Understanding Discrimination: Intro to Just Housing Amendment and Prior Criminal History

The Just Housing Amendment to the Cook County Human Rights Ordinance protects Chicago tenants from discrimination based on their criminal history (arrests, sealed or expunged records, or juvenile records). The law recognizes that people who have been in prison or have a criminal record often have a difficult time finding a place to live, which can lead to homelessness and other problems.

The amendment prohibits landlords from using criminal history as a blanket policy to deny housing. Instead, landlords must evaluate each applicant on a case-by-case basis.

The Just Housing Amendment prohibits the following:

Landlords cannot ask about or inquire into an applicant's criminal history until after a conditional offer of housing has been made. This helps to ensure that landlords are not making decisions based on a person's criminal history before they have had the opportunity to evaluate the applicant's overall qualifications.

A landlord cannot consider criminal history that is more than three years old.

A landlord cannot automatically deny a prospective tenant’s housing application because of a criminal record.

Exceptions to the Just Housing Amendment:

Yes. A landlord may deny an applicant for a new lease or lease renewal of residential properties based on any of the following:

• The applicant or a household member is a current sex offender required to register under the Sex Offender Registration Act (or similar law in another jurisdiction);

• The applicant or a household member is a current child sex offender under residency restriction; or

• The applicant or a household member has a criminal conviction from the past three years. Before denying the application, the landlord must first perform an individualized assessment, and show that denial based on a criminal conviction is necessary to protect against a clear risk to personal safety and/or property.

So what does the landlord need to do?

The Just Housing Amendment requires landlords to use a two-step screening process.

1. Pre-qualification
2. Criminal Background Check

If the tenant disputes the accuracy or relevance of the criminal background check, the landlord must accept or deny the application within 3 business days.