the same by passing the Community Safety through Stable Homes Act. This bill is a critical step toward protecting tenants in our state who have suffered the effects of these dangerous ordinances for too long.

Now is the time for the Illinois legislature to act — before more harm is caused to tenants and property owners throughout the state.

Jenna Prochaska is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Law.