CHICAGO (WGEM) – Housing will be at the forefront of Illinois lawmakers’ minds when they return to Springfield in early January.

Some are getting a head start. Wednesday, the state Senate Human Rights Committee held a hearing in Chicago about housing issues in the state.

“We are in a housing crisis,” said state Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago, the committee’s chair.

The hearing focused on three main housing topics: issues long-time residents are facing with affordability, displacement and gentrification, and rent increases and barriers to housing.

“Nearly one-third of Illinois households spend more than 30% of their income on housing, and our state has a shortage of nearly 290,000 homes affordable to extremely low-income households,” said Metropolitan Planning Council Housing Manager Donovan Harvey.

Jim Garfield, a housing attorney at the Uptown People’s Law Center in Chicago, put the issues in starker terms for low-income renters.

“Tenants have lots of protections but the landlords, the property owners, they still have all the power,” Garfield said.

Garfield said without rent control, landlords can raise the rent and force people to move, or gentrify by selling the building to a developer that will tear it down and replace it with luxury apartments.

“There is a great fear amongst tenants that if they speak up, if they make too many demands, then they will lose their housing altogether,” Garfield said.

Simmons said he views housing as a human right, but there’s no quick fix, and lawmakers will be working on this issue well into 2025 and beyond.

“Everyone from every walk of life deserves housing but today it is harder than ever to secure it,” Simmons said.

Simmons is not the only one talking about the state’s housing crisis. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) signed an executive order Dec. 11 focused on increasing the supply of affordable housing in Illinois. A group of lawmakers are also proposing creating new state tax credits for affordable housing projects.

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