By: Mark Glennon*
“We’ve made it to a day we’ve all been waiting for… Illinois is back,” crowed Gov. JB Pritzker on Twitter. Illinois is “fully reopened” on Friday, his announcement said, and headlines across most of the state parroted the same.
Tell that to landlords forced to pay for free housing under Pritzker’s emergency order, which remains in force – with no explanation offered.
And – this almost too much to believe — on the same day Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a brief asking for reinstatement of the federal eviction moratorium courts have struck down. Yet there’s been nearly zero Illinois reporting on that.
The eviction moratorium has been perhaps the most egregiously unfair part of Pritzker’s emergency COVID orders. It has essentially forced landlords to pay the cost of a free housing program by taking away their right to evict tenants who won’t pay.
Anybody who has owned rental property knows that a significant portion of tenants will screw you in any manner they can. If they don’t have to pay rent they won’t, and that’s just what many renters have been doing, irrespective of their means. Reports about tenants who have thumbed their noses at landlords wanting rent have been common, such as those here and here.
The Illinois Property Owners Association says small mom-and-pop landlords make up the majority of its members and that the majority of rental housing in Illinois is provided by average working-class people. They still have to pay their mortgages and property taxes and, without their right to evict tenants who won’t pay, they are stuck. Suing them later for past-due rent rarely works. Pritzker has said he wants to keep the moratorium until August.
An Illinois appellate court recently ruled against landlords who had sued to overturn the eviction moratorium. Our harsh criticism of that ruling is here.
But a federal court earlier struck down an earlier federal eviction moratorium as unconstitutional, and appeal on which has now reached the United States Supreme Court.
Enter Attorney General Kwame Raoul. On Friday he joined with 22 other attorneys general on an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court asking to reinstate the federal moratorium.
It’s important to see the significance of a new argument made in that brief. Last July, defending against the lawsuit against the state moratorium, Raoul focused entirely on supposed health and safety benefits of the moratorium. Throw the tenants out in the streets and COVID will spread, went the argument. That, arguably, helps keep the order within the scope of the governor’s statutory emergency power.
But last week’s brief says this:
Even if all these renters were vaccinated, there would still be a need for a temporary pause on evictions. Economic recovery takes time, and many people still cannot pay back rent while the nation remains in the early phase of reopening. Indeed, some jurisdictions have extended their eviction moratoriums for some period beyond the public health emergency, recognizing the need for time to recover after restrictions are lifted.
In other words, the state now claims its emergency order covers economic matters, not just health matters. And remember that Pritzker claims he can renew his emergency orders as long as he wants. If that means singling out an one particular group like landlords to pay for economic assistance, well, that’s just tough.
What about that program to help landlords stuck with tenants who aren’t paying. Aren’t landlords getting cash help?
No. That program has been botched from the start. It’s fundamentally flawed because it requires an application jointly made by the tenant and the landlord, which recalcitrant tenants won’t cooperate on. The program was “too little, too late,” as explained here.
Pritzker and Raoul have some explaining to do.
COVID-19 is no longer a pandemic and it’s disappearing quickly, which is why most other restrictions have been lifted. So, why does the eviction moratorium go on? How is it fair to make landlords continue to pay for a free housing program?
How long does the state think that emergency orders are legal? Economic hardship may persist for many more months and perhaps years. Since Raoul says that justifies rule by emergency order, does that go on as long as economic hardship persists?
I don’t expect those questions will be asked of Pritzker or Raul, but if they are I bet they will do what too many tenants done to landlords – thumb their noses.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
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When has any company persisted with a project in the face of stronger local, statewide and national opposition? When have taxpayers subsidized a more harebrained project?
As your constituent and a member of the National Apartment Association (NAA), I urge you to support ending the eviction moratorium recently extended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This policy not only hurts those within the rental housing industry, but it also hurts the renters it is supposed to be helping. With the CDC having extended the moratorium to July 31st, it is crucial that you contact the White House today and tell them enough is enough. Both me and my business have been impacted by the moratorium in numerous ways. I’ve had to pay my property taxes,… Read more »
I was evicted today unlawfully
Boo hoo pay your rent
We pay water bills for people that our non-paying tenant have so kindly allowed to stay with them.
Landlords need Republican policies in place to protect their properties from renters who refuse to pay any portion of their rent if unable to pay the total..
There are tenants who have abusing the rent moratorium policy, l know.
yea,good luck with the weak,feckless republicans,theyre in on the scam too
Landlords should stop paying all their mortgages and walk away now. The rent moratoriums are likely to continue. Once the reality of how much the state and municipal government crushed small businesses (40% of GDP) catches up to everyone it will be too late. The federal and state government will squeeze landlords again! No repercussions. The feds now hold 2.5 trillion in mortgage backed derivatives. That’s right folks! Big banks are presumptively getting bailed out.
