Chicago City Wire

A bill filed by Rep. Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago) that would repeal the Rent Control Preemption Act was referred to the House Commercial Law Subcommittee on Feb. 8.

Passed into law in 1997, the Rent Control Preemption Act prohibits municipalities from instituting guidelines on commercial or residential rent prices.

Since being filed by Guzzardi soon after the new legislative session commenced in early January, House Bill 0255 has picked up the co-sponsorship support of Rep. Theresa Mah (D-Chicago), Rep. Camille Y. Lilly (D-Oak Park), Rep. Celina Villanueva (D-Summit) and Rep. Lamont J. Robinson Jr. (D-Chicago).

The Sun-Times reports two Chicago neighborhoods hardest hit by soaring home rent prices are Bronzeville and Guzzardi’s Logan Square neighborhood.

 “This is a bill about turning powers back to municipalities, allowing them to step in and do what they believe is right, to weigh all the evidence — the pros and cons, the studies for and the studies against — and try to craft policy that allows landlords to continue to raise rents to keep up with market prices while also trying to curtail some of the egregious behavior that we’ve seen that has hurt so many families in my community and many others,” Guzzardi told the newspaper.