CHICAGO— Today, Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Department of Housing introduced the Protecting Renters Ordinance, a comprehensive modernization of the Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance.
PRO combats the affordability crisis facing Chicagoans by banning hidden junk fees and instituting just cause for eviction protections while ensuring tenants benefit from increased transparency through a rental registry.
“Every Chicagan deserves the dignity, stability, and peace of mind that comes with a safe, dependable place to call home,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson. “For far too long, renters have been left on their own while being forced to navigate rising costs, predatory practices, and corporate consolidation in a housing market that too often puts profit before people.
This ordinance is about keeping our neighbors housed, holding bad landlords accountable, ensuring stable and safe living conditions, and making housing as a human right a reality for every Chicagoan.”
The ordinance addresses systemic gaps in the City’s existing rental regulations to better align tenant rights with real-world outcomes.
Designed to benefit tenants and landlords while strengthening communities citywide, the ordinance establishes a unified policy framework that strengthens tenant protections, builds enforcement infrastructure, and closes critical gaps in data, enforcement, and legal access.
PRO has five major components:
RLTO Modernization:Updates outdated provisions, standardizes fees and deposits, strengthens tenant rights, and creates a Tenant Bill of Rights.
Rental Registry:Requires annual registration of all non-owner-occupied rental units, creating a citywide data system to support enforcement and policy decisions.
Bureau of Rental Housing Services:Creates a new administrative body within DOH responsible for rental complaint processing, investigation, and enforcement coordination.
Eviction Counsel Program:Codifies legal representation for tenants facing eviction, stabilizing the existing ”Right to Counsel” pilot program.
Just Cause for Eviction:Establishes a requirement that landlords provide valid reasons for eviction or non-renewal, with relocation assistance in certain cases.
“For too long, Chicagoans who live in buildings managed by bad landlords have been their own,” said Housing Commissioner Lissette Castañeda. “PRO's modernization of tenants' rights levels the playing field for renters—a necessary step in our mission to ensure quality, affordable housing for all.”
Chicago's rental market has changed significantly over the 40 years since the RLTO was first established in 1986, with rising rents, increasing ownership concentration, and persistent habitability issues.
Existing tenant protections no longer meet the needs due to enforcement being complaint-based, the limited access tenants have to legal representation, and the lack of reliable rental property and ownership data.
“MTO's experience serving tenants around Chicago has made it clear that existing laws are not backed by sufficient enforcement, and don't go far enough to protect tenants from no-fault evictions, predatory fees, and more,” said Monica J.
Foucher, Executive Director at the Metropolitan Tenants Organization. “Without the changes provided in Protecting Renters Ordinance, Chicago renters will continue to struggle under bad landlords, without enough options for recourse.
MTO urges City Council to pass the PRO right away.”
About 54% of households across Chicago, or about 622,000 householders, are renters.
Over 40% of those renters are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent.
The proposed ordinance would apply citywide to most non-owner-occupied units.
“I received a 120-day lease termination notice from a corporate landlord in Rogers Park, I am not alone” said Karen Foster, Housing Justice Team leader at ONE Northside. “So many of our members are renters and have been displaced or are suffering in bad conditions.
We need the Protecting Renters Ordinance now so we can feel secure and safe in our housing,”
PRO creates a self-sustaining, budget-neutral system where Rental Registry fees cover oversight, enforcement, and administration.
The fee structure is tiered based on property size to ease the impact on small landlords.
PRO’s implementation would be phased out over 12 to 24 months after passage.
This would include staffing of the RHS and coordination across involved City departments including DOH, Department of Buildings, Department of Law, 311, and Department of Administrative Hearings.