Hard to collect past due rent once your tenant leaves. One thing a landlord can do is give the tenant a 1099 so at least the tenant will have to pay taxes on his free ride. That will catch up with them, hard to avoid paying Uncle Sam.
I can imagine trying to unload a building on the market when you have to disclose to the buyer that its full of squatters.
Minority or not, Republicans in the legislature should be talking about this every dang day. Where are the Republicans? We know where the Democrats are, we can’t hear the Republicans.
the ” republicans” quote,unquote,are weak and feckless,no voice for the conservatives in this state,i think the so called ” republicans” in illinois are complicit and in on the democrat scam,yet,most of these people will get re-elected,time to flee this crappy state!!
The powerlessness of IL Republicans is not unique among state legislatures. It’s this way in most gerrymandered states with supermajority or near supermajority legislatures, including those states run by Republicans, where the Democrats are a tiny, powerless minority. I can’t fault IL Republicans though, as worthless as they are. You are a republican, how much have you given to the IL republican party? I saw Rauner’s eight digit investment in the party disappear into thin air with no Republican progress anywhere in the state. There’s really nothing IL Republicans can do. The SUpreme Court said gerrymandering is totally OK and… Read more »
i hear ya,but why would i donate to a weak party who does NOTHING for me or you or our beliefs,this state and its politics are a lost cause,the courts and the politics are rigged against the conservative voters so i feel like its hopeless,let the scum sucking welfare people have whatever they want at taxpayers expense,no one cares
it’s the chicken or the egg, donate to a weak party to make it stronger, or don’t donate and hope that someone else does instead. Meanwhile, we live with Dummycrats
Across America, I am astonished by how many are so quiet about so much. Virtually everything good in Western civilization is under assault. The far left, which is really only about 1/4 of the population, is in control, but is allowed to rage on with its madness.
Makes you wonder what people are thinking or waiting for especially in Illinois omg not a peep sure is scary
They rage on because few are willing to fight as far as they do. We never asked for this fight, they’ve brought it upon us. They live, drink, eat and breathe their progressive values and treat it like a religion. Are you willing to fight back just as hard as they to preserve your values? Most are not, most are not looking to go to war.
thats because the general public is weak little snow flakes Mark,i give up on the weak little snow flakes,no one stands up to this b.s
Take a look at what this North Korean defector says. Withering. https://www.dailywire.com/news/north-korean-defector-after-attending-ivy-league-school-even-north-korea-was-not-this-nuts?%3Futm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dwtwitter
It’s intentional and right in our face. Only a matter of time. Probably before 2024
Don’t pay your taxes and your rental home will be confiscated…perhaps that’s the plan.
It is per Agenda 21/30. Find a way to pay the taxes. Don’t let Pritzker win this war.
It is all the property grab
the things going on in illinois are pretty disgusting and it just seems to continue.Landlords still have to pay property taxes and mortgage payments but tenants dont have to pay rent?-The wife and i own a house in Chicago with 2 rental units,house has been empty while we renovate,renovations are complete now and we were going to rent both units but because of the bull jive going on we decided to sell instead,kind of a no brainer.Probably gonna be a lot fewer rental places available after this little debacle
Good move. The rent moratoriums will happen again once the market crashes. This is just the start of tyranny. Rental homes are government property. How ironic…blue states increase the wealth gap by making sure only the ultra wealthy can afford to accumulate property and hold it rent free for 3 years. Yes, between 2.5 and 3 years…sounds crazy but so does gutting 60% of small businesses.
Raoul is garbage. The state of IL had a chance to elected a Black female Republican from downstate as our AG. She would have been awesome. Not because she was female or black, but because she was Republican and wanted to investigate the corrupt establishment. Instead, the people of IL ‘elected’ a derelict, do nothing, male Obama wannabe instead.
Shame on IL.
Makes one wonder if Pritzker is paying the AG a little something extra to do his dirty work. Wouldn’t be the first time
And we thought Lisa Madigan was a do nothing
Any wonder why Illinois is suffering such an Illinois Exodus? Seriously, who would want to live here, and in particular, own real estate here when the government thinks it can balance all its problems on the landlord’s back. When’s the next plane to Florida?
It’s another attempt to give more freebies to the permanent victim class in exchange for democratic votes.
What country do we live in this is not fascism it’s amazing more people are not involved.He’s not the ruler why would anyone wanna live in Illinois.
Is the most incompetent governor.
There will be no businesses left in Illinois if stays in office any longer. People you got what you voted for Hitler.
Al part of the grand plan to decimate landlords allowing people like the Official Government Workers Party (The Democrats) our Governor Freddie and his cronies to siphon up repossessed properties on the cheap.
My goodness we are very naive to think any different.
Also amicus briefs on behalf of states have no standing right at the USSC?
Or was the Texas brief on the 2020 election just politics?
Lawfare is the only way to snag this or stop it.
Sounds like “property confiscation” to me…